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Finite Element Exterior Calculus
Finite element exterior calculus (FEEC) is a mathematical framework that formulates finite element methods using chain complexes. Its main application has been a comprehensive theory for finite element methods in computational electromagnetism, computational solid and fluid mechanics. FEEC was developed in the early 2000s by Douglas N. Arnold, Richard S. Falk and Ragnar Winther, among others. Finite element exterior calculus is sometimes called as an example of a compatible discretization technique, and bears similarities with discrete exterior calculus, although they are distinct theories. One starts with the recognition that the used differential operators are often part of complexes: successive application results in zero. Then, the phrasing of the differential operators of relevant differential equations and relevant boundary conditions as a Hodge Laplacian. The Hodge Laplacian terms are split using the Hodge decomposition. A related variational sadd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saddle Point
In mathematics, a saddle point or minimax point is a point on the surface of the graph of a function where the slopes (derivatives) in orthogonal directions are all zero (a critical point), but which is not a local extremum of the function. An example of a saddle point is when there is a critical point with a relative minimum along one axial direction (between peaks) and at a relative maximum along the crossing axis. However, a saddle point need not be in this form. For example, the function f(x,y) = x^2 + y^3 has a critical point at (0, 0) that is a saddle point since it is neither a relative maximum nor relative minimum, but it does not have a relative maximum or relative minimum in the y-direction. The name derives from the fact that the prototypical example in two dimensions is a surface that ''curves up'' in one direction, and ''curves down'' in a different direction, resembling a riding saddle or a mountain pass between two peaks forming a landform saddle. In te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Rham Cohomology
In mathematics, de Rham cohomology (named after Georges de Rham) is a tool belonging both to algebraic topology and to differential topology, capable of expressing basic topological information about smooth manifolds in a form particularly adapted to computation and the concrete representation of cohomology classes. It is a cohomology theory based on the existence of differential forms with prescribed properties. On any smooth manifold, every exact form is closed, but the converse may fail to hold. Roughly speaking, this failure is related to the possible existence of "holes" in the manifold, and the de Rham cohomology groups comprise a set of topological invariants of smooth manifolds that precisely quantify this relationship. Definition The de Rham complex is the cochain complex of differential forms on some smooth manifold , with the exterior derivative as the differential: :0 \to \Omega^0(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^1(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^2(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^3(M) \to \cd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stokes Flow
Stokes flow (named after George Gabriel Stokes), also named creeping flow or creeping motion,Kim, S. & Karrila, S. J. (2005) ''Microhydrodynamics: Principles and Selected Applications'', Dover. . is a type of fluid flow where advective inertial forces are small compared with viscous forces. The Reynolds number is low, i.e. \mathrm \ll 1. This is a typical situation in flows where the fluid velocities are very slow, the viscosities are very large, or the length-scales of the flow are very small. Creeping flow was first studied to understand lubrication. In nature this type of flow occurs in the swimming of microorganisms, sperm and the flow of lava. In technology, it occurs in paint, MEMS devices, and in the flow of viscous polymers generally. The equations of motion for Stokes flow, called the Stokes equations, are a linearization of the Navier–Stokes equations, and thus can be solved by a number of well-known methods for linear differential equations. The primary Green's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electromagnetism
In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of atoms and molecules. Electromagnetism can be thought of as a combination of electricity and magnetism, two distinct but closely intertwined phenomena. In essence, electric forces occur between any two charged particles, causing an attraction between particles with opposite charges and repulsion between particles with the same charge, while magnetism is an interaction that occurs exclusively between ''moving'' charged particles. These two effects combine to create electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of charge particles, which can exert influence on other particles via the Lorentz force. At high energy, the weak force and electromagnetic force are unified as a single electroweak force. The electromagnetic force is responsible for many o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elasticity (physics)
In physics and materials science, elasticity is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original size and shape when that influence or force is removed. Solid objects will deform when adequate loads are applied to them; if the material is elastic, the object will return to its initial shape and size after removal. This is in contrast to ''plasticity'', in which the object fails to do so and instead remains in its deformed state. The physical reasons for elastic behavior can be quite different for different materials. In metals, the atomic lattice changes size and shape when forces are applied (energy is added to the system). When forces are removed, the lattice goes back to the original lower energy state. For rubbers and other polymers, elasticity is caused by the stretching of polymer chains when forces are applied. Hooke's law states that the force required to deform elastic objects should be directly proportional to the distance of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diffusion
Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical potential. It is possible to diffuse "uphill" from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration, like in spinodal decomposition. The concept of diffusion is widely used in many fields, including physics (particle diffusion), chemistry, biology, sociology, economics, and finance (diffusion of people, ideas, and price values). The central idea of diffusion, however, is common to all of these: a substance or collection undergoing diffusion spreads out from a point or location at which there is a higher concentration of that substance or collection. A gradient is the change in the value of a quantity, for example, concentration, pressure, or temperature with the change in another variable, usually distance. A change in c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commutative Property
In mathematics, a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result. It is a fundamental property of many binary operations, and many mathematical proofs depend on it. Most familiar as the name of the property that says something like or , the property can also be used in more advanced settings. The name is needed because there are operations, such as division and subtraction, that do not have it (for example, ); such operations are ''not'' commutative, and so are referred to as ''noncommutative operations''. The idea that simple operations, such as the multiplication and addition of numbers, are commutative was for many years implicitly assumed. Thus, this property was not named until the 19th century, when mathematics started to become formalized. A similar property exists for binary relations; a binary relation is said to be symmetric if the relation applies regardless of the order of its operands; for example, equality is symme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projection (linear Algebra)
In linear algebra and functional analysis, a projection is a linear transformation P from a vector space to itself (an endomorphism) such that P\circ P=P. That is, whenever P is applied twice to any vector, it gives the same result as if it were applied once (i.e. P is idempotent). It leaves its image unchanged. This definition of "projection" formalizes and generalizes the idea of graphical projection. One can also consider the effect of a projection on a geometrical object by examining the effect of the projection on points in the object. Definitions A projection on a vector space V is a linear operator P : V \to V such that P^2 = P. When V has an inner product and is complete (i.e. when V is a Hilbert space) the concept of orthogonality can be used. A projection P on a Hilbert space V is called an orthogonal projection if it satisfies \langle P \mathbf x, \mathbf y \rangle = \langle \mathbf x, P \mathbf y \rangle for all \mathbf x, \mathbf y \in V. A projection on a Hilbert ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discretization
In applied mathematics, discretization is the process of transferring continuous functions, models, variables, and equations into discrete counterparts. This process is usually carried out as a first step toward making them suitable for numerical evaluation and implementation on digital computers. Dichotomization is the special case of discretization in which the number of discrete classes is 2, which can approximate a continuous variable as a binary variable (creating a dichotomy for modeling purposes, as in binary classification). Discretization is also related to discrete mathematics, and is an important component of granular computing. In this context, ''discretization'' may also refer to modification of variable or category ''granularity'', as when multiple discrete variables are aggregated or multiple discrete categories fused. Whenever continuous data is discretized, there is always some amount of discretization error. The goal is to reduce the amount to a level conside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mixed Finite Element Method
In numerical analysis, the mixed finite element method, is a type of finite element method in which extra fields to be solved are introduced during the posing a partial differential equation problem. Somewhat related is the hybrid finite element method. The extra fields are constrained by using Lagrange multiplier fields. To be distinguished from the mixed finite element method, usual finite element methods that do not introduce such extra fields are also called irreducible or primal finite element methods. The mixed finite element method is efficient for some problems that would be numerically ill-posed if discretized by using the irreducible finite element method; one example of such problems is to compute the stress and strain fields in an almost incompressible elastic body. In mixed methods, the Lagrange multiplier fields inside the elements, usually enforcing the applicable partial differential equations. This results in a saddle point system having negative pivots and eigenval ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variational Principle
In science and especially in mathematical studies, a variational principle is one that enables a problem to be solved using calculus of variations, which concerns finding functions that optimize the values of quantities that depend on those functions. For example, the problem of determining the shape of a hanging chain suspended at both ends—a catenary—can be solved using variational calculus, and in this case, the variational principle is the following: The solution is a function that minimizes the gravitational potential energy of the chain. Overview Any physical law which can be expressed as a variational principle describes a self-adjoint operator. These expressions are also called Hermitian. Such an expression describes an invariant under a Hermitian transformation. History Felix Klein's Erlangen program attempted to identify such invariants under a group of transformations. In what is referred to in physics as Noether's theorem, the Poincaré group of transformations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
