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Now showing 1 - 10 of 19
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    Optimal distributed control of a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard/Navier-Stokes system in 2D
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Frigeri, Sergio Pietro; Rocca, Elisabetta; Sprekels, Jürgen
    We study a diffuse interface model for incompressible isothermal mixtures of two immiscible fluids coupling the Navier-Stokes system with a convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation in two dimensions of space. We apply recently proved well-posedness and regularity results in order to establish existence of optimal controls as well as first-order necessary optimality conditions for an associated optimal control problem in which a distributed control is applied to the fluid flow.
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    Homogenization of a porous intercalation electrode with phase separation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2021) Heida, Martin; Landstorfer, Manuel; Liero, Matthias
    In this work, we derive a new model framework for a porous intercalation electrode with a phase separating active material upon lithium intercalation. We start from a microscopic model consisting of transport equations for lithium ions in an electrolyte phase and intercalated lithium in a solid active phase. Both are coupled through a Neumann--boundary condition modeling the lithium intercalation reaction. The active material phase is considered to be phase separating upon lithium intercalation. We assume that the porous material is a given periodic microstructure and perform analytical homogenization. Effectively, the microscopic model consists of a diffusion and a Cahn--Hilliard equation, whereas the limit model consists of a diffusion and an Allen--Cahn equation. Thus we observe a Cahn--Hilliard to Allen--Cahn transition during the upscaling process. In the sense of gradient flows, the transition goes in hand with a change in the underlying metric structure of the PDE system.
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    Second-order analysis of a boundary control problem for the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation with dynamic boundary condition
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Colli, Pierluigi; Farshbaf Shaker, Mohammad Hassan; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In this paper we establish second-order sufficient optimality conditions for a boundary control problem that has been introduced and studied by three of the authors in the preprint arXiv:1407.3916. This control problem regards the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation with possibly singular potentials and dynamic boundary conditions.
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    Optimal distributed control of two-dimensional nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes systems with degenerate mobility and singular potential
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2018) Frigeri, Sergio; Grasselli, Maurizio; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In this paper, we consider a two-dimensional diffuse interface model for the phase separation of an incompressible and isothermal binary fluid mixture with matched densities. This model consists of the NavierStokes equations, nonlinearly coupled with a convective nonlocal CahnHilliard equation. The system rules the evolution of the (volume-averaged) velocity u of the mixture and the (relative) concentration difference ' of the two phases. The aim of this work is to study an optimal control problem for such a system, the control being a time-dependent external force v acting on the fluid. We first prove the existence of an optimal control for a given tracking type cost functional. Then we study the differentiability properties of the control-to-state map v 7! [u; '], and we establish first-order necessary optimality conditions. These results generalize the ones obtained by the first and the third authors jointly with E. Rocca in [19]. There the authors assumed a constant mobility and a regular potential with polynomially controlled growth. Here, we analyze the physically more relevant case of a degenerate mobility and a singular (e.g., logarithmic) potential. This is made possible by the existence of a unique strong solution which was recently proved by the authors and C. G. Gal in [14].
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    A kinetic model of a polyelectrolyte gel undergoing phase separation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2020) Celora, Giulia L.; Hennessy, Matthew G.; Münch, Andreas; Wagner, Barbara; Waters, Sarah L.
    In this study we use non-equilibrium thermodynamics to systematically derive a phase-field model of a polyelectrolyte gel coupled to a thermodynamically consistent model for the salt solution surrounding the gel. The governing equations for the gel account for the free energy of the internal interfaces which form upon phase separation, as well as finite elasticity and multi-component transport. The fully time-dependent model describes the evolution of small changes in the mobile ion concentrations and follows their impact on the large-scale solvent flux and the emergence of long-time pattern formation in the gel. We observe a strong acceleration of the evolution of the free surface when the volume phase transition sets in, as well as the triggering of spinodal decomposition that leads to strong inhomogeneities in the lateral stresses, potentially leading to experimentally visible patterns.
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    Spinodal decomposition and collapse of a polyelectrolyte gel
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2020) Celora, Giulia L.; Hennessy, Matthew G.; Münch, Andreas; Waters, Sarah L.; Wagner, Barbara
    The collapse of a polyelectrolyte gel in a (monovalent) salt solution is analysed using a new model that includes interfacial gradient energy to account for phase separation in the gel, finite elasticity and multicomponent transport. We carry out a linear stability analysis to determine the stable and unstable spatially homogeneous equilibrium states and how they phase separate into localized regions that eventually coarsen to a new stable state. We then investigate the problem of a collapsing gel as a response to increasing the salt concentration in the bath. A phase space analysis reveals that the collapse is obtained by a front moving through the gel that eventually ends in a new stable equilibrium. For some parameter ranges, these two routes to gel shrinking occur together.
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    Asymptotic study of the electric double layer at the interface of a polyelectrolyte gel and solvent bath
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2020) Hennessy, Matthew G.; Celora, Giulia L.; Münch, Andreas; Waters, Sarah L.; Wagner, Barbara
    An asymptotic framework is developed to study electric double layers that form at the inter-face between a solvent bath and a polyelectrolyte gel that can undergo phase separation. The kinetic model for the gel accounts for the finite strain of polyelectrolyte chains, free energy ofinternal interfaces, and Stefan?Maxwell diffusion. By assuming that the thickness of the doublelayer is small compared to the typical size of the gel, matched asymptotic expansions are used toderive electroneutral models with consistent jump conditions across the gel-bath interface in two-dimensional plane-strain as well as fully three-dimensional settings. The asymptotic frameworkis then applied to cylindrical gels that undergo volume phase transitions. The analysis indicatesthat Maxwell stresses are responsible for generating large compressive hoop stresses in the double layer of the gel when it is in the collapsed state, potentially leading to localised mechanicalinstabilities that cannot occur when the gel is in the swollen state. When the energy cost of in-ternal interfaces is sufficiently weak, a sharp transition between electrically neutral and chargedregions of the gel can occur. This transition truncates the double layer and causes it to have finitethickness. Moreover, phase separation within the double layer can occur. Both of these featuresare suppressed if the energy cost of internal interfaces is sufficiently high. Thus, interfacial freeenergy plays a critical role in controlling the structure of the double layer in the gel.
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    On an application of Tikhonovs fixed point theorem to a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard type system modeling phase separation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    This paper investigates a nonlocal version of a model for phase separation on an atomic lattice that was introduced by P. Podio-Guidugli in Ric. Mat. 55 (2006) 105-118. The model consists of an initial-boundary value problem for a nonlinearly coupled system of two partial differential equations governing the evolution of an order parameter p and the chemical potential my. Singular contributions to the local free energy in the form of logarithmic or ouble-obstacle potentials are admitted. In contrast to the local model, which was studied by P. Podio-Guidugli and the present authors in a series of recent publications, in the nonlocal case the equation governing the evolution of the order parameter contains in place of the Laplacian a nonlocal expression that originates from nonlocal contributions to the free energy and accounts for possible long-range interactions between the atoms. It is shown that just as in the local case the model equations are well posed, where the technique of proving existence is entirely different: it is based on an application of Tikhonovs fixed point theorem in a rather unusual separable and reflexive Banach space.
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    On the Cahn-Hilliard equation with dynamic boundary conditions and a dominating boundary potential
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2014) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    The Cahn-Hilliard and viscous Cahn-Hilliard equations with singular and possibly nonsmooth potentials and dynamic boundary condition are considered and some well-posedness and regularity results are proved.
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    Existence of weak solutions for Cahn-Hilliard systems coupled with elasticity and damage
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2010) Heinemann, Christian; Kraus, Christiane
    The Cahn-Hilliard model is a typical phase field approach for describing phase separation and coarsening phenomena in alloys. This model has been generalized to the so-called Cahn-Larché system by combining it with elasticity to capture non-neglecting deformation phenomena, which occurs during phase separation in the material. Evolving microstructures such as phase separation and coarsening processes have a strong influence on damage initiation and propagation in alloys. We develop the existing framework of Cahn-Hilliard and Cahn-Larché systems by coupling these systems with a unidirectional evolution inclusion for an internal variable, describing damage processes. After establishing a weak notion of the corresponding evolutionary system, we prove existence of weak solutions for rate-dependent damage processes under certain growth conditions of the energy functional