arXiv subjects

Bartosz Protas

Publications and source records attributed to Bartosz Protas.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Finite rotating and translating vortex sheets

We consider the rotating and translating equilibria of open finite vortex sheets with endpoints in two-dimensional potential flows. New results are obtained concerning the stability of these equilibrium configurations which complement analogous results known for unbounded, periodic and circular vortex sheets. First, we show that the rotating and translating equilibria of finite vortex sheets are linearly unstable. However, while in the first case unstable perturbations grow exponentially fast in time, the growth of such perturbations in the second case is algebraic. In both cases the growth rates are increasing functions of the wavenumbers of the perturbations. Remarkably, these stability results are obtained entirely with analytical computations. Second, we obtain and analyze equations describing the time evolution of a straight vortex sheet in linear external fields. Third, it is demonstrated that the results concerning the linear stability analysis of the rotating sheet are consistent with the infinite-aspect-ratio limit of the stability results known for Kirchhoff's ellipse (Love 1893; Mitchell & Rossi 2008) and that the solutions we obtained accounting for the presence of external fields are also consistent with the infinite-aspect-ratio limits of the analogous solutions known for vortex patches.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Alignments of Triad Phases in 1D Burgers and 3D Navier-Stokes Flows

The goal of this study is to analyze the fine structure of nonlinear modal interactions in different 1D Burgers and 3D Navier-Stokes flows. This analysis is focused on preferential alignments characterizing the phases of Fourier modes participating in triadic interactions, which are key to determining the nature of energy fluxes between different scales. We develop novel diagnostic tools designed to probe the level of coherence among triadic interactions realizing different flow scenarios. We consider extreme 1D viscous Burgers flows and 3D Navier-Stokes flows which are complemented by singularity-forming inviscid Burgers flows as well as viscous Burgers flows and Navier-Stokes flows corresponding to generic turbulent and simple unimodal initial data, such as the Taylor-Green vortex. The main finding is that while the extreme viscous Burgers and Navier-Stokes flows reveal the same relative level of enstrophy amplification by nonlinear effects, this behaviour is realized via modal interactions with vastly different levels of coherence. In the viscous Burgers flows the flux-carrying triads have phase values which saturate the nonlinearity thereby maximizing the energy flux towards small scales. On the other hand, in 3D Navier-Stokes flows with the extreme initial data the energy flux to small scales is realized by a very small subset of helical triads. The second main finding concerns the role of initial coherence. Comparison of the flows resulting from the extreme and generic initial conditions shows striking similarities between these two types of flows, for the 1D viscous Burgers equation as well as the 3D Navier-Stokes equation.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Singularity Formation in the Deterministic and Stochastic Fractional Burgers Equation

This study is motivated by the question of how singularity formation and other forms of extreme behavior in nonlinear dissipative partial differential equations are affected by stochastic excitations. To address this question we consider the 1D fractional Burgers equation with additive colored noise as a model problem. This system is interesting, because in the deterministic setting it exhibits finite-time blow-up or a globally well-posed behavior depending on the value of the fractional dissipation exponent. The problem is studied by performing a series of accurate numerical computations combining spectrally-accurate spatial discretization with a Monte-Carlo approach. First, we carefully document the singularity formation in the deterministic system in the supercritical regime where the blow-up time is shown to be a decreasing function of the fractional dissipation exponent. Our main result for the stochastic problem is that there is no evidence for the noise to regularize the evolution by suppressing blow-up in the supercritical regime, or for the noise to trigger blow-up in the subcritical regime. However, as the noise amplitude becomes large, the blow-up times in the supercritical regime are shown to exhibit an increasingly non-Gaussian behavior. Analogous observations are also made for the maximum attained values of the enstrophy and the times when the maxima occur in the subcritical regime.

math.NA↗

arXiv2021

On Uncertainty Quantification in the Parametrization of Newman-type Models of Lithium-ion Batteries

We consider the problem of parameterizing Newman-type models of Li-ion batteries focusing on quantifying the inherent uncertainty of this process and its dependence on the discharge rate. In order to rule out genuine experimental error and instead isolate the intrinsic uncertainty of model fitting, we concentrate on an idealized setting where "synthetic" measurements in the form of voltage curves are manufactured using the full, and most accurate, Newman model with parameter values considered "true", whereas parameterization is performed using simplified versions of the model, namely, the single-particle model and its recently proposed corrected version. By framing the problem in this way, we are able to eliminate aspects which affect uncertainty, but are hard to quantity such as, e.g., experimental errors. The parameterization is performed by formulating an inverse problem which is solved using a state-of-the-art Bayesian approach in which the parameters to be inferred are represented in terms of suitable probability distributions; this allows us to assess the uncertainty of their reconstruction. The key finding is that while at slow discharge rates the voltage curves can be reconstructed quite accurately, this can be achieved with some parameter varying by 300\% or more, thus providing evidence for very high uncertainty of the parameter inference process. As the discharge rate increases, the reconstruction uncertainty is reduced but at the same time the fits to the voltage curves becomes less accurate. These observations highlight the ill-posedness of the inverse problem of parameter reconstruction in models of Li-ion battery operation.In practice, using simplified model appears to be a viable and useful strategy provided that the assumptions facilitating the model simplification are truly valid for the battery operating regimes in which the data was collected.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2020

Stability of Confined Vortex Sheets

We propose a simple model for the evolution of an inviscid vortex sheet in a potential flow in a channel with parallel walls. This model is obtained by augmenting the Birkhoff-Rott equation with a potential field representing the effect of the solid boundaries. Analysis of the stability of equilibria corresponding to flat sheets demonstrates that in this new model the growth rates of the unstable modes remain unchanged as compared to the case with no confinement. Thus, in the presence of solid boundaries the equilibrium solution of the Birkhoff-Rott equation retains its extreme form of instability with the growth rates of the unstable modes increasing in proportion to their wavenumbers. This linear stability analysis is complemented with numerical computations performed for the nonlinear problem which show that confinement tends to accelerate the growth of instabilities in the nonlinear regime.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Maximum Amplification of Enstrophy in 3D Navier-Stokes Flows

This investigation concerns a systematic search for potentially singular behavior in 3D Navier-Stokes flows. Enstrophy serves as a convenient indicator of the regularity of solutions to the Navier Stokes system --- as long as this quantity remains finite, the solutions are guaranteed to be smooth and satisfy the equations in the classical (pointwise) sense. However, there are no estimates available with finite a priori bounds on the growth of enstrophy and hence the regularity problem for the 3D Navier-Stokes system remains open. In order to quantify the maximum possible growth of enstrophy, we consider a family of PDE optimization problems in which initial conditions with prescribed enstrophy $\mathcal{E}_0$ are sought such that the enstrophy in the resulting Navier-Stokes flow is maximized at some time $T$. Such problems are solved computationally using a large-scale adjoint-based gradient approach derived in the continuous setting. By solving these problems for a broad range of values of $\mathcal{E}_0$ and $T$, we demonstrate that the maximum growth of enstrophy is in fact finite and scales in proportion to $\mathcal{E}_0^{3/2}$ as $\mathcal{E}_0$ becomes large. Thus, in such worst-case scenario the enstrophy still remains bounded for all times and there is no evidence for formation of singularity in finite time. We also analyze properties of the Navier-Stokes flows leading to the extreme enstrophy values and show that this behavior is realized by a series of vortex reconnection events.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Rotating Equilibria of Vortex Sheets

We consider relative equilibrium solutions of the two-dimensional Euler equations in which the vorticity is concentrated on a union of finite-length vortex sheets. Using methods of complex analysis, more specifically the theory of the Riemann-Hilbert problem, a general approach is proposed to find such equilibria which consists of two steps: first, one finds a geometric configuration of vortex sheets ensuring that the corresponding circulation density is real-valued and also vanishes at all sheet endpoints such that the induced velocity field is well-defined; then, the circulation density is determined by evaluating a certain integral formula. As an illustration of this approach, we construct a family of rotating equilibria involving different numbers of straight vortex sheets rotating about a common center of rotation and with endpoints at the vertices of a regular polygon. This equilibrium generalizes the well-known solution involving single rotating vortex sheet. With the geometry of the configuration specified analytically, the corresponding circulation densities are obtained in terms of a integral expression which in some cases lends itself to an explicit evaluation. It is argued that as the number of sheets in the equilibrium configuration increases to infinity, the equilibrium converges in a certain distributional sense to a hollow vortex bounded by a constant-intensity vortex sheet, which is also a known equilibrium solution of the two-dimensional Euler equations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Optimal Closures in a Simple Model for Turbulent Flows

In this work we introduce a computational framework for determining optimal closures of the eddy-viscosity type for Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of a broad class of PDE models, such as the Navier-Stokes equation. This problem is cast in terms of PDE-constrained optimization where an error functional representing the misfit between the target and predicted observations is minimized with respect to the functional form of the eddy viscosity in the closure relation. Since this leads to a PDE optimization problem with a nonstandard structure, the solution is obtained computationally with a flexible and efficient gradient approach relying on a combination of modified adjoint-based analysis and Sobolev gradients. By formulating this problem in the continuous setting we are able to determine the optimal closure relations in a very general form subject only to some minimal assumptions. The proposed framework is thoroughly tested on a model problem involving the LES of the 1D Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, where optimal forms of the eddy viscosity are obtained as generalizations of the standard Smagorinsky model. It is demonstrated that while the solution trajectories corresponding to the DNS and LES still diverge exponentially, with such optimal eddy viscosities the rate of divergence is significantly reduced as compared to the Smagorinsky model. By systematically finding {optimal forms of the eddy viscosity within a certain general class of closure} models, thisframework can thus provide insights about the fundamental performance limitations of these models.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Linear Stability of Inviscid Vortex Rings to Axisymmetric Perturbations

We consider the linear stability to axisymmetric perturbations of the family of inviscid vortex rings discovered by Norbury (1973). Since these vortex rings are obtained as solutions to a free-boundary problem, their stability analysis is performed using recently-developed methods of shape differentiation applied to the contour-dynamics formulation of the problem in the 3D axisymmetric geometry. This approach allows us to systematically account for the effects of boundary deformations on the linearized evolution of the vortex ring. We investigate the instantaneous amplification of perturbations assumed to have the same the circulation as the vortex rings in their equilibrium configuration. These stability properties are then determined by the spectrum of a singular integro-differential operator defined on the vortex boundary in the meridional plane. The resulting generalized eigenvalue problem is solved numerically with a spectrally-accurate discretization. Our results reveal that while thin vortex rings remain neutrally stable to axisymmetric perturbations, they become linearly unstable to such perturbations when they are sufficiently ``fat''. Analysis of the structure of the eigenmodes demonstrates that they approach the corresponding eigenmodes of Rankine's vortex and Hill's vortex in the thin-vortex and fat-vortex limit, respectively. This study is a stepping stone on the way towards a complete stability analysis of inviscid vortex rings with respect to general perturbations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Harnessing the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability: Feedback Stabilization of an Inviscid Vortex Sheet

In this investigation we use a simple model of the dynamics of an inviscid vortex sheet given by the Birkhoff-Rott equation to obtain fundamental insights about the potential for stabilization of shear layers using feedback control. As actuation we consider two arrays of point sinks/sources located a certain distance above and below the vortex sheet and subject to the constraint that their mass fluxes separately add up to zero. First, we demonstrate using analytical computations that the Birkhoff-Rott equation linearized around the flat-sheet configuration is in fact controllable when the number of actuator pairs is sufficiently large relative to the number of discrete degrees of freedom present in the system, a result valid for generic actuator locations. Next we design a state-based LQR stabilization strategy where the key difficulty is the numerical solution of the Riccati equation in the presence of severe ill-conditioning resulting from the properties of the Birkhoff-Rott equation and the chosen form of actuation, an issue which is overcome by performing computations with a suitably increased arithmetic precision. Analysis of the linear closed-loop system reveals exponential decay of the perturbation energy and of the corresponding actuation energy in all cases. Computations performed for the nonlinear closed-loop system demonstrate that initial perturbations of nonnegligible amplitude can be effectively stabilized when a sufficient number of actuators is used. We also thoroughly analyze the sensitivity of the closed-loop stabilization strategies to the variation of a number of key parameters. Subject to the known limitations of inviscid vortex models, our findings indicate that, in principle, it may be possible to stabilize shear layers for relatively large initial perturbations, provided the actuation has sufficiently many degrees of freedom.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Bayesian Uncertainty Quantification in Inverse Modelling of Electrochemical Systems

This study proposes a novel approach to quantifying uncertainties of constitutive relations inferred from noisy experimental data using inverse modelling. We focus on electrochemical systems in which charged species (e.g., Lithium ions) are transported in electrolyte solutions under an applied current. Such systems are typically described by the Planck-Nernst equation in which the unknown material properties are the diffusion coefficient and the transference number assumed constant or concentration-dependent. These material properties can be optimally reconstructed from time- and space-resolved concentration profiles measured during experiments using the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique. However, since the measurement data is usually noisy, it is important to quantify how the presence of noise affects the uncertainty of the reconstructed material properties. We address this problem by developing a state-of-the-art Bayesian approach to uncertainty quantification in which the reconstructed material properties are recast in terms of probability distributions, allowing us to rigorously determine suitable confidence intervals. The proposed approach is first thoroughly validated using "manufactured" data exhibiting the expected behavior as the magnitude of noise is varied. Then, this approach is applied to quantify the uncertainty of the diffusion coefficient and the transference number reconstructed from experimental data revealing interesting insights.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2018

A gradient method in a Hilbert space with an optimized inner product: achieving a Newton-like convergence

In this paper we introduce a new gradient method which attains quadratic convergence in a certain sense. Applicable to infinite-dimensional unconstrained minimization problems posed in a Hilbert space $H$, the approach consists in finding the energy gradient $g(λ)$ defined with respect to an optimal inner product selected from an infinite family of equivalent inner products $(\cdot,\cdot)_λ$ in the space $H$. The inner products are parameterized by a space-dependent weight function $λ$. At each iteration of the method, where an approximation to the minimizer is given by an element $u\in H$, an optimal weight $\hlambda$ is found as a solution of a nonlinear minimization problem in the space of weights $Λ$. It turns out that the projection of $κg(\hlambda)$, where $0<κ\ll 1$ is a fixed step size, onto a certain finite-dimensional subspace generated by the method is consistent with Newton's step $h$, in the sense that $P_u(κg(\hlambda))=P_u(h)$, where $P_u$ is an operator describing the projection onto the subspace. As demonstrated by rigorous analysis, this property ensures that thus constructed gradient method attains quadratic convergence for error components contained in these subspaces, in addition to the linear convergence typical of the standard gradient method. We propose a numerical implementation of this new approach and analyze its complexity. Computational results obtained based on a simple model problem confirm the theoretically established convergence properties, demonstrating that the proposed approach performs much better than the standard steepest-descent method based on Sobolev gradients. The presented results offer an explanation of a number of earlier empirical observations concerning the convergence of Sobolev-gradient methods.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Linear feedback stabilization of point vortex equilibria near a Kasper Wing

This paper concerns feedback stabilization of point vortex equilibria above an inclined thin plate and a three-plate configuration known as the Kasper Wing in the presence of an oncoming uniform flow. The flow is assumed to be potential and is modeled by the 2D incompressible Euler equations. Actuation has the form of blowing and suction localized on the main plate and is represented in terms of a sink-source singularity, whereas measurement of pressure across the plate serves as system output. We focus on point-vortex equilibria forming a one-parameter family with locus approaching the trailing edge of the main plate and show that these equilibria are either unstable or neutrally stable. Using methods of linear control theory we find that the system dynamics linearised around these equilibria are both controllable and observable for almost all actuator and sensor locations. The design of the feedback control is based on the Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian (LQG) compensator. Computational results demonstrate the effectiveness of this control and the key finding is that Kasper Wing configurations are in general more controllable than their single plate counterparts and also exhibit larger basins of attraction under LQG feedback control. The feedback control is then applied to systems with additional perturbations added to the flow in the form of random fluctuations of the angle of attack and a vorticity shedding mechanism. Another important observation is that, in the presence of these additional perturbations, the control remains robust, provided the system does not deviate too far from its original state. Furthermore, introducing a vorticity shedding mechanism tends to enhance the effectiveness of the control. Physical interpretation is provided for the results of the controllability and observability analysis as well as the response of the feedback control to different perturbations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

A mathematical model for mechanically-induced deterioration of the binder in lithium-ion electrodes

This study is concerned with modeling detrimental deformations of the binder phase within lithium-ion batteries that occur during cell assembly and usage. A two-dimensional poroviscoelastic model for the mechanical behavior of porous electrodes is formulated and posed on a geometry corresponding to a thin rectangular electrode, with a regular square array of microscopic circular electrode particles, stuck to a rigid base formed by the current collector. Deformation is forced both by (i) electrolyte absorption driven binder swelling, and; (ii) cyclic growth and shrinkage of electrode particles as the battery is charged and discharged. The governing equations are upscaled in order to obtain macroscopic effective-medium equations. A solution to these equations is obtained, in the asymptotic limit that the height of the rectangular electrode is much smaller than its width, that shows the macroscopic deformation is one-dimensional. The confinement of macroscopic deformations to one dimension is used to obtain boundary conditions on the microscopic problem for the deformations in a 'unit cell' centered on a single electrode particle. The resulting microscale problem is solved using numerical (finite element) techniques. The two different forcing mechanisms are found to cause distinctly different patterns of deformation within the microstructure. Swelling of the binder induces stresses that tend to lead to binder delamination from the electrode particle surfaces in a direction parallel to the current collector, whilst cycling causes stresses that tend to lead to delamination orthogonal to that caused by swelling. The differences between the cycling-induced damage in both: (i) anodes and cathodes, and; (ii) fast and slow cycling are discussed. Finally, the model predictions are compared to microscopy images of nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes and a qualitative agreement is found.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Computation of Ground States of the Gross-Pitaevskii Functional via Riemannian Optimization

In this paper we combine concepts from Riemannian Optimization and the theory of Sobolev gradients to derive a new conjugate gradient method for direct minimization of the Gross-Pitaevskii energy functional with rotation. The conservation of the number of particles constrains the minimizers to lie on a manifold corresponding to the unit $L^2$ norm. The idea developed here is to transform the original constrained optimization problem to an unconstrained problem on this (spherical) Riemannian manifold, so that fast minimization algorithms can be applied as alternatives to more standard constrained formulations. First, we obtain Sobolev gradients using an equivalent definition of an $H^1$ inner product which takes into account rotation. Then, the Riemannian gradient (RG) steepest descent method is derived based on projected gradients and retraction of an intermediate solution back to the constraint manifold. Finally, we use the concept of the Riemannian vector transport to propose a Riemannian conjugate gradient (RCG) method for this problem. It is derived at the continuous level based on the "optimize-then-discretize" paradigm instead of the usual "discretize-then-optimize" approach, as this ensures robustness of the method when adaptive mesh refinement is performed in computations. We evaluate various design choices inherent in the formulation of the method and conclude with recommendations concerning selection of the best options. Numerical tests demonstrate that the proposed RCG method outperforms the simple gradient descent (RG) method in terms of rate of convergence. While on simple problems a Newton-type method implemented in the {\tt Ipopt} library exhibits a faster convergence than the (RCG) approach, the two methods perform similarly on more complex problems requiring the use of mesh adaptation. At the same time the (RCG) approach has far fewer tunable parameters.

math.OC↗

arXiv2018

Maximum Rate of Growth of Enstrophy in Solutions of the Fractional Burgers Equation

This investigation is a part of a research program aiming to characterize the extreme behavior possible in hydrodynamic models by analyzing the maximum growth of certain fundamental quantities. We consider here the rate of growth of the classical and fractional enstrophy in the fractional Burgers equation in the subcritical and supercritical regimes. Since solutions to this equation exhibit, respectively, globally well-posed behavior and finite-time blow-up in these two regimes, this makes it a useful model to study the maximum instantaneous growth of enstrophy possible in these two distinct situations. First, we obtain estimates on the rates of growth and then show that these estimates are sharp up to numerical prefactors. This is done by numerically solving suitably defined constrained maximization problems and then demonstrating that for different values of the fractional dissipation exponent the obtained maximizers saturate the upper bounds in the estimates as the enstrophy increases. We conclude that the power-law dependence of the enstrophy rate of growth on the fractional dissipation exponent has the same global form in the subcritical, critical and parts of the supercritical regime. This indicates that the maximum enstrophy rate of growth changes smoothly as global well-posedness is lost when the fractional dissipation exponent attains supercritical values. In addition, nontrivial behavior is revealed for the maximum rate of growth of the fractional enstrophy obtained for small values of the fractional dissipation exponents. We also characterize the structure of the maximizers in different cases.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Transient Growth in Stochastic Burgers Flows

This study considers the problem of the extreme behavior exhibited by solutions to Burgers equation subject to stochastic forcing. More specifically, we are interested in the maximum growth achieved by the "enstrophy" (the Sobolev $H^1$ seminorm of the solution) as a function of the initial enstrophy $\mathcal{E}_0$, in particular, whether in the stochastic setting this growth is different than in the deterministic case considered by Ayala \& Protas (2011). This problem is motivated by questions about the effect of noise on the possible singularity formation in hydrodynamic models. The main quantities of interest in the stochastic problem are the expected value of the enstrophy and the enstrophy of the expected value of the solution. The stochastic Burgers equation is solved numerically with a Monte Carlo sampling approach. By studying solutions obtained for a range of optimal initial data and different noise magnitudes, we reveal different solution behaviors and it is demonstrated that the two quantities always bracket the enstrophy of the deterministic solution. The key finding is that the expected values of the enstrophy exhibit the same power-law dependence on the initial enstrophy $\mathcal{E}_0$as reported in the deterministic case. This indicates that the stochastic excitation does not increase the extreme enstrophy growth beyond what is already observed in the deterministic case.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Binder migration during drying of lithium-ion battery electrodes: modelling and comparison to experiment

The drying process is a crucial step in electrode manufacture as it can affect the component distribution within the electrode. Phenomena such as binder migration can have negative effects in the form of poor cell performance (e.g. capacity fade) or mechanical failure (e.g. electrode delamination from the current collector). We present a mathematical model that tracks the evolution of the binder concentration in the electrode during drying. Solutions to the model predict that low drying rates lead to a favourable homogeneous binder profile across the electrode film, whereas high drying rates result in an unfavourable accumulation of binder near the evaporation surface. These results show strong qualitative agreement with experimental observations and provide a cogent explanation for why fast drying conditions result in poorly performing electrodes. Finally, we provide some guidelines on how the drying process could be optimised to offer relatively short drying times whilst simultaneously maintaining a roughly homogeneous binder distribution.

cond-mat.soft↗