Seminar

How to turn a sphere inside out

When a young mathematician told his advisor that he had found a way to turn a sphere inside out (without making any creases), his advisor told him that this was impossible to do so, and gave him a proof. His advisor was wrong. That young mathematician (Smale) went on to win the highest mathematical prize (the Fields Medal). His solution is very non-intuitive. Today, there are several excellent videos on YouTube that show how to turn a sphere inside out, and this talk will explain some of them. 

Solving a System of Nonlinear Equations

In any normal linear algebra class you learn how to solve a system of linear equations using Gaussian elimination methods. But how would solve a system like the following:
$$x^2+y+z=1$$

$$x+y^2+z=1$$

$$x+y+z^2=1$$

In this talk I will go over how one can use Gr\"obner theory to solve a system of nonlinear equations and what assumptions might need to be made to make this possible. 

A fully-mixed finite element method for the coupling of the Navier--Stokes and Darcy-Forchheimer equations

In this work we present and analyse a fully-mixed formulation for the nonlinear model given by the coupling of the Navier-Stokes and Darcy-Forchheimer equations with the Beavers-Joseph-Saffman condition on the interface. Our approach yields non-Hilbertian normed spaces and a twofold saddle point structure for the corresponding operator equation. Furthermore, since the convective term in the Navier-Stokes equation forces the velocity to live in a smaller space than usual, we augment the variational formulation with suitable Galerkin type terms.

Energy, Enstrophy and Parameter Sensitivity of the Time Relaxation Model

Fluid models were developed as an alternative to the Navier-Stokes equations to avoid computational complexity especially in case of turbulent flows. Model errors due to the variation of a model parameter become an immediate concern in different aspects. In this presentation, we discuss two such aspects as the conservation of energy and enstrophy, and the reliability of the model given a parameter value for the so called Time Relaxation Model.

Viscoelastic and Newtonian fluid transport in a ratchet geometry

Using an oscillating ratchet geometry, an investigation of the 
net fluid transport through the ratchet is undertaken in both Newtonian 
and viscoelastic fluids. A detailed description of the numerical model 
that couples the moving immersed ratchet structure to the bulk fluid 
will be discussed. Numerical results presented will detail how 
viscoelasticity enhances the net fluid transport in the ratchet.