This paper examines the effect of spatial roughness on the dynamical behaviour of electrostatic microactuators. We develop a comprehensive physical model that comprises a nonlinear electrostatic actuation force aswell as a squeeze-film damping term to accurately simulate the dynamical behavior of a cantilever beam actuator. Spatial roughness is modeled as a nonstationary stochastic process whose parameters can be estimated from profilometric measurements. We propagate the stochastic model through the physical system and examine the resulting uncertainty in the dynamical behavior that manifests as a variation in the quality factor of the device. We identify two distinct, yet coupled, modes of uncertainty propagation in the system, that result from the roughness causing variation in the electrostatic actuation force and the damping pressure, respectively. By artificially turning off each of these modes of propagation in sequence, we demonstrate that the variation in the damping pressure has a greater effect on the damping ratio than that arising from the electrostatic force. Comparison with similar simulations performed using a simplified mass-spring-damper model show that the coupling between these two mechanisms can be captured only when the physical model includes the primary nonlinear interactions along with a proper treatment of spatial variations. We also highlight the difference between nonstationary and stationary covariance formulations by showing that the stationary model is unable to properly capture the full range of variation as compared to its nonstationary counterpart.

In this paper we present an efficient algorithm for the calculation of photonic crystal band structures and band structures of photonic crystal waveguides. Our method relies on the fact that the dispersion curves of the band structure are smooth functions of the quasi-momentum in the one-dimensional Brillouin zone. We show the derivation and computation of the group velocity, the group velocity dispersion, and any higher derivative of the dispersion curves. These derivatives are then employed in a Taylor expansion of the dispersion curves. We control the error of the Taylor expansion with the help of a residual estimate and introduce an adaptive scheme for the selection of nodes in the one-dimensional Brillouin zone at which we solve the underlying eigenvalue problem and compute the derivatives of the dispersion curves. These derivatives are then employed in a Taylor expansion of the dispersion curves. We control the error of the Taylor expansion with the help of a residual estimate and introduce an adaptive scheme for the selection of nodes in the one-dimensional Brillouin zone at which we solve the underlying eigenvalue problem and compute the derivatives of the dispersion curves. The proposed algorithm is not only advantageous as it decreases the computational effort to compute the band structure but also because it allows for the identification of crossings and anti-crossings of dispersion curves, respectively. This identification is not possible with the standard approach of solving the underlying eigenvalue problem at a discrete set of values of the quasi-momentum without taking the mode parity into account.

The Manley-Rowe constants of motion (MRC) are conservation laws written out for a dynamical system describing the time evolution of the amplitudes in resonant triad. In this paper we extend the concept of MRC to resonance clusters of any form yielding generalized Manley-Rowe constants (gMRC) and give a constructive method how to compute them. We also give details of a Mathematica implementation of this method. While MRC provide integrability of the underlying dynamical system, gMRC generally do not but may be used for qualitative and numerical study of dynamical systems describing generic resonance clusters.

We investigate the ultra weak variational formulation (UWVF) of the 2-D Helmholtz equation using a new choice of basis functions. Traditionally the UWVF basis functions are chosen to be plane waves. Here, we instead use first kind Bessel functions. We compare the performance of the two bases. Moreover, we show that it is possible to use coupled plane wave and Bessel bases in the same mesh. As test cases we shall consider propagating plane and evanescent waves in a rectangular domain and a singular 2-D Helmholtz problem in an L-shaped domain.

We are concerned with a model of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) materials that consists of a coupled system of the Poisson and Nernst-Planck equations, discretized by means of the finite element method (FEM). We show that due to the transient character of the problem it is efficient to use adaptive algorithms that are capable of changing the mesh dynamically in time. We also show that due to large qualitative and quantitative differences between the two solution components, it is efficient to approximate them on different meshes using a novel adaptive multimesh hp-FEM. The study is accompanied with numerous computations and comparisons of the adaptive multimesh hp-FEM with several other adaptive FEM algorithms.

Two fundamental facts of the modern wave turbulence theory are 1) existence of power energy spectra in k-space, and 2) existence of “gaps” in this spectra corresponding to the resonance clustering. Accordingly, three wave turbulent regimes are singled out: kinetic, described by wave kinetic equations and power energy spectra; discrete, characterized by resonance clustering; and mesoscopic, where both types of wave field time evolution coexist. In this review paper we present the results on integrable dynamics of resonance clusters appearing in discrete and mesoscopic wave turbulent regimes. Using a novel method based on the notion of dynamical invariant we show that some of the frequently met clusters are integrable in quadratures for arbitrary initial conditions and some others-only for particular initial conditions. We also identify chaotic behaviour in some cases. Physical implications of the results obtained are discussed.

A computational study on the enhancement of the second harmonic generation (SHG) in one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals is presented. The mathematical model is derived from a nonlinear system of Maxwell’s equations, which partly overcomes the shortcoming of some existing models based on the undepleted pump approximation. We designed an iterative scheme coupled with the finite element method which can be applied to simulate the SHG in one dimensional nonlinear photonic band gap structures in our previous work. For the case that the nonlinearity is strong which is desirable to enhance the conversion efficiency, a continuation method is introduced to ensure the convergence of the iterative procedure. The convergence of our method is fast. Numerical experiments also indicate the conversion efficiency of SHG can be significantly enhanced when the frequencies of the fundamental and the second harmonic wave are tuned at the photonic band edges. The maximum total conversion efficiency available reaches more than 50% in all the cases studied.