OxPDE Lunchtime Seminar

Thu, 20/01/2011
12:30
Thierry Goudon (Lille 1 University) OxPDE Lunchtime Seminar Add to calendar
Considering kinetic equations (Boltzmann, BGK, say...) in the small mean free path regime lead to conservation laws (the Euler system, typically) When the problem is set in a domain, boundary layers might occur due to the fact that incoming fluxes could be far from equilibrium states. We consider the problem from a numerical perspective and we propose a definition of numerical fluxes for the Euler system which is intended to account for the formation of these boundary layers.
Thu, 17/02/2011
12:30
Yann Brenier (Universite de Nice) OxPDE Lunchtime Seminar Add to calendar Gibson 1st Floor SR
The reconstruction of the early universe amounts to recovering the tiny density fluctuations of the early universe (shortly after the "big bang") from the current observation of the matter distribution in the universe. Following Zeldovich, Peebles and, more recently Frisch and collaboratoirs, we use a newtonian gravitational model with time dependent coefficients taking into accont general relativity effects. Due to the (remarkable) convexity of the corresponding action, the reconstruction problem apparently reduces to a straightforward convex minimization problem. Unfortunately, this approach completely ignores the mass concentration effects due to gravitational instabilities. In this lecture, we show a way of modifying the action in order to take concentrations into account. This is obtained through a (questionable) modification of the gravitation model, by substituting the fully nonlinear Monge-Amp`ere equation for the linear Poisson equation. (This is a reasonable approximation in the sense that it makes exact some approximate solutions advocated by Zeldovich for the original gravitational model.) Then the action can be written as a perfect square in which we can input mass concentration effects in a canonical way, based on the theory of gradient flows with convex potentials and somewhat related to the concept of self-dual Lagrangians developped by Ghoussoub. A fully discrete algorithm is introduced for the EUR problem in one space dimension.
Thu, 24/02/2011
12:30
Kenneth H. Karlsen (Univ. of Oslo) OxPDE Lunchtime Seminar Add to calendar Gibson 1st Floor SR

We propose a general framework for the study of $L^1$ contractive semigroups of solutions to conservation laws with discontinuous flux. Developing the ideas of a number of preceding works we claim that the whole admissibility issue is reduced to the selection of a family of "elementary solutions", which are certain piecewise constant stationary weak solutions. We refer to such a family as a "germ". It is well known that (CL) admits many different $L^1$ contractive semigroups, some of which reflects different physical applications. We revisit a number of the existing admissibility (or entropy) conditions and identify the germs that underly these conditions. We devote specific attention to the anishing viscosity" germ, which is a way to express the "$\Gamma$-condition" of Diehl. For any given germ, we formulate "germ-based" admissibility conditions in the form of a trace condition on the flux discontinuity line $x=0$ (in the spirit of Vol'pert) and in the form of a family of global entropy inequalities (following Kruzhkov and Carrillo). We characterize those germs that lead to the $L^1$-contraction property for the associated admissible solutions. Our approach offers a streamlined and unifying perspective on many of the known entropy conditions, making it possible to recover earlier uniqueness results under weaker conditions than before, and to provide new results for other less studied problems. Several strategies for proving the existence of admissible solutions are discussed, and existence results are given for fluxes satisfying some additional conditions. These are based on convergence results either for the vanishing viscosity method (with standard viscosity or with specific viscosities "adapted" to the choice of a germ), or for specific germ-adapted finite volume schemes.

This is joint work with Boris Andreianov and Nils Henrik Risebro.

Thu, 10/03/2011
12:30
Carolin Kreisbeck (Carnegie Mellon University) OxPDE Lunchtime Seminar Add to calendar Gibson 1st Floor SR
Modern mathematical approaches to plasticity result in non-convex variational problems for which the standard methods of the calculus of variations are not applicable. In this contribution we consider geometrically nonlinear crystal elasto-plasticity in two dimensions with one active slip system. In order to derive information about macroscopic material behavior the relaxation of the corresponding incremental problems is studied. We focus on the question if realistic systems with an elastic energy leading to large penalization of small elastic strains can be well-approximated by models based on the assumption of rigid elasticity. The interesting finding is that there are qualitatively different answers depending on whether hardening is included or not. In presence of hardening we obtain a positive result, which is mathematically backed up by Γ-convergence, while the material shows very soft macroscopic behavior in case of no hardening. The latter is due to the vanishing relaxation for a large class of applied loads. This is joint work with Sergio Conti and Georg Dolzmann.
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