Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-145).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-130).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006. / Prepared for: Dept. of Chemistry. Bibliography: leaves 95-102. Also available online.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:34:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2004-09Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:06:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 barros_e_dr_guara.pdf: 1499137 bytes, checksum: 5a94296d58a74230125376ce4552f941 (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Na presença de não linearidades, a resposta forçada de estruturas exibe diversos fenômenos físicos que não podem ser descritos através de modelos lineares. Estes fenômenos incluem ressonâncias sub-harmônicas, ressonâncias super-harmônicas, jumps , movimentos quasi-periódicos, movimentos de período múltiplo, caos e interações modais. Recentes estudos experimentais indicam que um novo tipo de interação modal pode ocorrer através de mecanismos não ressonantes, decorrente da transferência de energia de modos de alta freqüência e baixa amplitude para modos de baixa freqüência e alta amplitude. Neste trabalho, interações modais não ressonantes são investigadas na resposta planar não linear de vigas cantilever flexíveis sujeitas a excitações externas e paramétricas. As equações diferenciais e as condições de contorno associadas que governam o movimento flexional-flexional não linear de uma viga assumida inextensível, metálica e isotrópica, são apresentadas. O estudo experimental conduzido revelou que a transferência de energia entre modos de alta freqüência para modos de baixa freqüência ocorre via modulação, sendo função do valor da amplitude de excitação e da proximidade entre os valores da freqüência de modulação e da freqüência dos modos ativados. O estudo revelou também que a ativação de modos de baixa freqüência pode ocorrer sob uma variedade de condições de entrada. Em adição, outros fenômenos dinâmicos não lineares classificados como rotas para o movimento caótico são também observados. Em determinadas condições, movimentos quasi-periódicos com amplitudes moduladas caoticamente e moduladas periodicamente são exibidos. Um movimento de resposta de período dois é também observado. / Interesting physical phenomena occur in the forced response of structures in the presence of nonlinearities, which cannot be explained by linear models. These phenomena include subharmonic resonances, superharmonic resonances, jumps, period-multiplying motions, quasiperiodic motions, chaos and modal interactions. Recent studies suggest that another type of modal interaction may occur through nonresonant mechanisms, due to the energy transfer from the low-amplitude highfrequency modes to high-amplitude low-frequency modes. In this work, nonresonant modal interactions in the nonlinear planar motions of flexible cantilever beams subjected to transverse and parametric harmonic excitations are investigated. The governing equations of the nonlinear bending-bending motions and the associated boundary conditions for an isotropic metallic inextensional beam are presented. An experimental study revealed that the transfer of energy from high-frequency to lowfrequency modes occurs via modulation and is found to be function of the excitation amplitude and the closeness of the modulation frequency to the frequencies of the low modes activated. The experimental study also revealed that the energy transfer from high-frequency modes to low-frequency modes occurs for a variety of conditions. In addition, others nonlinear dynamic phenomenas routes to the chaotic motions, are also observed. Under certain conditions, quasiperiodic motion with periodically and chaotically modulated amplitudes are exhibited. Period-doubling motion is also observed.

The purpose of this dissertation was to provide a review of the theory of Optimization, in particular quadratic programming, and the algorithms suitable for solving both convex and non-convex quadratic programming problems. Optimization problems arise in a wide variety of fields and many can be effectively modeled with linear equations. However, there are problems for which linear models are not sufficient thus creating a need for non-linear systems. This dissertation includes a literature study of the formal theory necessary for understanding optimization and an investigation of the algorithms available for solving a special class of the non-linear programming problem, namely the quadratic programming problem. It was not the intention of this dissertation to discuss all possible algorithms for solving the quadratic programming problem, therefore certain algorithms for convex and non-convex quadratic programming problems were selected for a detailed discussion in the dissertation. Some of the algorithms were selected arbitrarily, because limited information was available comparing the efficiency of the various algorithms. Algorithms available for solving general non-linear programming problems were also included and briefly discussed as they can be used to solve quadratic programming problems. A number of algorithms were then selected for evaluation, depending on the frequency of use in practice and the availability of software implementing these algorithms. The evaluation included a theoretical and quantitative comparison of the algorithms. The quantitative results were analyzed and discussed and it was shown that the results supported the theoretical comparison. It was also shown that it is difficult to conclude that one algorithm is better than another as the efficiency of an algorithm greatly depends on the size of the problem, the complexity of an algorithm and many other implementation issues. Optimization problems arise continuously in a wide range of fields and thus create the need for effective methods of solving them. This dissertation provides the fundamental theory necessary for the understanding of optimization problems, with particular reference to quadratic programming problems and the algorithms that solve such problems. Keywords: Quadratic Programming, Quadratic Programming Algorithms, Optimization, Non-linear Programming, Convex, Non-convex.

Structural optimization is an important field in engineering with a strong foundation on continuum mechanics, structural finite element analysis, computational techniques and optimization methods. Research in structural optimization of linear and geometrically nonlinear problems using the force method has not received appropriate attention by the research community. The present thesis constitutes a comprehensive study in the area of structural optimization. Development of new methodologies for analysis and optimization and their integration in finite element computer programs for analysis and design of linear and nonlinear structural problems are among the most important contributions. For linear problems, a force method formulation based on the complementary energy is proposed. Using this formulation, the element forces are obtained without the direct generation of the compatibility matrix. Application of the proposed method in structural size optimization under stress, displacement and frequency constraints has been investigated and its efficiency is compared with the conventional displacement formulation. Moreover, an efficient methodology based on the integrated force method is developed for topology optimization of adaptive structures under static and dynamic loads. It has been demonstrated that structural optimization based on the force method is computationally more efficient. For nonlinear problems, an efficient methodology has been developed for structural optimization of geometrical nonlinear problems under system stability constraints. The technique combines the nonlinear finite element method based on the displacement control technique for analysis and optimality criterion methods for optimization. Application of the proposed methodology has been investigated for shallow structures. The efficiency of the proposed optimization algorithms are compared with the mathematical programming method based on the Sequential Quadratic Programming technique. It is shown that structural design optimization based on the linear analysis for structures with intrinsic geometric nonlinearites may lead to structural failure. Finally, application of the group theoretic approach in structural optimization of geometrical nonlinear symmetric structures under system stability constraint has been investigated. It has been demonstrated that structural optimization of nonlinear symmetric structures using the group theoretic approach is computationally efficient and excellent agreement exists between the full space and the reduced subspace optimal solutions. / Graduate

Thin elastic objects, including leaves, flowers, plastic sheets and sails, are ubiquitous in nature and their technological applications are growing with the introduction of hydrogel thin-films, flexible electronics and environmentally responsive gels. The intricate rippling and buckling patterns are postulated to be the result of minimizing an elastic energy. In this dissertation, we investigate the role of regularity in minimizing the elastic energy. Though there exist smooth isometric immersions of arbitrarily large subsets of H2 into R3, we show that the introduction of weakly-irregular singularities, of smoothness class C^{1,1}, significantly reduces the energy; we provide numerical evidence supporting an upper bound on the asymptotic scaling of the minimum energy over C^{1,1} isometries which is an exponentially large improvement as compared to the conjectured lower bound over C2 surfaces. This work provides insight into the quantitative nature of the Hilbert-Efimov theorem. The introduction of such singularities is energetically inexpensive, and so too is their relocation. Therefore, isometries are "floppy" or easily-deformable, motivating a shift in focus from finding the exact minimizers of the elastic energy in favor of understanding the statistical mechanics of the collection of zero-stretching immersions.

D.Sc. (Mathematics) / In this thesis aspects of continuous symmetries of differential equations are studied. In particular the following aspects are studied in detail: Lie algebras, the Lie derivative, the jet bundle formalism for differential equations, Lie point and Lie-Backlund symmetry vector fields, recursion operators, conservation laws, Lax pairs, the Painlcve test, Lie algebra valued differenmtial forms and Dose operators as a representation of differential operators. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of complicated nonlinear dirrerential equations that describe nature and to construct solutions. The differential equations under consideration were derived [rom physics and engineering. They are the following: the Kortcweg-dc Vries equation, Burgers' cquation , the sine-Gordon equation, nonlinear diffusion equations, the Klein Gordon equation, the Schrodinger equation, nonlinear Dirac equations, Yang-Mills equations, the Lorentz model, the Lotka-Volterra model, damped unharrnonic oscillators, and others. The newly found results and insights are discussed in chapters 8 to 17. Details on the COli tents of each chapter and rcfernces to some of my articles arc given in chapter 1.

M.Sc. (Theoretical Physics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Sc. / Roels [1] showed that on a two dimensional symplectic manifold, an arbitrary vector field can be locally decomposed into the sum of a gradient vector field and a Hamilton vector field. The Roels decomposition was extended to be applicable to compact even dimensional manifolds by Mendes and Duarte [2]. Some of the limitations of local decomposition are overcome by incorporating modern work on Hodge decomposition. This leads to a theorem which, in some cases, allows an arbitrary vector field on an even m-dimensional non-compact manifold to be decomposed into one gradient vector field and up to m-1 Hamiltonian vector fields. The method of decomposition is condensed into an algorithm which can be implemented using computer algebra. This decomposition is then applied to chaotic vector fields on non-compact manifolds [3]. This extended Roels decomposition is also compared to Helmholz decomposition in R 3 . The thesis shows how Legendre polynomials can be used to simplify the Helmholz decomposition in non-trivial cases. Finally, integral preserving iterators for both autonomous and non-autonomous first integrals are discussed [4]. The Hamilton vector fields which result from Roels' decomposition have their Hamiltonians as first integrals.