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In the last few years, significant progress has been observed in the field of rotating detonation engines for aircrafts. Scientific laboratories around the world conduct both fundamental researches related, for example, to the issues of effective mixing of fuel and oxidizer with the separate supply, and applied development of existing prototypes. The paper provides a brief overview of the main results of the most significant recent computational work on the study of propagation of a onedimensional pulsating gaseous detonation wave in a non-uniform medium. The general trends observed by the authors of these works are noted. In these works, it is shown that the presence of parameter perturbations in front of the wave front can lead to regularization and to resonant amplification of pulsations behind the detonation wave front. Thus, there is an appealing opportunity from a practical point of view to influence the stability of the detonation wave and control it. The aim of the present work is to create an instrument to study the gas-dynamic mechanisms of these effects.

The mathematical model is based on one-dimensional Euler equations supplemented by a one-stage model of the kinetics of chemical reactions. The defining system of equations is written in the shock-attached frame that leads to the need to add a shock-change equations. A method for integrating this equation is proposed, taking into account the change in the density of the medium in front of the wave front. So, the numerical algorithm for the simulation of detonation wave propagation in a non-uniform medium is proposed.

Using the developed algorithm, a numerical study of the propagation of stable detonation in a medium with variable density as carried out. A mode with a relatively small oscillation amplitude is investigated, in which the fluctuations of the parameters behind the detonation wave front occur with the frequency of fluctuations in the density of the medium. It is shown the relationship of the oscillation period with the passage time of the characteristics C₊ and C₀ over the region, which can be conditionally considered an induction zone. The phase shift between the oscillations of the velocity of the detonation wave and the density of the gas before the wave is estimated as the maximum time of passage of the characteristic C₊ through the induction zone.

The coconut tree is often mentioned as the “tree of life” due to its immense benefits to the human community ranging from edible products to building materials. Rugose spiraling whitefly (RSW), a natural enemy seems to be a major threat to farmers in bringing up these coconut trees. A mathematical model to study the dynamics of pest population in the presence of predator and parasite is developed. The biologically feasible equilibrium points are derived. Local asymptotic stability as well as global asymptotic stability is analyzed at the points. Furthermore, in order to educate farmers on pest control, we have added the impact of awareness programs in the model. The conditions of existence and stability properties of all feasible steady states of this model are analyzed. The result reveals that predator and parasite play a major role in reducing the immature pest. It also shows that pest control activities through awareness programs further reduce the mature pest population which decreases the egg laying rate which in turn reduces the immature population.

The article deals with the nonlinear boundary-value problem of hydrogen permeability corresponding to the following experiment. A membrane made of the target structural material heated to a sufficiently high temperature serves as the partition in the vacuum chamber. Degassing is performed in advance. A constant pressure of gaseous (molecular) hydrogen is built up at the inlet side. The penetrating flux is determined by mass-spectrometry in the vacuum maintained at the outlet side.

A linear model of dependence on concentration is adopted for the coefficient of dissolved atomic hydrogen diffusion in the bulk. The temperature dependence conforms to the Arrhenius law. The surface processes of dissolution and sorptiondesorption are taken into account in the form of nonlinear dynamic boundary conditions (differential equations for the dynamics of surface concentrations of atomic hydrogen). The characteristic mathematical feature of the boundary-value problem is that concentration time derivatives are included both in the diffusion equation and in the boundary conditions with quadratic nonlinearity. In terms of the general theory of functional differential equations, this leads to the so-called neutral type equations and requires a more complex mathematical apparatus. An iterative computational algorithm of second-(higher- )order accuracy is suggested for solving the corresponding nonlinear boundary-value problem based on explicit-implicit difference schemes. To avoid solving the nonlinear system of equations at every time step, we apply the explicit component of difference scheme to slower sub-processes.

The results of numerical modeling are presented to confirm the fitness of the model to experimental data. The degrees of impact of variations in hydrogen permeability parameters (“derivatives”) on the penetrating flux and the concentration distribution of H atoms through the sample thickness are determined. This knowledge is important, in particular, when designing protective structures against hydrogen embrittlement or membrane technologies for producing high-purity hydrogen. The computational algorithm enables using the model in the analysis of extreme regimes for structural materials (pressure drops, high temperatures, unsteady heating), identifying the limiting factors under specific operating conditions, and saving on costly experiments (especially in deuterium-tritium investigations).

Kinetics of complex formation between components of the photosynthetic electron transport chain — flavodoxin and membrane complex photosystem I has been studied using computer model based on methods of multiparticle simulation and Brownian dynamics. We simulated Brownian motion of several hundreds of flavodoxin molecules, taking into account electrostatic interactions and complex shape of the molecules. Our model could describe experimental nonmonotonic dependence of the association rate constant for flavodoxin and photosystem I. This lets us conclude that electrostatic interactions are sufficient to form such kind of nonmonotonic dependence.

Cognitive and regulatory processes in organism are ensured by the functioning of several different network systems — neural, endocrine, immune, and gene ones. These systems are, however, closely related and form a single integrated neurogenohumoral cognitive-regulatory dynamic system of organism. A review of publications is given which shows that it is possible to associate with this dynamic system a corresponding Lyapunov function (energy function, potential function) and that analyzing this function allows, due to its geometrical insight, to easily discover a set of general properties of cognitive and regulatory functioning of organism.

In present work we used the methods of molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemistry to study the concept, according to which aspartic and glutamic residues play a key role in initiation of helix formation in oligopeptides. It has been shown, that the first turn of the alpha-helix can be organized from various amino acid sequences with Asp and Glu residues on the N-terminus. Thermodynamic properties of such a process were analyzed. The obtained results do not interfere with known experimental and statistical data and they substantially elaborate present views on the processes of early peptide folding stages.

Recently we have developed a new method for studying DNA based on ultrasound - induced cleavage of DNA sugar-phosphate backbone. Relative cleavage rates of the phosphodiester bonds in all 16 dinucleotides have been determined. The increased amount of data sampling (of more than 20 000 nucleotides) made it also possible to obtain cleavage rates in all 256 possible tetranucleotides. These values quantitatively characterize sequence effects on conformational dynamics of DNA sugar phosphate backbone. Same type of DNA heterogeneity have been discovered and studied using its chemical cleavage induced by various chemical agents and DNAse I. The presence of essential heterogeneity in structural properties of DNA might be a key for physical mapping of the genomes, i.e. determining the structural profiles being responsible for DNA recognition by gene expression regulation machinery.

The problem has been considered, to what extent the kinetic models of cellular metabolism fit the matter which they describe. Foundations of stoichiometry of the whole metabolism and its large regions have been stated. A bioenergetic representation of stoichiometry based on a universal unit of chemical compound reductivity, viz., redoxon, has been described. Equations of mass-energy balance (bioenergetic variant of stoichiometry) have been derived for metabolic flows including those of protons possessing high electrochemical potential μ_H⁺, and high-energy compounds. Interrelations have been obtained which determine the biomass yield, rate of uptake of energy source for cell growth and other important physiological quantities as functions of biochemical characteristics of cellular energetics. The maximum biomass energy yield values have been calculated for different energy sources utilized by cells. These values coincide with those measured experimentally.

The numerical model of sedimentation and suspension filtration is proposed in this paper. The model is based on dynamic variant of discrete element method. This model represents the particles behavior on microand meso-scales: pores, arches, flocks formation. In addition, the proposed model qualitatively reproduces macro phenomenon: sedimentation of particle layer, slow shrinkage of the layer, sealing of the layer under its own weight of the particles and the external applied force.

Computer simulation of plastic deformation of FCC copper nanocrystal in the process of uniaxial tension in a direction [001] is performed by methods of molecular dynamics and a static relaxation. It is shown that thermoelastic martensite transformation is responsible for plastic deformation, FCC lattice is reconstructed into HCP lattice. Orientation relationship of contacting phases is identified.