Variational formalism for generic shells in general relativity

We investigate the variational principle for the gravitational field in the presence of thin shells of completely unconstrained signature (generic shells). Such variational formulations have been given before for shells of timelike and null signatures separately, but so far no unified treatment exists. We identify the shell equation as the natural boundary condition associated with a broken extremal problem along a hypersurface where the metric tensor is allowed to be nondifferentiable. Since the second order nature of the Einstein-Hilbert action makes the boundary value problem associated with the variational formulation ill-defined, regularization schemes need to be introduced. We investigate several such regularization schemes and prove their equivalence. We show that the unified shell equation derived from this variational procedure reproduce past results obtained via distribution theory by Barrabes and Israel for hypersurfaces of fixed causal type and by Mars and Senovilla for generic shells. These results are expected to provide a useful guide to formulating thin shell equations and junction conditions along generic hypersurfaces in modified theories of gravity.

Differential Games for Fractional-Order Systems: Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman–Isaacs Equation and Optimal Feedback Strategies

The paper deals with a two-person zero-sum differential game for a dynamical system described by differential equations with the Caputo fractional derivatives of an order α∈(0,1) and a Bolza-type cost functional. A relationship between the differential game and the Cauchy problem for the corresponding Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman–Isaacs equation with fractional coinvariant derivatives of the order α and the natural boundary condition is established. An emphasis is given to construction of optimal positional (feedback) strategies of the players. First, a smooth case is studied when the considered Cauchy problem is assumed to have a sufficiently smooth solution. After that, to cope with a general non-smooth case, a generalized minimax solution of this problem is involved.

On a method for approximate solution of a mixed boundary value problem for an elliptic equation

A mixed boundary value problem for an elliptic equation of divergent type with variable coefficients is considered. It is assumed that the integration region is a rectangle, and the boundary of the integration region is the union of two disjoint pieces. The Dirichlet boundary condition is set on the first piece, and the Neumann boundary condition is set on the other one. The given problem is a problem with a discontinuous boundary condition. Such problems with mixed conditions at the boundary are most often encountered in practice in process modeling, and the methods for solving them are of considerable interest. This work is related to the paper [1] and complements it. It is focused on the approbation of the results established in [1] on the convergence of approximations of the original mixed boundary value problem with the main boundary condition of the third boundary value problem already with the natural boundary condition. On the basis of the results obtained in this paper and in [1], computational experiments on the approximate solution of model mixed boundary value problems are carried out.

An energy-stable parametric finite element method for simulating solid-state dewetting

We propose an energy-stable parametric finite element method for simulating solid-state dewetting of thin films in two dimensions via a sharp-interface model, which is governed by surface diffusion and contact line (point) migration together with proper boundary conditions. By reformulating the relaxed contact angle condition into a Robin-type boundary condition and then treating it as a natural boundary condition, we obtain a new variational formulation for the problem, in which the interface curve and its contact points are evolved simultaneously. Then the variational problem is discretized in space by using piecewise linear elements. A full discretization is presented by adopting the backward Euler method in time, and the well-posedness and energy dissipation of the full discretization are established. The numerical method is semi-implicit (i.e., a linear system to be solved at each time step and thus efficient), unconditionally energy-stable with respect to the time step and second-order in space measured by a manifold distance between two curves. In addition, it demonstrates equal mesh distribution when the solution reaches its equilibrium, i.e., long-time dynamics. Numerical results are reported to show accuracy and efficiency as well as some good properties of the proposed numerical method.

Flexible Fiber Motion in Fiber-Reinforced Composite Material Processing

Simulation of a single flexible fiber suspension solved using partitioned fluid structure interaction (FSI) strategy is presented in this paper. The study of fiber motion during injection modeling process in composite material manufacturing is the motivation of this research. Fluid field is solved by mixed finite element method (FEM). Stokes equation is used as governing equation due to low Reynolds number characteristics. Total Lagrangian (TL) incremental FEM is used for calculating flexible fiber translation, rotation and deformation. Bathe time integration method is used for solving fiber dynamics. The interaction between the fiber (solid) and fluid results from forces on the surface of fiber, which are extracted from fluid solver and are exerted on fiber, solved as the natural boundary condition. After solid solver running forward a certain time step, new positions and velocities of each node on fiber surface are obtained which can be used for updating fluid mesh domain and served as essential boundary condition of fluid field. The process continues until the motion and deformation of fiber are obtained. Example of rigid and flexible fiber motion in a simple shear flow and a Poiseuille flow are presented in this paper. The simulation of rigid fiber are very close to the result of Jeffery’s theory. Snake rotation can be observed when the flexible fiber was tested in Poiseuille flow.

Reprogramming Static Deformation Patterns in Mechanical Metamaterials

This paper discusses an x-braced metamaterial lattice with the unusual property of exhibiting bandgaps in their deformation decay spectrum, and, hence, the capacity for reprogramming deformation patterns. The design of polarizing non-local lattice arising from the scenario of repeated zero eigenvalues of a system transfer matrix is also introduced. We develop a single mode fundamental solution for lattices with multiple degrees of freedom per node in the form of static Raleigh waves. These waves can be blocked at the material boundary when the solution is constructed with the polarization vectors of the bandgap. This single mode solution is used as a basis to build analytical displacement solutions for any applied essential and natural boundary condition. Subsequently, we address the bandgap design, leading to a comprehensive approach for predicting deformation pattern behavior within the interior of an x-braced plane lattice. Overall, we show that the stiffness parameter and unit-cell aspect ratio of the x-braced lattice can be tuned to completely block or filter static boundary deformations, and to reverse the dependence of deformation or strain energy decay parameter on the Raleigh wavenumber, a behavior known as the reverse Saint Venant’s edge effect (RSV). These findings could guide future research in engineering smart materials and structures with interesting functionalities, such as load pattern recognition, strain energy redistribution, and stress alleviation.