Applications of High-Order Compact Finite Difference Scheme to Nonlinear Goursat Problems

Several numerical schemes utilizing central difference approximations have been developed to solve the Goursat problem. However, in a recent years compact discretization methods which leads to high-order finite difference schemes have been used since it is capable of achieving better accuracy as well as preserving certain features of the equation e.g. linearity. The basic idea of the new scheme is to find the compact approximations to the derivative terms by differentiating centrally the governing equations. Our primary interest is to study the performance of the new scheme when applied to two Goursat partial differential equations against the traditional finite difference scheme.

Processing, Morphological, Thermal and Absorption Behavior of PLA/Thermoplastic Starch/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites

Thermoplastic starch, polylactic acid glycerol and maleic anhydride (MA) were compounded with natural montmorillonite (MMT) through a twin screw extruder to investigate the effects of different loading of MMT on structure, thermal and absorption behavior of the nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) showed that sample with MMT loading 4phr exhibited exfoliated structure while sample that contained MMT 8 phr exhibited intercalated structure. FESEM images showed big lump when MMT loading was at 8 phr. The thermal properties were characterized by using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The results showed that MMT increased melting temperature and crystallization temperature of matrix but reduction in glass transition temperature was observed Meanwhile the addition of MMT has improved the water barrier property. The nanosize MMT particle is also able to block a tortuous pathway for water to enter the starch chain, thus reducing the water uptake and improved the physical barrier of nanocomposite.

Effects of Catalyst Tubes Characteristics on a Steam Reforming Process in Ammonia

The tubes in an Ammonia primary reformer furnace operate close to the limits of materials technology in terms of the stress induced as a result of very high temperatures, combined with large differential pressures across the tube wall. Operation at tube wall temperatures significantly above design can result in a rapid increase in the number of tube failures, since tube life is very sensitive to the absolute operating temperature of the tube. Clearly it is important to measure tube wall temperatures accurately in order to prevent premature tube failure by overheating.. In the present study, the catalyst tubes in an Ammonia primary reformer has been modeled taking into consideration heat, mass and momentum transfer as well as reformer characteristics.. The investigations concern the effects of tube characteristics and superficial tube wall temperatures on of the percentage of heat flux, unconverted methane and production of Hydrogen for various values of steam to carbon ratios. The results show the impact of catalyst tubes length and diameters on the performance of operating parameters in ammonia primary reformers.

Positive Periodic Solutions for a Neutral Impulsive Delay Competition System

In this paper, a neutral impulsive competition system with distributed delays is studied by using Mawhin-s coincidence degree theory and the mean value theorem of differential calculus. Sufficient conditions on the existence of positive periodic solution of the system are obtained.

Differential Sandwich Theorems with Generalised Derivative Operator

In this paper, a generalized derivatives operator n λ,βf introduced by the authors will be discussed. Some subordination and superordination results involving this operator for certain normalized analytic functions in the open unit disk will be investigated. Our results extend corresponding previously known results.

Numerical Analysis of Plate Heat Exchanger Performance in Co-Current Fluid Flow Configuration

For many industrial applications plate heat exchangers are demonstrating a large superiority over the other types of heat exchangers. The efficiency of such a device depends on numerous factors the effect of which needs to be analysed and accurately evaluated. In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of a cocurrent plate heat exchanger and the results of its numerical simulation. Knowing the hot and the cold fluid streams inlet temperatures, the respective heat capacities mCp and the value of the overall heat transfer coefficient, a 1-D mathematical model based on the steady flow energy balance for a differential length of the device is developed resulting in a set of N first order differential equations with boundary conditions where N is the number of channels.For specific heat exchanger geometry and operational parameters, the problem is numerically solved using the shooting method. The simulation allows the prediction of the temperature map in the heat exchanger and hence, the evaluation of its performances. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate the influence of the R-parameter on the e-NTU values. For practical purposes effectiveness-NTU graphs are elaborated for specific heat exchanger geometry and different operating conditions.

Application of the Central-Difference with Half- Sweep Gauss-Seidel Method for Solving First Order Linear Fredholm Integro-Differential Equations

The objective of this paper is to analyse the application of the Half-Sweep Gauss-Seidel (HSGS) method by using the Half-sweep approximation equation based on central difference (CD) and repeated trapezoidal (RT) formulas to solve linear fredholm integro-differential equations of first order. The formulation and implementation of the Full-Sweep Gauss-Seidel (FSGS) and Half- Sweep Gauss-Seidel (HSGS) methods are also presented. The HSGS method has been shown to rapid compared to the FSGS methods. Some numerical tests were illustrated to show that the HSGS method is superior to the FSGS method.

Effects of Energy Consumption on Indoor Air Quality

Continuous measurements and multivariate methods are applied in researching the effects of energy consumption on indoor air quality (IAQ) in a Finnish one-family house. Measured data used in this study was collected continuously in a house in Kuopio, Eastern Finland, during fourteen months long period. Consumption parameters measured were the consumptions of district heat, electricity and water. Indoor parameters gathered were temperature, relative humidity (RH), the concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) and differential air pressure. In this study, self-organizing map (SOM) and Sammon's mapping were applied to resolve the effects of energy consumption on indoor air quality. Namely, the SOM was qualified as a suitable method having a property to summarize the multivariable dependencies into easily observable two-dimensional map. Accompanying that, the Sammon's mapping method was used to cluster pre-processed data to find similarities of the variables, expressing distances and groups in the data. The methods used were able to distinguish 7 different clusters characterizing indoor air quality and energy efficiency in the study house. The results indicate, that the cost implications in euros of heating and electricity energy vary according to the differential pressure, concentration of carbon dioxide, temperature and season.

Database Compression for Intelligent On-board Vehicle Controllers

The vehicle fleet of public transportation companies is often equipped with intelligent on-board passenger information systems. A frequently used but time and labor-intensive way for keeping the on-board controllers up-to-date is the manual update using different memory cards (e.g. flash cards) or portable computers. This paper describes a compression algorithm that enables data transmission using low bandwidth wireless radio networks (e.g. GPRS) by minimizing the amount of data traffic. In typical cases it reaches a compression rate of an order of magnitude better than that of the general purpose compressors. Compressed data can be easily expanded by the low-performance controllers, too.

Evolutionary Computing Approach for the Solution of Initial value Problems in Ordinary Differential Equations

An evolutionary computing technique for solving initial value problems in Ordinary Differential Equations is proposed in this paper. Neural network is used as a universal approximator while the adaptive parameters of neural networks are optimized by genetic algorithm. The solution is achieved on the continuous grid of time instead of discrete as in other numerical techniques. The comparison is carried out with classical numerical techniques and the solution is found with a uniform accuracy of MSE ≈ 10-9 .

Bifurcation Analysis of Horizontal Platform System

Horizontal platform system (HPS) is popularly applied in offshore and earthquake technology, but it is difficult and time-consuming for regulation. In order to understand the nonlinear dynamic behavior of HPS and reduce the cost when using it, this paper employs differential transformation method to study the bifurcation behavior of HPS. The numerical results reveal a complex dynamic behavior comprising periodic, sub-harmonic, and chaotic responses. Furthermore, the results reveal the changes which take place in the dynamic behavior of the HPS as the external torque is increased. Therefore, the proposed method provides an effective means of gaining insights into the nonlinear dynamics of horizontal platform system.

Application of Mapping and Superimposing Rule for Solution of Parabolic PDE in Porous Medium under Cyclic Loading

This paper presents an analytical method to solve governing consolidation parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) for inelastic porous Medium (soil) with consideration of variation of equation coefficient under cyclic loading. Since under cyclic loads, soil skeleton parameters change, this would introduce variable coefficient of parabolic PDE. Classical theory would not rationalize consolidation phenomenon in such condition. In this research, a method based on time space mapping to a virtual time space along with superimposing rule is employed to solve consolidation of inelastic soils in cyclic condition. Changes of consolidation coefficient applied in solution by modification of loading and unloading duration by introducing virtual time. Mapping function is calculated based on consolidation partial differential equation results. Based on superimposing rule a set of continuous static loads in specified times used instead of cyclic load. A set of laboratory consolidation tests under cyclic load along with numerical calculations were performed in order to verify the presented method. Numerical solution and laboratory tests results showed accuracy of presented method.

Fusion Filters Weighted by Scalars and Matrices for Linear Systems

An optimal mean-square fusion formulas with scalar and matrix weights are presented. The relationship between them is established. The fusion formulas are compared on the continuous-time filtering problem. The basic differential equation for cross-covariance of the local errors being the key quantity for distributed fusion is derived. It is shown that the fusion filters are effective for multi-sensor systems containing different types of sensors. An example demonstrating the reasonable good accuracy of the proposed filters is given.

Pay Differentials and Employee Retention in the State Colleges of Education in the South-South Zone, Nigeria

The study examined the influence of pay differentials on employee retention in the State Colleges of Education in the South-South Region of Nigeria. 275 subjects drawn from members of the wage negotiating teams in the Colleges were administered questionnaires constructed for study. Analysis of Variance revealed that the observed pay differentials significantly influenced retainership, f(5,269 = 6.223, P< 0.05). However, the Multiple Classification Analysis and Post-Hoc test indicated that employees in two of the Colleges with slightly lower and higher pay levels may probably remain with their employers while employees in other Colleges with the least and highest pay levels suggested quitting. Based on these observations, the influence of pay on employee retention seems inconclusive. Generally, employees in the colleges studied are dissatisfied with current pay levels. Management should confront these challenges by improving pay packages to encourage employees to remain and be dedicated to duty.

New Investigation of the Exchange Effects Role on the Elastic and Inelastic Scattering of α-Particles on 9Be

Elastic and inelastic scattering of α-particles by 9Be nuclei at different incident energies have been analyzed. Optical model parameters (OMPs) of α-particles elastic scattering by 9Be at different energies have been obtained. Coupled Reaction Channel (CRC) of elastic scattering, inelastic scattering and transfer reaction has been calculated using Fresco Code. The effect of involving CRC calculations on the analysis of differential cross section has been studied. The transfer reaction of (5He) in the reaction 9Be(α,9Be)α has been studied. The spectroscopic factor of 9Be≡α+5He has been extracted.

An Adaptive Least-squares Mixed Finite Element Method for Pseudo-parabolic Integro-differential Equations

In this article, an adaptive least-squares mixed finite element method is studied for pseudo-parabolic integro-differential equations. The solutions of least-squares mixed weak formulation and mixed finite element are proved. A posteriori error estimator is constructed based on the least-squares functional and the posteriori errors are obtained.

Some Solitary Wave Solutions of Generalized Pochhammer-Chree Equation via Exp-function Method

In this paper, Exp-function method is used for some exact solitary solutions of the generalized Pochhammer-Chree equation. It has been shown that the Exp-function method, with the help of symbolic computation, provides a very effective and powerful mathematical tool for solving nonlinear partial differential equations. As a result, some exact solitary solutions are obtained. It is shown that the Exp-function method is direct, effective, succinct and can be used for many other nonlinear partial differential equations.

The Homotopy Analysis Method for Solving Discontinued Problems Arising in Nanotechnology

This paper applies the homotopy analysis method method to a nonlinear differential-difference equation arising in nanotechnology. Continuum hypothesis on nanoscales is invalid, and a differential-difference model is considered as an alternative approach to describing discontinued problems. Comparison of the approximate solution with the exact one reveals that the method is very effective.

Application of Homotopy Perturbation Method to Solve Steady Flow of Walter B Fluid A Vertical Channel In Porous Media

In this article, a simulation method called the Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) is employed in the steady flow of a Walter's B' fluid in a vertical channel with porous wall. We employed Homotopy Perturbation Method to derive solution of a nonlinear form of equation obtained from exerting similarity transforming to the ordinary differential equation gained from continuity and momentum equations of this kind of flow. The results obtained from the Homotopy Perturbation Method are then compared with those from the Runge–Kutta method in order to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. The results show that the Homotopy Perturbation Method can achieve good results in predicting the solution of such problems. Ultimately we use this solution to obtain the other terms of velocities and physical discussion about it.