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The paper considers the problem of transverse impact on a thin preloaded fiber. The commonly accepted theory of transverse impact on a thin fiber is based on the classical works of Rakhmatulin and Smith. The simple relations obtained from the Rakhmatulin – Smith theory are widely used in engineering practice. However, there are numerous evidences that experimental results may differ significantly from estimations based on these relations. A brief overview of the factors that cause the differences is given in this article.

This paper focuses on the shear wave velocity, as it is the only feature that can be directly observed and measured using high-speed cameras or similar methods. The influence of the fiber preload on the wave speed is considered. This factor is important, since it inevitably arises in the experimental results. The reliable fastening and precise positioning of the fiber during the experiments requires its preload. This work shows that the preload significantly affects the shear wave velocity in the impacted fiber.

Numerical calculations were performed for Kevlar 29 and Spectra 1000 yarns. Shear wave velocities are obtained for different levels of initial tension. A direct comparison of numerical results and analytical estimations with experimental data is presented. The speed of the transverse wave in free and preloaded fibers differed by a factor of two for the setup parameters considered. This fact demonstrates that measurements based on high-speed imaging and analysis of the observed shear waves should take into account the preload of the fibers.

This paper proposes a formula for a quick estimation of the shear wave velocity in preloaded fibers. The formula is obtained from the basic relations of the Rakhmatulin – Smith theory under the assumption of a large initial deformation of the fiber. The formula can give significantly better results than the classical approximation, this fact is demonstrated using the data for preloaded Kevlar 29 and Spectra 1000. The paper also shows that direct numerical calculation has better corresponding with the experimental data than any of the considered analytical estimations.

The paper proposes a set of fairly simple analysis algorithms that can be used to analyze a wide range of protein-protein interactions. In this work, we jointly use the methods of Brownian and molecular dynamics to describe the process of formation of a complex of plastocyanin and cytochrome f proteins in higher plants. In the diffusion-collision complex, two clusters of structures were revealed, the transition between which is possible with the preservation of the position of the center of mass of the molecules and is accompanied only by a rotation of plastocyanin by 134 degrees. The first and second clusters of structures of collisional complexes differ in that in the first cluster with a positively charged region near the small domain of cytochrome f, only the “lower” plastocyanin region contacts, while in the second cluster, both negatively charged regions. The “upper” negatively charged region of plastocyanin in the first cluster is in contact with the amino acid residue of lysine K122. When the final complex is formed, the plastocyanin molecule rotates by 69 degrees around an axis passing through both areas of electrostatic contact. With this rotation, water is displaced from the regions located near the cofactors of the molecules and formed by hydrophobic amino acid residues. This leads to the appearance of hydrophobic contacts, a decrease in the distance between the cofactors to a distance of less than 1.5 nm, and further stabilization of the complex in a position suitable for electron transfer. Characteristics such as contact matrices, rotation axes during the transition between states, and graphs of changes in the number of contacts during the modeling process make it possible to determine the key amino acid residues involved in the formation of the complex and to reveal the physicochemical mechanisms underlying this process.

The grid-characteristic method is successfully used for solving hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations (for example, transport / acoustic / elastic equations). It allows to construct correctly algorithms on contact boundaries and boundaries of the integration domain, to a certain extent to take into account the physics of the problem (propagation of discontinuities along characteristic curves), and has the property of monotonicity, which is important for considered problems. In the cases of two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems the method makes use of a coordinate splitting technique, which enables us to solve the original equations by solving several one-dimensional ones consecutively. It is common to use up to 3-rd order one-dimensional schemes with simple splitting techniques which do not allow for the convergence order to be higher than two (with respect to time). Significant achievements in the operator splitting theory were done, the existence of higher-order schemes was proved. Its peculiarity is the need to perform a step in the opposite direction in time, which gives rise to difficulties, for example, for parabolic problems.

In this work coordinate splitting of the 3-rd and 4-th order were used for the two-dimensional hyperbolic problem of the linear elasticity. This made it possible to increase the final convergence order of the computational algorithm. The paper empirically estimates the convergence in L1 and L∞ norms using analytical solutions of the system with the sufficient degree of smoothness. To obtain objective results, we considered the cases of longitudinal and transverse plane waves propagating both along the diagonal of the computational cell and not along it. Numerical experiments demonstrated the improved accuracy and convergence order of constructed schemes. These improvements are achieved with the cost of three- or fourfold increase of the computational time (for the 3-rd and 4-th order respectively) and no additional memory requirements. The proposed improvement of the computational algorithm preserves the simplicity of its parallel implementation based on the spatial decomposition of the computational grid.

The possibility of numerical 3D simulation of thrombi formation is considered.

The developed up to now detailed mathematical models describing formation of thrombi and clots include a great number of equations. Being implemented in a CFD code, the detailed mathematical models require essential computer resources for simulation of the thrombi growth in a blood flow. A reasonable alternative way is using reduced mathematical models. Two models based on the reduced mathematical model for the thrombin generation are described in the given paper.

The first model describes growth of a thrombus in a great vessel (artery). The artery flows are essentially unsteady. They are characterized by pulse waves. The blood velocity here is high compared to that in the vein tree. The reduced model for the thrombin generation and the thrombus growth in an artery is relatively simple. The processes accompanying the thrombin generation in arteries are well described by the zero-order approximation.

A vein flow is characterized lower velocity value, lower gradients, and lower shear stresses. In order to simulate the thrombin generation in veins, a more complex system of equations has to be solved. The model must allow for all the non-linear terms in the right-hand sides of the equations.

The simulation is carried out in the industrial software FlowVision.

The performed numerical investigations have shown the suitability of the reduced models for simulation of thrombin generation and thrombus growth. The calculations demonstrate formation of the recirculation zone behind a thrombus. The concentration of thrombin and the mass fraction of activated platelets are maximum here. Formation of such a zone causes slow growth of the thrombus downstream. At the upwind part of the thrombus, the concentration of activated platelets is low, and the upstream thrombus growth is negligible.

When the blood flow variation during a hart cycle is taken into account, the thrombus growth proceeds substantially slower compared to the results obtained under the assumption of constant (averaged over a hard cycle) conditions. Thrombin and activated platelets produced during diastole are quickly carried away by the blood flow during systole. Account of non-Newtonian rheology of blood noticeably affects the results.

We propose a four-component model of a plankton community with discrete time. The model considers the competitive relationships of phytoplankton groups exhibited between each other and the trophic characteristics zooplankton displays: it considers the division of zooplankton into predatory and non-predatory components. The model explicitly represents the consumption of non-predatory zooplankton by predatory. Non-predatory zooplankton feeds on phytoplankton, which includes two competing components: toxic and non-toxic types, with the latter being suitable for zooplankton food. A model of two coupled Ricker equations, focused on describing the dynamics of a competitive community, describes the interaction of two phytoplanktons and allows implicitly taking into account the limitation of each of the competing components of biomass growth by the availability of external resources. The model describes the prey consumption by their predators using a Holling type II trophic function, considering predator saturation.

The analysis of scenarios for the transition from stationary dynamics to fluctuations in the population size of community members showed that the community loses the stability of the non-trivial equilibrium corresponding to the coexistence of the complete community both through a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations and through a Neimark – Sacker bifurcation leading to the emergence of quasi-periodic oscillations. Although quite simple, the model proposed in this work demonstrates dynamics of comunity similar to that natural systems and experiments observe: with a lag of predator oscillations relative to the prey by about a quarter of the period, long-period antiphase cycles of predator and prey, as well as hidden cycles in which the prey density remains almost constant, and the predator density fluctuates, demonstrating the influence fast evolution exhibits that masks the trophic interaction. At the same time, the variation of intra-population parameters of phytoplankton or zooplankton can lead to pronounced changes the community experiences in the dynamic mode: sharp transitions from regular to quasi-periodic dynamics and further to exact cycles with a small period or even stationary dynamics. Quasi-periodic dynamics can arise at sufficiently small phytoplankton growth rates corresponding to stable or regular community dynamics. The change of the dynamic mode in this area (the transition from stable dynamics to quasi-periodic and vice versa) can occur due to the variation of initial conditions or external influence that changes the current abundances of components and shifts the system to the basin of attraction of another dynamic mode.