No Arabic abstract
We prove Taylor scaling for dislocation lines characterized by line-tension and moving by curvature under the action of an applied shear stress in a plane containing a random array of obstacles. Specifically, we show--in the sense of optimal scaling--that the critical applied shear stress for yielding, or percolation-like unbounded motion of the dislocation, scales in proportion to the square root of the obstacle density. For sufficiently small obstacle densities, Taylor scaling dominates the linear-scaling that results from purely energetic considerations and, therefore, characterizes the dominant rate-limiting mechanism in that regime.
We numerically investigate the transport of a suspended overdamped Brownian particle which is driven through a two-dimensional rectangular array of circular obstacles with finite radius. Two limiting cases are considered in detail, namely, when the constant drive is parallel to the principal or the diagonal array axes. This corresponds to studying the Brownian transport in periodic channels with reflecting walls of different topologies. The mobility and diffusivity of the transported particles in such channels are determined as functions of the drive and the array geometric parameters. Prominent transport features, like negative differential mobilities, excess diffusion peaks, and unconventional asymptotic behaviors, are explained in terms of two distinct lengths, the size of single obstacles (trapping length) and the lattice constant of the array (local correlation length). Local correlation effects are further analyzed by continuously rotating the drive between the two limiting orientations.
Pinning of dislocations at nanosized obstacles like precipitates, voids and bubbles, is a crucial mechanism in the context of phenomena like hardening and creep. The interaction between such an obstacle and a dislocation is often explored at fundamental level by means of analytical tools, atomistic simulations and finite element methods. Nevertheless, the information extracted from such studies has not been utilized to its maximum extent on account of insufficient information about the underlying statistics of this process comprising a large number of dislocations and obstacles in a system. Here we propose a new statistical approach, where the statistics of pinning of dislocations by idealized spherical obstacles is explored by taking into account the generalized size-distribution of the obstacles along with the dislocation density within a three-dimensional framework. The application of this approach, in combination with the knowledge of fundamental dislocation-obstacle interactions, has successfully been demonstrated for dislocation pinning at nanovoids in neutron irradiated type 316-stainless steel in regard to both conservative and non-conservative motions of dislocations.
We provide a new proof of convergence to motion by mean curvature (MMC) for the Merriman-Bence-Osher (MBO) thresholding algorithm. The proof is elementary and does not rely on maximum principle for the scheme. The strategy is to construct a natural ansatz of the solution and then estimate the error. The proof thus also provides a convergence rate. Only some weak integrability assumptions of the heat kernel, but not its positivity, is used. Currently the result is proved in the case when smooth and classical solution of MMC exists.
We consider the evolution of fronts by mean curvature in the presence of obstacles. We construct a weak solution to the flow by means of a variational method, corresponding to an implicit time-discretization scheme. Assuming the regularity of the obstacles, in the two-dimensional case we show existence and uniqueness of a regular solution before the onset of singularities. Finally, we discuss an application of this result to the positive mean curvature flow.
We consider the propagation of acoustic waves at a given wavenumber in a waveguide which is unbounded in one direction. We explain how to construct penetrable obstacles characterized by a physical coefficient $rho$ which are invisible in various ways. In particular, we focus our attention on invisibility in reflection (the reflection matrix is zero), invisibility in reflection and transmission (the scattering matrix is the same as if there were no obstacle) and relative invisibility (two different obstacles have the same scattering matrix). To study these problems, we use a continuation method which requires to compute the scattering matrix $mathbb{S}(rho)$ as well as its differential with respect to the material index $dmathbb{S}(rho)$. The justification of the method also needs for the proof of abstract results of ontoness of well-chosen functionals constructed from the terms of $dmathbb{S}(rho)$. We provide a complete proof of the results in monomode regime when the wavenumber is such that only one mode can propagate. And we give all the ingredients to implement the method in multimode regime. We end the article by presenting numerical results to illustrate the analysis.