[en] A priori estimates for variational solutions are derived and a necassary and sufficient condition for the existence of a free boundary is established. This condition is expressed in terms of the flux. The principal tool is the variational characterisation of the solutions

[en] Concise proofs are presented for the necessity and sufficiency of f being a divergence for the variational derivatives of f to vanish identically, where f is a function of N functions of n variables, their partial derivatives to arbitrary order, and the n variables. The approach is conventional. (Auth.)

No abstract available

No abstract available

[en] Object of this note is to obtain an approximate solution to the problem of a diffusion flame via extremum variational principle

[en] When at equilibrium, large-scale systems obey thermodynamics because they have microscopic configurations that are typical. “Typical” states are a fraction of those possible with the majority of the probability. A more precise definition of typical states underlies the transmission, coding, and compression of information. However, this definition does not apply to natural systems that are transiently away from equilibrium. Here, we introduce a variational measure of typicality and apply it to atomistic simulations of a model for hydrogen oxidation. While a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and oxygen combusts, reactant molecules transform through a variety of ephemeral species en route to the product, water. Out of the exponentially growing number of possible sequences of chemical species, we find that greater than 95% of the probability concentrates in less than 1% of the possible sequences. Overall, these results extend the notion of typicality across the nonequilibrium regime and suggest that typical sequences are a route to learning mechanisms from experimental measurements. They also open up the possibility of constructing ensembles for computing the macroscopic observables of systems out of equilibrium.

[en] As a 'by-product' of the Connes-Narnhofer-Thirring theory of dynamical entropy for (originally non-Abelian) nuclear C^*-algebras, the well-known variational principle for topological entropy is eqivalently reformulated in purly algebraically defined terms for (separable) Abelian C^*-algebras. This 'algebraic variational principle' should not only nicely illustrate the 'feed-back' of methods developed for quantum dynamical systems to the classical theory, but it could also be proved directly by 'algebraic' methods and could thus further simplify the original proof of the variational principle (at least 'in principle'). 23 refs. (Author)

[en] The advantages and peculiarities of the variational method of solving electrostatic problems are clearly illustrated using the ground resistance as a relatively simple example. (methodological notes)

[en] Inspired by the seminal works of Eshelby (Philos Trans R Soc A 244A:87–112, 1951, J Elast 5:321–335, 1975) on configurational forces and of Noll (Arch Ration Mech Anal 27:1–32, 1967) on material uniformity, we study a thermoelastic continuum undergoing volumetric growth and in a dynamical setting, in which we call the divergence of the Eshelby stress the Eshelby force. In the classical statical case, the Eshelby force coincides with the negative of the configurational force. We obtain a differential identity for the modified Eshelby stress, involving the torsion of the connection induced by the material isomorphism of a uniform body, which includes, as a particular case, that found by Epstein and Maugin (Acta Mech 83:127–133, 1990). In this identity, the divergence of the modified Eshelby stress with respect to this connection of the material isomorphism takes the name of modified Eshelby force. Moreover, we show that Eshelby’s variational approach (1975) can be used to formulate not only the balance of material momentum, but also the balance of energy. In this case, we find that what we call Eshelby power is the temporal analogue of the Eshelby force, and we obtain a differential identity for the modified Eshelby power. This leads to concluding that the driving force for the process of growth–remodelling is the Mandel stress. Eventually, we find that the relation between the differential identities for the modified Eshelby force and modified Eshelby power represents the mechanical power expended in a uniform body to make the inhomogeneities evolve.

[en] In this paper we extend the Tikhonov-Browder regularization scheme from monotone to rather a general class of nonmonotone multivalued variational inequalities. We show that their convergence conditions hold for some classes of perfectly and nonperfectly competitive economic equilibrium problems