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We give an error estimate for the energy and helicity preserving scheme (EHPS) in second order finite difference setting on axisymmetric incompressible flows with swirling velocity. This is accomplished by a weighted energy estimate, along with careful and nonstandard local truncation error analysis near the geometric singularity and a far field decay estimate for the stream function. A key ingredient in our a priori estimate is the permutation identities associated with the Jacobians, which are also a unique feature that distinguishes EHPS from standard finite difference schemes.

We show that in bounded domains with no-slip boundary conditions, the Navier-Stokes pressure can be determined in a such way that it is strictly dominated by viscosity. As a consequence, in a general domain we can treat the Navier-Stokes equations as a perturbed vector diffusion equation, instead of as a perturbed Stokes system. To illustrate the advantages of this view, we provide a simple proof of the unconditional stability of a difference scheme that is implicit only in viscosity and explicit in both pressure and convection terms, requiring no solution of stationary Stokes systems or inf-sup conditions.

A reformulation of the planetary geostrophic equations (PGEs) with the inviscid balance equation is proposed and the existence of global weak solutions is established, provided that the mechanical force satisfies an integral constraint. There is only one prognostic equation for the temperature field, and the velocity field is statically determined by the planetary geostrophic balance combined with the incompressibility condition. Furthermore, the velocity profile can be accurately represented as a function of the temperature gradient. In particular, the vertical velocity depends only on the first-order derivative of the temperature. As a result, the bound for the L ∞ (0, t 1 ; L 2 ) ∩ L 2 (0, t 1 ; H 1 ) norm of the temperature field is sufficient to show the existence of the weak solution.

Recent consumer interest in controlling and preventing chronic diseases through improved diet has promoted research on the bioactive components of agricultural products. Wheat is an important agricultural and dietary commodity worldwide with known antioxidant properties concentrated mostly in the bran fraction. The objective of this study was to determine the relative contributions of genotype (G) and growing environment (E) to hard winter wheat bran antioxidant properties, as well as correlations of these properties to growing conditions. Bran samples of 20 hard winter wheat varieties grown in two locations were examined for their free radical scavenging capacities against DPPH, ABTS cation, peroxyl (ORAC), and superoxide anion radicals and chelating properties, as well as their total phenolics and phenolic acid compositions. Results showed significant differences for all antioxidant properties tested and multiple significant correlations between these properties. A factorial designed analysis of variance for these data and pooled previously published data showed similar results for four of the six antioxidant properties, indicating that G effects were considerably larger than E effects for chelating capacity and DPPH radical scavenging properties, whereas E was much stronger than G for ABTS cation radical scavenging capacity and total phenolics, although small interaction effects (G × E) were significant for all antioxidant properties analyzed. Results also showed significant correlations between temperature stress or solar radiation and some antioxidant properties. These results indicate that each antioxidant property of hard winter wheat bran is influenced differently by genotype and growing conditions.

We present numerical schemes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations based on a primitive variable formulation in which the incompressibility constraint has been replaced by a pressure Poisson equation. The pressure is treated explicitly in time, completely decoupling the computation of the momentum and kinematic equations. The result is a class of extremely efficient Navier–Stokes solvers. Full time accuracy is achieved for all flow variables. The key to the schemes is a Neumann boundary condition for the pressure Poisson equation which enforces the incompressibility condition for the velocity field. Irrespective of explicit or implicit time discretization of the viscous term in the momentum equation the explicit time discretization of the pressure term does not affect the time step constraint. Indeed, we prove unconditional stability of the new formulation for the Stokes equation with explicit treatment of the pressure term and first or second order implicit treatment of the viscous term. Systematic numerical experiments for the full Navier–Stokes equations indicate that a second order implicit time discretization of the viscous term, with the pressure and convective terms treated explicitly, is stable under the standard CFL condition. Additionally, various numerical examples are presented, including both implicit and explicit time discretizations, using spectral and finite difference spatial discretizations, demonstrating the accuracy, flexibility and efficiency of this class of schemes. In particular, a Galerkin formulation is presented requiring only C0 elements to implement.

We study a continuum model for epitaxial growth of thin films in which the slope of mound structure of film surface increases. This model is a diffusion equation for the surface height profile h which is assumed to satisfy the periodic boundary condition. The equation happens to possess a Liapunov or �free-energy� functional. This functional consists of the term |? h|2, which represents the surface diffusion, and - log (1 + |? h|2), which describes the effect of kinetic asymmetry in the adatom attachment-detachment. We first prove for large time t that the interface width---the standard deviation of the height profile---is bounded above by O(t1/2), the averaged gradient is bounded above by O(t1/4), and the averaged energy is bounded below by O(- log t). We then consider a small coefficient e2 of |? h|2 with e = 1/L and L the linear size of the underlying system, and study the energy asymptotics in the large system limit e ? 0. We show that global minimizers of the free-energy functional exist for each e>0, the L2-norm of the gradient of any global minimizer scales as O(1/e), and the global minimum energy scales as O( log e). The existence of global energy minimizers and a scaling argument are used to construct a sequence of equilibrium solutions with different wavelengths. Finally, we apply our minimum energy estimates to derive bounds in terms of the linear system size L for the saturation interface width and the corresponding saturation time.

We study the detailed process of bifurcation in the flow’s topological structure for a two-dimensional (2-D) incompressible flow subject to no-slip boundary conditions and its connection with boundary-layer separation. The boundary-layer separation theory of M. Ghil, T. Ma and S. Wang, based on the structural-bifurcation concept, is translated into vorticity form. The vorticity formulation of the theory shows that structural bifurcation occurs whenever a degenerate singular point for the vorticity appears on the boundary; this singular point is characterized by nonzero tangential second-order derivative and nonzero time derivative of the vorticity. Furthermore, we prove the presence of an adverse pressure gradient at the critical point, due to reversal in the direction of the pressure force with respect to the basic shear flow at this point. A numerical example of 2-D driven-cavity flow, governed by the Navier Stokes equations, is presented; boundary-layer separation occurs, the bifurcation criterion is satisfied, and an adverse pressure gradient is shown to be present.

We propose a class of simple and efficient numerical scheme for incompressible fluid equations with coordinate symmetry. By introducing a generalized vorticity-stream formulation, the divergence free constraints are automatically satisfied. In addition, with explicit treatment of the nonlinear terms and local vorticity boundary condition, the Navier–Stokes (MHD, respectively) equation essentially decouples into 2 (4, respectively) scalar equation and thus the scheme is very efficient. Moreover, with proper discretization of the nonlinear terms, the scheme preserves both energy and helicity identities numerically. This is achieved by recasting the nonlinear terms (convection, vorticity stretching, geometric source, Lorentz force and electro-motive force) in terms of Jacobians. This conservative property is valid even in the presence of the pole singularity for axisymmetric flows. The exact conservation of energy and helicity has effectively eliminated excessive numerical viscosity. Numerical examples have demonstrated both accuracy and efficiency of the scheme. Finally, local mesh refinement near the boundary can also be easily incorporated into the scheme without extra cost.

Using the vorticity and stream function variables is an effective way to compute 2-D incompressible flow due to the facts that the incompressibility constraint for the velocity is automatically satisfied, the pressure variable is eliminated, and high order schemes can be efficiently implemented. However, a difficulty arises in a multi-connected computational domain in determining the constants for the stream function on the boundary of the “holes”. This is an especially challenging task for the calculation of unsteady flows, since these constants vary with time to reflect the total fluxes of the flow in each sub-channel. In this paper, we propose an efficient method in a finite difference setting to solve this problem and present some numerical experiments, including an accuracy check of a Taylor vortex-type flow, flow past a non-symmetric square, and flow in a heat exchanger.

The convergence of a fourth order finite difference method for the 2-D unsteady, viscous incompressible Boussinesq equations, based on the vorticity-stream function formulation, is established in this article. A compact fourth order scheme is used to discretize the momentum equation, and long-stencil fourth order operators are applied to discretize the temperature transport equation. A local vorticity boundary condition is used to enforce the no-slip boundary condition for the velocity. One-sided extrapolation is used near the boundary, dependent on the type of boundary condition for the temperature, to prescribe the temperature at ‘‘ghost’’ points lying outside of the computational domain. Theoretical results of the stability and accuracy of the method are also provided. In numerical experiments the method has been shown to be capable of producing highly resolved solutions at a reasonable computational cost.