<p>The rapid expansion of major cities in the west Europeancountries has accentuated the need to exploit every potentialsite for new establishments, e.g. areas over train tunnels andnear railway tracks in general. A significant impediment toexploit such areas is the structure-borne noise generated bythe train traffic, which is transmitted into buildings via theground. Reliable prediction methods and cost-effective noisecontrol measures are therefore needed and are also the objectof the present work. In this thesis, the studied buildings areconsidered as wave-guides for the sound transmitted from theground. The work is restricted to the case of hard ground suchas granite. The chosen technique permits comparison betweendifferent potential measures to reduce the transmission ofstructure-borne sound upward in buildings. It is shown that thedesign of the load-bearing structures is important in thiscontext, and a design with relocated columns has givenpromising results. It is also shown that the stiffness of theground plays an important role in the transmission process.This leads to the idea that a sand layer between the foundationof the building and the bedrock may reduce the transmission.New methods have thus been developed in the course of this workto evaluate the stiffness of the layer using approximate andexact techniques. Results are presented and a comparison ismade with previous results for a "normal" building and it isshown that the insertion of sand layer has a potential toconsiderably reduce the sound level in the building.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Ground-borne noise, railway noise, in-planewaves, wave-guides, scattering, propagation constant, inputmobility, elastic stratum, dual integral equations.</p>

Efficient electromagnetic solvers based on surface integral equations (SIEs) are developed for the analysis of scattering from large-scale and complex composite structures that consist of piecewise homogeneous magnetodielectric and perfect electrically/magnetically conducting (PEC/PMC) regions. First, a multiple-grid extension of the adaptive integral method (AIM) is presented for multi-region problems. The proposed method accelerates the iterative method-of-moments solution of the pertinent SIEs by employing multiple auxiliary Cartesian grids: If the structure of interest is composed of K homogeneous regions, it introduces K different auxiliary grids. It uses the k^{th} auxiliary grid first to determine near-zones for the basis functions and then to execute AIM projection/anterpolation, propagation, interpolation, and near-zone pre-correction stages in the k^{th} region. Thus, the AIM stages are executed a total of K times using different grids and different groups of basis functions. The proposed multiple-grid AIM scheme requires a total of O(N^{nz,near}+sum({N_k}^Clog{N_k}^C)) operations per iteration, where N^{nz,near} denotes the total number of near-zone interactions in all regions and {N_k}^C denotes the number of nodes of the k^{th} Cartesian grid. Numerical results validate the method’s accuracy and reduced complexity for large-scale canonical structures with large numbers of regions (up to 10^6 degrees of freedom and 10^3 regions). Then, a Green function modification approach and a scheme of Hankel- to Teoplitz-matrix conversions are efficiently incorporated to the multiple-grid AIM method to account for a PEC/PMC plane. Theoretical analysis and numerical examples show that, compared to a brute-force imaging scheme, the Green function modification approach reduces the simulation time and memory requirement by a factor of (almost) two or larger if the structure of interest is terminated on or resides above the plane, respectively. In addition, the SIEs are extended to cover structures composed of metamaterial regions, PEC regions, and PEC-material junctions. Moreover, recently introduced well-conditioned SIEs are adopted to achieve faster iterative solver convergence. Comprehensive numerical tests are performed to evaluate the accuracy, computational complexity, and convergence of the novel formulation which is shown to significantly reduce the number of iterations and the overall computational work. Lastly, the efficiency and capabilities of the proposed solvers are demonstrated by solving complex scattering problems, specifically those pertinent to analysis of wave propagation in natural forested environments, the design of metamaterials, and the application of metamaterials to radar cross section reduction. / text

No description available.

In this thesis, we consider the numerical solution of a large eigenvalue problem in which the integral operator comes from a radiative transfer problem. It is considered the use of hierarchical matrices, an efficient data-sparse representation of matrices, especially useful for large dimensional problems. It consists on low-rank subblocks leading to low memory requirements as well as cheap computational costs. We discuss the use of the hierarchical matrix technique in the numerical solution of a large scale eigenvalue problem arising from a finite rank discretization of an integral operator. The operator is of convolution type, it is defined through the first exponential-integral function and hence it is weakly singular. We access HLIB (Hierarchical matrices LIBrary) that provides, among others, routines for the construction of hierarchical matrix structures and arithmetic algorithms to perform approximative matrix operations. Moreover, it is incorporated the matrix-vector multiply routines from HLIB, as well as LU factorization for preconditioning, into SLEPc (Scalable Library for Eigenvalue Problem Computations) in order to exploit the available algorithms to solve eigenvalue problems. It is also developed analytical expressions for the approximate degenerate kernels and deducted error upper bounds for these approximations. The numerical results obtained with other approaches to solve the problem are used to compare with the ones obtained with this technique, illustrating the efficiency of the techniques developed and implemented in this work

Computational electromagnetic modeling involves generating system matrices by discretizing integral equations and solving the resulting system of linear equations. Many methods of solving the system of linear equations exist and one such method is the factorization of the matrix using the so called local-global solution (LOGOS) modes. Computer codes to perform the discretization of the integral equations, filling of the matrix, and the subsequent LOGOS factorization have previously been developed by others. However, these codes are limited to complex double precision arithmetic only. This thesis extends and expands the existing computer by creating a more general implementation that is able to analyze a problem not only in complex double precision but also in real double precision and both complex and real single precision. The existing code is expanded using "templates" in Fortran 90 and the resulting generic code is used test the performance of the LOGOS (both OL- and NL-LOGOS) factorization on matrices generated by discretization of the volume integral equation. As part of this effort, we demonstrate for the first time that the LOGOS factorization provides an O(N log N) complexity solution to the volume integral equation formulation of low-frequency electromagnetic problems.

Functionally graded materials processed by the thermal spray techniques such as electron beam physical vapor deposition and plasma spray forming are known to have an orthotropic structure with reduced mechanical properties. Debonding related failures in these types of material systems occur due to embedded cracks that are perpendicular to the direction of the material property gradation. These cracks are inherently under mixed-mode loading and fracture analysis requires the extraction of the modes I and II stress intensity factors. The present study aims at developing semi-analytical techniques to study embedded crack problems in graded orthotropic media under various boundary conditions. The cracks are assumed to be aligned parallel to one of the principal axes of orthotropy. The problems are formulated using the averaged constants of plane orthotropic elasticity and reduced to two coupled integral equations with Cauchy type dominant singularities. The equations are solved numerically by adopting an expansion - collocation technique. The main results of the analyses are the mixed mode stress intensity factors and the energy release rate as functions of the material nonhomogeneity and orthotropy parameters. The effects of the boundary conditions on the mentioned fracture parameters are also duly discussed.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-173). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-118).

Neste trabalho, é estudada a descrição do fluxo de um gás rarefeito em um duto cilíndrico de comprimento infinito. A formulação matemática do problema está baseada na forma integral de equações cinéticas derivadas da Equação de Boltzmann. Particularmente são estudados os modelos cinéticos conhecidos como BGK e S. Métodos espectrais são propostos para obtenção de soluções, em forma fechada, para quantidades de interesse como o perfil de velocidade do gás, bem como taxas de fluxo. As formulações espectrais são baseadas em duas abordagens: expansão clássica em termos de Polinômios de Legendre e expansão em termos de splines cúbicas de Hermite, neste caso, associada a um esquema de colocação. A implementação das propostas produz resultados computacionais satisfatórios do ponto de vista prático. Para obtenção de resultados com maior precisão, técnicas de tratamento da singularidade do núcleo da equação integral foram introduzidas, resultando em ganho computacional significativo. Finalmente, a proposta de solução espectral para problemas em geometria cilíndrica se mostrou adequada para problemas em que se admite reflexão especular na superfície do cilindro, situação onde outras abordagens clássicas disponíveis na literatura não podem ser utilizadas. / In this work, rarefied gas flows in cylindrical ducts are studied. The mathematical formulation of the problems are based on the integral form of kinetic equations derived from the Boltzmann equation. Particularly, the BGK and S models are studied. Spectral methods are proposed to obtain closed form solutions for quantities of interest as velocity profile of the gas as well as flow rates. The spectral formulations are based on two approaches: classical expansions in terms of Legendre Polynomials and Hermite cubic splines expansions. In this case, associated with a collocation scheme. The approaches provide good computational results, from the practical point of view. On the other hand, for obtaining higher accuracy, some techniques were introduced to deal with the inherent singularity of the integral kernel. In this context, a significant computational gain is achieved. Finally, this spectral approach has shown to be adequate to solve problems where specular reflection is assumed at the surface, in which cases, classical approaches available in the literature can not be used.

Neste trabalho, é estudada a descrição do fluxo de um gás rarefeito em um duto cilíndrico de comprimento infinito. A formulação matemática do problema está baseada na forma integral de equações cinéticas derivadas da Equação de Boltzmann. Particularmente são estudados os modelos cinéticos conhecidos como BGK e S. Métodos espectrais são propostos para obtenção de soluções, em forma fechada, para quantidades de interesse como o perfil de velocidade do gás, bem como taxas de fluxo. As formulações espectrais são baseadas em duas abordagens: expansão clássica em termos de Polinômios de Legendre e expansão em termos de splines cúbicas de Hermite, neste caso, associada a um esquema de colocação. A implementação das propostas produz resultados computacionais satisfatórios do ponto de vista prático. Para obtenção de resultados com maior precisão, técnicas de tratamento da singularidade do núcleo da equação integral foram introduzidas, resultando em ganho computacional significativo. Finalmente, a proposta de solução espectral para problemas em geometria cilíndrica se mostrou adequada para problemas em que se admite reflexão especular na superfície do cilindro, situação onde outras abordagens clássicas disponíveis na literatura não podem ser utilizadas. / In this work, rarefied gas flows in cylindrical ducts are studied. The mathematical formulation of the problems are based on the integral form of kinetic equations derived from the Boltzmann equation. Particularly, the BGK and S models are studied. Spectral methods are proposed to obtain closed form solutions for quantities of interest as velocity profile of the gas as well as flow rates. The spectral formulations are based on two approaches: classical expansions in terms of Legendre Polynomials and Hermite cubic splines expansions. In this case, associated with a collocation scheme. The approaches provide good computational results, from the practical point of view. On the other hand, for obtaining higher accuracy, some techniques were introduced to deal with the inherent singularity of the integral kernel. In this context, a significant computational gain is achieved. Finally, this spectral approach has shown to be adequate to solve problems where specular reflection is assumed at the surface, in which cases, classical approaches available in the literature can not be used.