It is known that the maximum diameter for the rupture-risk assessment of the abdominal aortic aneurysm is a generally good method, but not sufficient. Alternative features obtained with computational modeling may provide additional useful criteria. Though computational approaches are noninvasive, they are often time-consuming because of the high computational complexity. In this paper, we present a highly parallel algorithm for the numerical simulation of unsteady blood flows in the patient-specific abdominal aorta. We model the blood flow with the unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, and solve the discretized system with a highly scalable domain decomposition method. With this approach, the complete flow field can be obtained in less than an hour, instead of days with older methods. We show experimentally that the proposed method offers accurate solutions of the pressure, the velocity and the wall shear stress, and the parallel efficiency is higher than 70% on a parallel computer with more than 1,000 processor cores.

We study the wave propagation speed problem on metric measure spaces, emphasizing on self-similar sets that are not postcritically finite. We prove that a sub-Gaussian lower heat kernel estimate leads to infinite propagation speed, extending a result of Y.-T. Lee to include bounded and unbounded generalized Sierpi\'nski carpets as well as some fractal blowups. We also formulate conditions under which a Gaussian upper heat kernel estimate leads to finite propagation speed, and apply this result to two classes of iterated function systems with overlaps, including those defining the classical infinite Bernoulli convolutions.

For the d-dimensional incompressible Euler equation, the standard energy method gives local wellposedness for initial velocity in Sobolev space with regularity above some critical threshold. The borderline case was a folklore open problem. In this paper we consider the physical dimension d=2 and show that if we perturb any given smooth initial data in critical norm, then the corresponding solution can have infinite critical norm instantaneously at t>0. In a companion paper we settle the 3D and more general cases. The constructed solutions are unique and even infinitely-smooth (locally) in some cases. To prove these results we introduce a new strategy: large Lagrangian deformation induces critical norm inflation. As an application we also settle several closely related open problems.

We consider a L 2-contraction (a L 2-type stability) of large viscous shock waves for the multi-dimensional scalar viscous conservation laws, up to a suitable shift by using the relative entropy methods. Quite different from the previous results, we find a new way to determine the shift function, which depends both on the time and space variables and solves a viscous Hamilton-Jacobi type equation with source terms. Moreover, we do not impose any conditions on the anti-derivative variables of the perturbation around the shock profile. More precisely, it is proved that if the initial perturbation around the viscous shock wave is suitably small in L 2-norm, then the L 2-contraction holds true for the viscous shock wave up to a suitable shift function. Note that BV-norm or the L-norm of the initial perturbation and the shock wave strength can be arbitrarily large. Furthermore, as the time t tends to infinity, the L 2-contraction holds

The Cauchy problem for the barotropic compressible Navier--Stokes equations on the whole two-dimensional space with vacuum as far field density is considered. When the shear viscosity is a positive constant and the bulk one is a power function of density with the power bigger than four-thirds, the global existence and uniqueness of strong and classical solutions is established. It should be remarked that there are no restrictions on the size of the data.

We study convolution groups generated by completely monotone sequences and completely monotone functions. Using a convolution group, we define a fractional calculus for a certain class of distributions. When acting on causal functions, this definition agrees with the traditional Riemann-Liouville definition for t>0 but includes some singularities at t=0 so that the group property holds. Using this group, we are able to extend the definition of Caputo derivatives of order in (0,1) to a certain class of locally integrable functions without using the first derivative. The group property allows us to de-convolve the fractional differential equations to integral equations with completely monotone kernels, which then enables us to prove the general Gronwall inequality (or comparison principle) with the most general conditions. This then opens the door of a priori energy estimates of fractional PDEs. Some other fundamental results for fractional ODEs are also established within this frame under very weak conditions. Besides, we also obtain some interesting results about completely monotone sequences.

For the free surface problem of the highly subsonic heat-conducting inviscid flow in 2-D and 3-D, a priori estimates for geometric quantities of free surfaces, such as the second fundamental form and the injectivity radius of the normal exponential map, and the Sobolev norms of fluid variables are proved by investigating the coupling of the boundary geometry and the interior solutions. An interesting feature for the free surface problem studied in this paper is the loss of one more derivative than the problem of incompressible Euler equations for which a geometric approach was introduced by Christodoulou and Lindblad in [11]. Due to the loss of one more derivative and loss of symmetry of equations, the geometric approach in [11] needs to be substantially developed by exploring the interaction of large variation of temperature, heat-conduction, non-zero divergence of the fluid velocity and the evolution of free surfaces.

We study a certain improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality on domains, which can be considered as a fractional counterpart of the classical Sobolev–Poincaré inequality. We prove the equivalence of the corresponding weak and strong type inequalities; this leads to a simple proof of a strong type inequality on John domains. We also give necessary conditions for the validity of an improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality, in particular, we show that a domain of finite measure, satisfying this inequality and a ‘separation property’, is a John domain.

We show that each limiting semiclassical measure obtained from a sequence of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a compact hyperbolic surface is supported on the entire cosphere bundle. The key new ingredient for the proof is the fractal uncertainty principle, first formulated by Dyatlov-Zahl and proved for porous sets in Bourgain-Dyatlov.

A basic, simple energy method for the Boltzmann equation is presented here. It is based on a new macromicro decomposition of the Boltzmann equation as well as the H-theorem. This allows us to make use of the ideas from hyperbolic conservation laws and viscous conservation laws to yield the direct energy method. As an illustration, we apply the method for the study of the time-asymptotic, nonlinear stability of the global Maxwellian states. Previous energy method, starting with Grad and finishing with Ukai, involves the spectral analysis and regularity of collision operator through sophisticated weighted norms.