Publications

2021

• Homogenization of Maxwell's equations and related scalar problems with sign-changing coefficients
  
  • Bunoiu Renata
  • Chesnel Lucas
  • Ramdani Karim
  • Rihani Mahran
  Annales de la Faculté des Sciences de Toulouse. Mathématiques., Université Paul Sabatier _ Cellule Mathdoc, 2021, 30 (5), pp.1075-1119. In this work, we are interested in the homogenization of time-harmonic Maxwell's equations in a composite medium with periodically distributed small inclusions of a negative material. Here a negative material is a material modelled by negative permittivity and permeability. Due to the sign-changing coefficients in the equations, it is not straightforward to obtain uniform energy estimates to apply the usual homogenization techniques. The goal of this article is to explain how to proceed in this context. The analysis of Maxwell's equations is based on a precise study of two associated scalar problems: one involving the sign-changing permittivity with Dirichlet boundary conditions, another involving the sign-changing permeability with Neumann boundary conditions. For both problems, we obtain a criterion on the physical parameters ensuring uniform invertibility of the corresponding operators as the size of the inclusions tends to zero. In the process, we explain the link existing with the so-called Neumann-Poincaré operator, complementing the existing literature on this topic. Then we use the results obtained for the scalar problems to derive uniform energy estimates for Maxwell's system. At this stage, an additional difficulty comes from the fact that Maxwell's equations are also sign-indefinite due to the term involving the frequency. To cope with it, we establish some sort of uniform compactness result. (10.5802/afst.1694)
  DOI : 10.5802/afst.1694
• Optimal slip velocities of micro-swimmers with arbitrary axisymmetric shapes
  
  • Guo Hanliang
  • Zhu Hai
  • Liu Ruowen
  • Bonnet Marc
  • Veerapaneni Shravan
  Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2021, 910, pp.A26. This article presents a computational approach for determining the optimal slip velocities on any given shape of an axisymmetric micro-swimmer suspended in a viscous fluid. The objective is to minimize the power loss to maintain a target swimming speed, or equivalently to maximize the efficiency of the micro-swimmer. Owing to the linearity of the Stokes equations governing the fluid motion, we show that this PDE-constrained optimization problem reduces to a simpler quadratic optimization problem, whose solution is found using a high-order accurate boundary integral method. We consider various families of shapes parameterized by the reduced volume and compute their swimming efficiency. {Among those, prolate spheroids were found to be the most efficient micro-swimmer shapes for a given reduced volume. We propose a simple shape-based scalar metric that can determine whether the optimal slip on a given shape makes it a pusher, a puller, or a neutral swimmer.} (10.1017/jfm.2020.969)
  DOI : 10.1017/jfm.2020.969
• Experimental and theoretical observations on DDT in smooth narrow channels
  
  • Melguizo-Gavilanes J.
  • Ballossier Yves
  • Maltez Faria Luiz
  Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Elsevier, 2021, 38 (3). A combined experimental and theoretical study of deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in smooth narrow channels is presented. Some of the distinguishing features characterizing the late stages of DDT are shown to be qualitatively captured by a simple one-dimensional scalar equation. Inspection of the structure and stability of the traveling wave solutions found in the model, and comparison with experimental observations, suggest a possible mechanism responsible for front acceleration and transition to detonation. (10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.142)
  DOI : 10.1016/j.proci.2020.07.142
• Variational Methods for Acoustic Radiation in a Duct with a Shear Flow and an Absorbing Boundary
  
  • Mercier Jean-François
  SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2021, 81 (6), pp.2658-2683. The well-posedness of the acoustic radiation in a 2D duct in presence of both a shear flow and an absorbing wall described by the Myers boundary condition is studied thanks to variational methods. Without flow the problem is found well-posed for any impedance value. The presence of a flow complicates the results. With a uniform flow the problem is proven to be always of the Fredholm type but is found well-posed only when considering a dissipative radiation problem. With a general shear flow, the Fredholm property is recovered for a weak enough shear and the dissipative radiation problem requires to introduce extra conditions to be well-posed: enough dissipation, a large enough frequency and non-intuitive conditions on the impedance value. (10.1137/20M1384026)
  DOI : 10.1137/20M1384026
• Optimal Ciliary Locomotion of Axisymmetric Microswimmers
  
  • Guo Hanliang
  • Zhu Hai
  • Liu Ruowen
  • Bonnet Marc
  • Veerapaneni Shravan
  Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2021, 927, pp.A22. Many biological microswimmers locomote by periodically beating the densely-packed cilia on their cell surface in a wave-like fashion. While the swimming mechanisms of ciliated microswimmers have been extensively studied both from the analytical and the numerical point of view, the optimization of the ciliary motion of microswimmers has received limited attention, especially for non-spherical shapes. In this paper, using an envelope model for the microswimmer, we numerically optimize the ciliary motion of a ciliate with an arbitrary axisymmetric shape. The forward solutions are found using a fast boundary integral method, and the efficiency sensitivities are derived using an adjoint-based method. Our results show that a prolate microswimmer with a 2:1 aspect ratio shares similar optimal ciliary motion as the spherical microswimmer, yet the swimming efficiency can increase two-fold. More interestingly, the optimal ciliary motion of a concave microswimmer can be qualitatively different from that of the spherical microswimmer, and adding a constraint to the ciliary length is found to improve, on average, the efficiency for such swimmers. (10.1017/jfm.2021.744)
  DOI : 10.1017/jfm.2021.744