We wish to understand the macroscopic plastic behaviour of metals by upscaling the micro-mechanics of dislocations. We consider a highly simplified dislocation network, which allows our discrete model to be a one dimensional particle system, in which the interactions between the particles (dislocation walls) are singular and non-local. As a first step towards treating realistic geometries, we focus on finite-size effects rather than considering an infinite domain as typically discussed in the literature. We derive effective equations for the dislocation density by means of Γ-convergence on the space of probability measures. Our analysis yields a classification of macroscopic models, in which the size of the domain plays a key role.

This paper presents new results allowing an unknown non-Gaussian positive matrix-valued random field to be identified through a stochastic elliptic boundary value problem, solving a statistical inverse problem. A new general class of non-Gaussian positive-definite matrix-valued random fields, adapted to the statistical inverse problems in high stochastic dimension for their experimental identification, is introduced and its properties are analysed. A minimal parameterisation of discretised random fields belonging to this general class is proposed. Using this parameterisation of the general class, a complete identification procedure is proposed. New results of the mathematical and numerical analyses of the parameterised stochastic elliptic boundary value problem are presented. The numerical solution of this parametric stochastic problem provides an explicit approximation of the application that maps the parameterised general class of random fields to the corresponding set of random solutions. This approximation can be used during the identification procedure in order to avoid the solution of multiple forward stochastic problems. Since the proposed general class of random fields possibly contains random fields which are not uniformly bounded, a particular mathematical analysis is developed and dedicated approximation methods are introduced. In order to obtain an algorithm for constructing the approximation of a very high-dimensional map, complexity reduction methods are introduced and are based on the use of sparse or low-rank approximation methods that exploit the tensor structure of the solution which results from the parameterisation of the general class of random fields.

We investigate the effects of toxins on the multiple coexistence solutions of an unstirred chemostat model of competition between plasmid-bearing and plasmid-free organisms when the plasmid-bearing organism produces toxins. It turns out that coexistence solutions to this model are governed by two limiting systems. Based on the analysis of uniqueness and stability of positive solutions to two limiting systems, the exact multiplicity and stability of coexistence solutions of this model are established by means of the combination of the fixed-point index theory, bifurcation theory and perturbation theory.

The problem of extrapolating asymptotic perturbation-theory expansions in powers of a small variable to large values of the variable tending to infinity is investigated. The analysis is based on self-similar approximation theory. Several types of self-similar approximants are considered and their use in different problems of applied mathematics is illustrated. Self-similar approximants are shown to constitute a powerful tool for extrapolating asymptotic expansions of different natures.

In this paper, we study an adsorption model arising in the dynamics of several surfactants at the air-water interface, where the Langmuir isotherm is employed for modelling the time-dependent surface concentration, providing a nonlinear dynamical boundary condition. Existence of a weak solution is proved by using the Rothe method for a semi-discrete problem in time. After obtaining some a priori estimates and passing to the limit in the time discretization parameter, we conclude that the original Langmuir problem has a bounded solution. An uniqueness result is also given.

We present the first macroscopical model for charge transport in compound semiconductors to make use of analytic ellipsoidal approximations for the energy dispersion relationships in the neighbours of the lowest minima of the conduction bands. The model considers the main scattering mechanisms charges undergo in polar semiconductors, that is the acoustic, polar optical, intervalley non-polar optical phonon interactions and the ionized impurity scattering. Simulations are shown for the cases of bulk 4H and 6H-SiC.

We study the analyticity properties of solutions for a class of non-linear evolutionary pseudo-differential equations possessing global attractors. In order to do this we utilise an analyticity criterion for spatially periodic functions, which involves the rate of growth of a suitable norm of the nth derivative of the solution, with respect to the spatial variable, as n tends to infinity. This criterion can be used to a wide class of dissipative-dispersive partial differential equations, provided they possess global attractors. Using this criterion and the spectral method developed in Akrivis et al. [1] we have improved previous results.

In this paper, we consider a scalar Peierls--Nabarro model describing the motion of dislocations in the plane (x1,x2) along the line x2=0. Each dislocation can be seen as a phase transition and creates a scalar displacement field in the plane. This displacement field solves a simplified elasto-dynamics equation, which is simply a linear wave equation. The total displacement field creates a stress which makes move the dislocation itself. By symmetry, we can reduce the system to a wave equation in the half plane x2>0 coupled with an equation for the dynamics of dislocations on the boundary of the half plane, i.e. on x2=0. Our goal is to understand the dynamics of well-separated dislocations in the limit when the distance between dislocations is very large, of order 1/ɛ. After rescaling, this corresponds to introduce a small parameter ɛ in the system. For the limit ɛ → 0, we are formally able to identify a reduced ordinary differential equation model describing the dynamics of relativistic dislocations if a certain conjecture is assumed to be true.

Reduced ordinary differential equation (ODE) models arising from a high-order lubrication system and describing coarsening dynamics of droplets in nanometric polymer film interacting on a hydrophobically coated solid substrate in the presence of large slippage at the liquid/solid interface are analysed. In the limiting case of infinite slip length corresponding in applications to free films, a collision/absorption model then arises and is solved explicitly. The exact coarsening law is derived for it analytically and confirmed numerically. Existence of a threshold for the decay of initial distributions of droplet distances at infinity at which the coarsening rates switch from algebraic to exponential ones is shown.

Considering a coordinate-free formulation of helical symmetry rather than more traditional definitions based on coordinates, we discuss basic properties of helical vector fields and compare results from the literature obtained with other approaches. In particular, we discuss the role of the stream function for the topology of the streamline pattern in incompressible flows. On this basis, we perform a comprehensive study of the topology of the flow field generated by a helical vortex filament in an ideal fluid. The classical expression for the stream function obtained by Hardin (Hardin, J. C. 1982 Phys. Fluids25, 1949–1952) contains an infinite sum of modified Bessel functions. Using the approach by Okulov (Okulov, V. L. 1995 Russ. J.Eng. Thermophys.5, 63–75) we obtain a closed-form approximation which is considerably easier to analyse. Critical points of the stream function can be found from the zeroes of a single real function of one variable, and we show that three different flow topologies can occur, depending on a single dimensionless parameter. By including the self-induced velocity on the vortex filament by a localised induction approximation, the stream function is slightly modified and an extra parameter is introduced. In this setting two new flow topologies arise, but not more than two critical points occur for any combination of parameters.

In the low-Froude number limit, free-surface gravity waves caused by flow past a submerged obstacle have amplitude that is exponentially small. Consequently, these cannot be represented using an asymptotic series expansion. Previous studies have considered linearized steady flow past a submerged source in infinite-depth fluids, in which exponential asymptotics were used to determine the behaviour of downstream longitudinal and transverse free-surface gravity waves. Here, unsteady flow past a submerged source in an infinite-depth fluid is investigated, with the free surface taken to be initially waveless. The source is taken to be weak, and the flow is linearized about the undisturbed solution. Exponential asymptotics are applied to determine the wave behaviour on the free surface in terms of the two-dimensional plan-view, in order to show how the free surface waves evolve over time and eventually tend to the steady solution.

In this paper, we study the regularity of a weak solution for a coupled system derived from a microwave-heating model. The main feature of this model is that electric conductivity in the electromagnetic field is assumed to be temperature dependent. It is shown that the weak solution of the coupled system possesses some regularity under certain conditions. In particular, it is shown that the temperature is Hölder continuous, even if electric conductivity has a jump discontinuity with respect to the temperature change. The main idea in the proof is based on an estimate for a linear degenerate system in Campanato space. As an application, the regularity result for the coupled system is used to derive the necessary condition for an optimal control problem arising in microwave heating processes.

We review the mathematical analysis of some uniaxial, liquid crystal phases. Firstly, we state the models for the two different studied phases: nematic and smectic-A liquid crystals. The spatial and temporal profiles of the liquid crystal configurations will be described by means of strongly nonlinear parabolic partial differential systems, which are presented at the same time. Then we will state some results about existence, regularity, time-periodicity and stability of solutions at infinite time for both models. It is our aim to show that, although nematic and smectic-A phases have different physical properties and are modelled by different nonlinear parabolic problems, there exists a common mathematical machinery to rewrite the models and obtain analytical results.