Galaxies are natural laboratories for testing fundamental physics on the nature of the dark matter. MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) has been tested for over 20 years on small and large scales. While there are several versions of how MOND extrapolates to the large scales, and these versions are not yet fully successful, the original Bekenstein-Milgrom version of MOND is fully predictive and works very well on galaxy scales. However, little work has been done to explore this theory beyond fitting the rotation curves and Tully-Fisher relation of isolated disc galaxies. So far little is known of MONDian elliptical galaxies accelerating in any galaxy cluster. A defining feature of MOND is that internal dynamics of the galaxy depends on the overall acceleration of the galaxy. The existence of cuspy triaxial equilibria for elliptical galaxies is the minimal requirement to MOND. With the PhD project here, I constructed and then further studied the evolution and stability of gravitationally bound systems resembling like cuspy elliptical galaxies, both in isolation and when embedded in a uniform external field. I also studied the escape speeds from spiral galaxies, in particular by comparing the potentials of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) and MOND frameworks.

The combination of highly turbulent airflow, flammable fluids, and numerous ignition sources makes aircraft engine nacelles a difficult fire zone to protect. Better understanding of nacelle air flow and how it influences the spread of fires and fire extinguishing agents is needed to improve the efficiency of fire suppression. The first objective was to establish a CFD model for a flow field test section to analyze the transport and dispersion of fire extinguishing agents in the presence of various clutter elements. To validate the use of the CFD model, the simulation results of the CFD model were compared to the experimental data and they show an agreement with the experimental data. The second objective was to present parametric studies to show the effects of the coflow speed, turbulence intensity and agent droplet size on the transport and dispersion of the agent particles downstream from the clutter elements. / by Khaled Zbeeb. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

In the present dissertation, the hydrodynamic and hydro-elastic characteristics of ship hull and plate vibrations are analyzed using theoretical and numerical methods. The wave forces are determined using a suite of methods which include the Froude-Krylov method for incident wave forces, Wagner's method and ABS rules for the slamming wave force, and numerical methods for nonlinear wave radiation forces. Finite difference methods are developed to determine the wave forced vibrations of ship hull plates which are modeled using a range of plate theories including nonlinear plate theory with and without material damping and orthotropic plate theory for stiffened hull plates. For small amplitude deformation of thin plates, a semi-theoretical superposition method is used to determine the free and forced vibrations. The transient ship hull vibration due to whipping is also analyzed using the finite difference method. Results, in the form of deformations and stress distributions, are obtained for a range of scantling and wave parameters to identify key parameters to consider in ship structural design. / by Fnu Lakitosh. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Tang Wai Sum. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Redundant Manipulators --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Inverse Kinematics of Robotic Manipulators --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Inverse Dynamics of Robotic Manipulators --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Redundancy Resolutions of Manipulators --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5 --- Motivation of Using Neural Networks for these Applications --- p.9 / Chapter 1.6 --- Previous Work for Redundant Manipulator Inverse Kinematics and Inverse Dynamics Computation by Neural Networks --- p.9 / Chapter 1.7 --- Advantages of the Proposed Recurrent Neural Networks --- p.11 / Chapter 1.8 --- Contribution of this work --- p.11 / Chapter 1.9 --- Organization of this thesis --- p.12 / Chapter 2 --- Problem Formulations --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- Constrained Optimization Problems for Inverse Kinematics Com- putation of Redundant Manipulators --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Primal and Dual Quadratic Programs for Bounded Joint Velocity Minimization --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Primal and Dual Linear Programs for Infinity-norm Joint Velocity Minimization --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- Constrained Optimization Problems for Inverse Dynamics Com- putation of Redundant Manipulators --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Quadratic Program for Unbounded Joint Torque Mini- mization --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Primal and Dual Quadratic Programs for Bounded Joint Torque Minimization --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Primal and Dual Linear Programs for Infinity-norm Joint Torque Minimization --- p.19 / Chapter 3 --- Proposed Recurrent Neural Networks --- p.20 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Lagrangian Network --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Optimality Conditions for Unbounded Joint Torque Min- imization --- p.21 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Dynamical Equations and Architecture --- p.22 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Primal-Dual Network 1 --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Optimality Conditions for Bounded Joint Velocity Min- imization --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Dynamical Equations and Architecture for Bounded Joint Velocity Minimization --- p.26 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Optimality Conditions for Bounded Joint Torque Mini- mization --- p.27 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Dynamical Equations and Architecture for Bounded Joint Torque Minimization --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Primal-Dual Network 2 --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Energy Function for Infinity-norm Joint Velocity Mini- mization Problem --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Dynamical Equations for Infinity-norm Joint Velocity Minimization --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Energy Functions for Infinity-norm Joint Torque Mini- mization Problem --- p.32 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Dynamical Equations for Infinity-norm Joint Torque Min- imization --- p.32 / Chapter 3.4 --- Selection of the Positive Scaling Constant --- p.33 / Chapter 4 --- Stability Analysis of Neural Networks --- p.36 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Lagrangian Network --- p.36 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Primal-Dual Network 1 --- p.38 / Chapter 4.3 --- The Primal-Dual Network 2 --- p.41 / Chapter 5 --- Simulation Results and Network Complexity --- p.45 / Chapter 5.1 --- Simulation Results of Inverse Kinematics Computation in Re- dundant Manipulators --- p.45 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Bounded Least Squares Joint Velocities Computation Using the Primal-Dual Network 1 --- p.46 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Minimum Infinity-norm Joint Velocities Computation Us- ing the Primal-Dual Network 2 --- p.49 / Chapter 5.2 --- Simulation Results of Inverse Dynamics Computation in Redun- dant Manipulators --- p.51 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Minimum Unbounded Joint Torques Computation Using the Lagrangian Network --- p.54 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Minimum Bounded Joint Torques Computation Using the Primal-Dual Network 1 --- p.57 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Minimum Infinity-norm Joint Torques Computation Us- ing the Primal-Dual Network 2 --- p.59 / Chapter 5.3 --- Network Complexity Analysis --- p.60 / Chapter 6 --- Concluding Remarks and Future Work --- p.64 / Publications Resulted from the Study --- p.66 / Bibliography --- p.68

Fu Sau-chung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of Explosion and Implosion Problems --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background of the Development of Numerical Schemes --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- Governing Equations and Numerical Schemes --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Governing Equations --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Numerical Schemes --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Splitting Scheme for Partial Differential Equations with Source Terms --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Boundary Conditions --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- "Numerical Solvers for the ODEs - The Second-Order, Two-Stage Runge-Kutta Method" --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Numerical Solvers for the Pure Advection Hyperbolic Problem - The Second-Order Relaxed Scheme --- p.11 / Chapter 3 --- Numerical Results --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- Spherical Explosion Problem --- p.30 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Physical Description --- p.32 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Comparison with Previous Analytical and Experimental Results --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2 --- Cylindrical Explosion Problem --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Physical Description --- p.46 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Two-Dimensional Model --- p.49 / Chapter 3.3 --- Spherical Implosion Problem --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Physical Description --- p.52 / Chapter 3.4 --- Cylindrical Implosion Problem --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Physical Description --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Two-Dimensional Model --- p.53 / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.65 / Bibliography --- p.68

This thesis examines the transient response of a packed bed heat regenerator when heated from an initial uniform bed temperature. Very large (1700 K) temperature differences were studied as well as the effect of simultaneous chemical reaction in the gas phase. First the effects of temperature on physical and transport properties were studied in detail in the absence of a reaction. Models with compressible flow were compared with conventional models with constant properties and incompressible flow. Several measures of the regenerator's response to a step change in inlet gas temperature were calculated to characterize the spread of the temperature front. Variances of the spatial derivative of the gas temperature profile and the time derivative of the product gas temperature were used to evaluate thermal efficiency. The effects of an exothermic homogeneous gas phase reaction in the regenerator process were also studied. Several simple kinetic schemes and inlet conditions were simulated and the profiles of reaction rate and conversion as well as temperature were analyzed. / Graduation date: 1993

Compact heat exchangers such as porous foam coldplates have great potential as a high heat flux cooling solution for electronics due to their large surface area to volume ratio and tortuous coolant path. The focus of this work was the development of unit cell modeling techniques for predicting the performance of coldplates with porous foam in the coolant path. Multiple computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models which predict porous foam coldplate pressure drop and heat transfer performance were constructed and compared to gain insight into how to best translate the foam microstructure into unit cell model geometry. Unit cell modeling in this study was realized by applying periodic boundary conditions to the coolant entrance and exit faces of a representative unit cell. A parametric study was also undertaken which evaluated dissimilar geometry translation recommendations from the literature. The use of an effective thermal conductivity for a representative orthogonal lattice of rectangular ligaments was compared to a porosity-matching technique of a similar lattice. Model accuracy was evaluated using experimental test data collected from a porous copper foam coldplate using deionized water as coolant. The compact heat exchanger testing facility which was designed and constructed for this investigation was shown to be capable of performing tests with coolant flow rates up to 300 mL/min and heat fluxes up to 290 W/cm2. The greatest technical challenge of the testing facility design proved to be the method of applying the heat flux across a 1 cm2 contact area. Based on the computational modeling results and experimental test data, porous foam modeling recommendations and porous foam coldplate design suggestions were generated.

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