Durch die Zielsetzung des Projekts, in einem ganzheitlichen Ansatz Bleibefaktoren für Zuwanderer in ländlichen Räumen zu untersuchen und geeignete Lösungsansätze für deren Integration zu entwickeln, wird eine bisher in dieser Form kaum betrachtete Forschungslücke adressiert. Diese Nische zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass im Vorhaben miteinander verbundene, jedoch bisher meist disziplinär bearbeitete Fragestellungen der Integrationsforschung, der Stadtplanung und der zukunftsfähigen Kommunalentwicklung bzw. kommunalen Nachhaltigkeit unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von demografischen Herausforderungen vereint werden. Diese inhaltliche Verschränkung spiegelt sich zudem auch in der interdisziplinären Vorgehensweise im Projekt wider. So werden die Fragestellungen des Vorhabens aus der Perspektive von und mit methodischen Zugängen aus den Sozial-, Wirtschafts- und Planungswissenschaften bearbeitet. Der von Beginn an starke und unmittelbare Einbezug der Kommunalpartner und weiterer praxisnaher Akteure stellt sicher, dass von Anfang an unterschiedliche wissenschaftliche und nicht-wissenschaftliche Perspektiven sowie Praxiswissen in den Forschungsprozess integriert werden, um ein gemeinsames Problemverständnis und eine hohe Relevanz der Ergebnisse für die kommunale Praxis sicherzustellen. Zuwanderung an sich ist kein neues Phänomen in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik, was sich in einer Vielfalt von Studien und Publikationen zu den Einflussfaktoren auf die Integration von verschiedenen Migrantengruppen (z.B. von „Gastarbeitern“ und ihren Familien, Aussiedlern und Spätaussiedlern aus Osteuropa, humanitären Migranten bzw. Flüchtlingen, Migranten in erster und zweiter Generation) widerspiegelt. Darüber hinaus existieren Studien zu einzelnen Aspekten der Integration wie der Teilhabe am Arbeitsmarkt, dem Schulsystem, der Integration in den Wohnungsmarkt oder auch standortbezogene Fallstudien. Diese Untersuchungen betrachten jedoch die allgemeine Integration von Zuwanderern, ohne auf die Besonderheiten von kleinstädtisch und ländlich geprägten Kommunen einzugehen. Diese Thematik wird in einer Studie der Schader Stiftung aufgegriffen, in der neben den Herausforderungen und Rahmenbedingungen in den Kommunen einige Aspekte bzw. Handlungsoptionen der Integration aufgezeigt werden. Die besonderen Herausforderungen des demografischen Wandels für Kommunen sind ebenfalls Gegenstand zahlreicher Publikationen. Kleinstädtische und ländlich geprägte Kommunen sind besonders stark von diesem Megatrend betroffen, so dass in vielen Fällen auch deren Zukunftsfähigkeit bedroht sein kann. Durch die Integration von Zuwanderern im ländlichen Raum können sich für die Kommunen Potenziale ergeben, die negativen Auswirkungen des Trends zum Teil aufzufangen. Aus einer stadtplanerischen Perspektive sind in Kommunen mit demografischen Herausforderungen im Sinne einer (stark) schrumpfenden Bevölkerung signifikante Anlässe zur baulichen Wiedernutzung von Brachflächen, zum Schließen von Baulücken oder zur Nachverdichtung im Bestand gegeben: Potentielle volkswirtschaftlichen Folgen sind zu erwarten, wenn sozialräumlich homogene Wohnungsbestände durch den Attraktivitäts- und Imageverlust von benachbarten Teilräumen mit hohen Wohnungsleerständen betroffen sind. Zudem gilt es, den betriebswirtschaftlichen (Kostenfaktoren) und städtebaulichen Auswirkungen entgegenzusteuern, um den potentiellen baulichen Verfall sowie stadtstrukturelle, funktionale und soziale Missstände zu verhindern. Eine effiziente Nutzung innerörtlicher Flächenressourcen, sowohl durch die Wiedernutzung von Brachflächen als auch durch die Reaktivierung von Wohnungsleerständen, ermöglicht es den Kommunen, die Neuinanspruchnahme von Siedlungs- und Verkehrsflächen zu reduzieren. Hierdurch kann den im Rahmen der Nationalen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie formulierten Zielvorgaben der Reduzierung zusätzlicher Flächeninanspruchnahme Rechnung getragen werden. Ein sparsamer Umgang mit Grund und Boden und die Begrenzung der Bodenversiegelung ist als städtebauliche Aufgabe durch die Bodenschutzklausel gemäß §1a Abs. 2 BauGB bestimmt. In Anpassung an die örtlichen und städtebaulichen Gegebenheiten sind anstelle der Neuausweisung von Bauflächen Möglichkeiten der innerörtlichen Entwicklung zu nutzen. Bei der Inanspruchnahme unbebauter Flächen ist darüber hinaus eine flächensparende Bauweise zu bevorzugen. Durch entsprechende Darstellungen und Festsetzungen in den Bauleitplänen kann dies erreicht werden, indem beispielsweise auf Darstellungen von (Neu-) Bauflächen in Flächennutzungsplänen verzichtet oder indem Höchstmaße der baulichen Nutzung für Wohnbaugrundstücke in Bebauungsplänen festgesetzt werden (§ 9 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 BauGB). Anstelle der Neuausweisung von Wohngebieten in siedlungsstrukturellen Randlagen stellt die Innenentwicklung für den Erhalt lebendiger Zentren und zur Begrenzung der Flächenneuinanspruchnahme einen wichtigen Beitrag zur nachhaltigen städtebaulichen Entwicklung im Sinne des §1 Abs. 5 BauGB dar. Als Voraussetzungen für die erfolgreiche Wiedernutzung innerörtlicher Flächen und baulicher Potentiale sind Kenntnisse der vorhandenen Innenentwicklungspotenziale und ihre Verfügbarkeit erforderlich. In einem geografischen Informationssystem (GIS) lassen sich nach dem gegenwärtigen Stand von Wissenschaft und Technik Brachflächen, Baulücken und Leerstände zentral erfassen. Zur Erhebung und Verwaltung von Wohnungsleerständen in einem kommunalen Leerstandskataster lassen sich im Wesentlichen folgende Methoden und Datenquellen nutzen: Die Analyse von Ver- und Entsorgerdaten (Strom/Wasser) stellen neben der Erhebung durch Ortsbegehungen (Inaugenscheinnahme von außen durch geschultes Personal), den Befragungen von Eigentümern, den statistischen Schätzverfahren (Wohnungsfortschreibung und Melderegister) bzw. den Befragungen kommunaler Funktionsträger (Ortsvorsteher, Bürgermeister) methodische Zugänge dar. Zur Verifizierung der Daten erfolgt eine Kombination der genannten Methoden. Dabei werden die ermittelten Leerstände mittels der Stromzählermethode durch zusätzliche Befragung von Wohnungsunternehmen/Eigentümern oder Ortsvorstehern ergänzt und plausibilisiert, quantitative Daten (zählerbasierte Methoden) werden durch qualitative Erhebungen (Befragungen) ergänzt. Da der Zugang zu diesen kommunalen Datenbeständen erschwert war, bediente sich die Forschungsgruppe der SeniorForschungsprofessur Stadtplanung an zugänglichen öffentlichen Daten (Zensus-Erhebungen zu den Wohnungsleerständen aus dem Jahr 2011) sowie kommerziell erwerbbaren Daten aus der Marktforschung (microm Geo-Milieus®), da diese empirisch abgesichert sind und im Kontext der Kommunalentwicklung vielfältig eingesetzt werden (z.B. Beteiligungsverfahren, Wohnbaulandentwicklung).

Das Projekt „Integration findet Stadt – Im Dialog zum Erfolg“ wird von 2017-2019 als eines von zehn Projekten im Rahmen der Nationalen Stadtentwicklungspolitik zum Thema Integration durchgeführt (gefördert vom Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, Bau und Reaktorsicherheit). Das bestehende Integrationskonzept der Stadt Kaiserslautern soll in diesem Kontext weiterentwickelt und an die veränderte Zusammensetzung der Migranten in der Stadt angepasst werden. Mit dem Projekt ist verbunden, auf Quartiersebene Partizipations- und Aktivierungsprozesse anzustoßen und Integrationsbedarfe und die Bereitschaft zum Engagement zu ermitteln. Ziel des Gesamtprojektes in Kaiserslautern ist es, die Vernetzung in den Quartieren zu stärken, um das Zusammenleben einfacher zu gestalten und Unterstützungspotenziale der deutsch wie migrantisch geprägten Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner zu aktivieren. Im Rahmen dieses Projektes hat das Fachgebiet Stadtsoziologie der TU Kaiserslautern eine Teil Studie über das Zusammenleben von Migranten und nicht Migranten in Kaiserslautern angefertigt. Im ersten Teil der vorliegenden Studie wird eine statistische Bestandsaufnahme nach demografischen und sozial strukturellen Merkmalen der Bevölkerung in den verschiedenen Stadtteilen durchgeführt. Der zweite Teil informiert anhand von Interviews wie die sozialen Netzwerke in den unterschiedlichen Stadtteilen Kaiserslauterns von Zugewanderten und Alteingesessenen wahrgenommen werden. Im dritten Teil werden Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Befragung zum Zusammenleben im Stadtteil, Bewertungen und Vorstellungen sowie Potentiale für Engagement der Bewohner/innen Kaiserslauterns mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund dargestellt. Dieser Mix von quantitativen und qualitativen Methoden dient dazu um Unterschiede zwischen Bevölkerungsgruppen zu erfassen, Netzwerke des Zusammenlebens zu identifizieren und die unterschiedlichen Stärken und Schwächen der Stadtteile deutlich zu machen. Die unterschiedlichen Zugangswege sollen Integrationsbedarfe und –potenziale erkennbar machen um das vielfältige Leben der Stadt aufzuzeichnen. In Anbetracht der Flüchtlingsbewegungen von 2014 bis 2016 und der damit einhergehenden Folgewirkungen auf die Bundesrepublik Deutschland als Aufnahmeland erhalten Fragen der Integration einen hohen Stellenwert in der aktuellen gesellschaftspolitischen Debatte. Der Begriff der Integration ist im deutschen Diskurs maßgeblich durch den Ansatz von Hartmut Esser geprägt (Esser 1980, 2001). Er unterscheidet vier Dimensionen der Integration: 1. Kulturation (Wissen, Sprache, gesellschaftliche Teilhabe), 2. Platzierung (Rechte, ökonomisches Potential, Zugang zum Bildungssystem, zum Arbeits- und Wohnungsmarkt); 3. Interaktion: kulturelles und soziales Kapital (Teilhabe am gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Leben) und 4. Identifikation (Bürgersinn). Allerdings ist der Integrationsbegriff umstritten, da er die Aufgabe der Integration einseitig auf Seiten der Zuwandernden sieht und die Aufgaben der Aufnahmegesellschaft in diesem Prozess zu wenig berücksichtigt (Gestring 2014: 82). Der Begriff der Integration vernachlässigt darüber hinaus, dass sich vielfältige kulturelle Prägungen und Identitäten durchaus miteinander verbinden und gemeinsam leben lassen (West 2014: 92 ff.; Gans et al. 2014). Aus diesem Grund wird der Integrationsbegriff in den Migrationswissenschaften vermieden und neutralere Begriffe werden verwendet, wie Transnationalismus, Transmigration, Trans-, Inter- und Multikulturalität (ARL 2016: 2), Vielfalt, Zweiheimischkeit oder allgemein Vergesellschaftung (ARL 2016: 12). In Hinsicht auf soziale Unterschiede macht Vertovec mit dem Begriff der (Super-)Diversität auf die Bedeutung sozialer Ungleichheiten unterschiedlicher Aufenthaltstitel der Migranten aufmerksam, die mit Zukunftsrechten beziehungsweise Exklusion einhergehen (Vertovec 2007). Jedoch ist der Begriff „Integration“ eingeführt und auch für praktische Anforderungen vor Ort gut handhabbar, vor allem wenn konkrete Verankerungen in den Lebensbereichen Arbeit, Wohnen, Freizeit und Kultur berührt sind. Zugleich sollte betont werden, dass der Integrationsbegriff nicht auf die Zuwandernden alleine fokussiert werden kann, sondern immer auch Integrationsleistungen von den übrigen Bevölkerungsmitgliedern und Akteuren erfordert. Auf Stadtteilebene, dort wo die Menschen ihren Alltag verbringen, arbeiten Freiwillige und Organisationen zusammen, um die Integration zu erleichtern. Für die ehrenamtlich Tätigen und die Organisationen besteht die Notwendigkeit, die kulturelle Vielfalt in ihrer Arbeit aufzunehmen, die Ansprache und Prozesse entsprechend zu gestalten und dabei die sozialstrukturellen Bedingungen in den jeweiligen Nachbarschaften nicht außer Acht zu lassen (Sprachkenntnisse, Bildungsniveaus, Berufstätigkeit, familiäre Verpflichtungen, Aufenthaltstitel der verschiedenen Migrantengruppen). Die Veränderungen in der Zusammensetzung der zugewanderten Bevölkerung sind daher für die langjährig Beschäftigten vor Ort möglicherweise nicht unmittelbar nachzuvollziehen. Verschiedene Studien zur Integration auf Quartiersebene zeigen, dass Rheinland-Pfalz ein hohes Niveau des freiwilligen Engagements erreicht hat (Gesemann/Roth 2015: 28). Wie an anderen Orten auch sind Migrantinnen und Migranten jedoch nur unterdurchschnittlich vertreten. Das Anliegen, die Teilnahmemöglichkeiten an der Gesellschaft zu erweitern, hat in den jeweiligen Stadtgebieten ganz unterschiedliche Voraussetzungen nach Aufenthaltstitel, Qualifikation, Alter oder Familiensituation der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner. Neben Sprach- und Kontaktschwierigkeiten spielt seit der Flüchtlingsbewegung der Aufenthaltsstatus eine besondere Rolle, da er mit großer Unsicherheit bei den Lebensperspektiven und sonstigen Belastungen der Geflüchteten einhergeht (Vertovic 2007; Robert Bosch-Stiftung 2016; Brücker u.a./et al 2016). Das Anliegen, die Teilnahmemöglichkeiten an der Gesellschaft zu erweitern, hat in den jeweiligen Stadtgebieten ganz unterschiedliche Voraussetzungen nach Aufenthaltstitel, Qualifikation, Alter oder Familiensituation der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner. Im Folgenden werden die stadtsozilogischen Erhebungen separat vorgestellt. Im ersten Teil werden die zentralen Indikatoren die das statistische Amt zur Verfügung stellt, so kleinräumig wie möglich vorgestellt. Die zentralen Indikatoren beziehen sich auf die Demografie und die soziale Lage von Migranten/innen und nicht Migranten/innen. Im zweiten Teil wird das Zusammenleben in ausgewählten Quartieren mit hohem Ausländer/innen bzw. Flüchtlingsanteil behandelt. Der dritte Teil beruht auf einer quantitativen Befragung im Rahmen der Interkulturellen Woche im September 2017, die auf Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der Wahrnehmung von Integration von Zugewanderten und Mehrheitsgesellschaft abzielt.

Due to the increasing number of natural or man-made disasters, the application of operations research methods in evacuation planning has seen a rising interest in the research community. From the beginning, evacuation planning has been highly focused on car-based evacuation. Recently, also the evacuation of transit depended evacuees with the help of buses has been considered. In this case study, we apply two such models and solution algorithms to evacuate a core part of the metropolitan capital city Kathmandu of Nepal as a hypothetical endangered region, where a large part of population is transit dependent. We discuss the computational results for evacuation time under a broad range of possible scenarios, and derive planning suggestions for practitioners.

Chisel (Constructing Hardware in a Scala embedded language) is a new programming language, which embedded in Scala, used for hardware synthesis. It aims to increase productivity when creating hardware by enabling designers to use features present in higher level programming languages to build complex hardware blocks. In this paper, the most advertised features of Chisel are investigated and compared to their VHDL counterparts, if present. Afterwards, the authors’ opinion if a switch to Chisel is worth considering is presented. Additionally, results from a related case study on Chisel are briefly summarized. The author concludes that, while Chisel has promising features, it is not yet ready for use in the industry.

Sport und Bewegung sind seit jeher wesentliche Bestandteile des öffentlichen Lebens. Der in den letzten Jahren erkennbare und sich weiter verstärkende demographische und gesellschaftliche Wandel führt allerdings zu einer Veränderung des Sport- und Bewegungsverhaltens und damit auch der Nachfrage nach Sportstätten und Bewegungsräumen. Die sich zunehmend verändernde Situation von Sport und Bewegung findet bislang weder auf der politischen Ebene noch auf der Ebene der kommunalen Planung ausreichend Berücksichtigung. Vor dem Hintergrund stetig steigender Bedarfe zur Sicherung der kommunalen Daseinsvorsorge müssen jedoch zeitnah Lösungen gefunden werden, die den veränderten Rahmenbedingungen auch zukünftig gerecht werden. Ausgehend hiervon befasst sich das in den Jahren 2011 und 2012 durchgeführte Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekt „Gesunde Kommune – Sport und Bewegung als Faktor der Stadt- und Raumentwicklung“ mit der Bedeutung von Sport und Bewegung für die rheinland-pfälzischen Kommunen und verfolgt das Ziel, Verknüpfungen zwischen räumlichen und sportlichen Entwicklungsfeldern zu erschließen sowie Möglichkeiten zur gezielten Nutzung von Sport und Bewegung für die nachhaltige Raumentwicklung aufzuzeigen. Die raumwirksamen Leistungen von Sport und Bewegung werden hierbei unter den Aspekten Gesundheit, Ökonomie, Ökologie und Soziales betrachtet. Ein wesentliches Projektziel bildete darüber hinausgehend die Bewusstseinsbildung und Sensibilisierung aller relevanten Akteure auf Landes- und Kommunalebene. Das Projekt wurde Erarbeitet durch den Lehrstuhl Stadtplanung der TU Kaiserslautern in Kooperation mit dem Fachgebiet Sportwissenschaft der TU Kaiserslautern im Auftrag der Entwicklungsagentur Rheinland-Pfalz e.V..

In this paper, we propose multi-level Monte Carlo(MLMC) methods that use ensemble level mixed multiscale methods in the simulations of multi-phase flow and transport. The main idea of ensemble level multiscale methods is to construct local multiscale basis functions that can be used for any member of the ensemble. We consider two types of ensemble level mixed multiscale finite element methods, (1) the no-local-solve-online ensemble level method (NLSO) and (2) the local-solve-online ensemble level method (LSO). Both mixed multiscale methods use a number of snapshots of the permeability media to generate a multiscale basis. As a result, in the offline stage, we construct multiple basis functions for each coarse region where basis functions correspond to different realizations. In the no-local-solve-online ensemble level method one uses the whole set of pre-computed basis functions to approximate the solution for an arbitrary realization. In the local-solve-online ensemble level method one uses the pre-computed functions to construct a multiscale basis for a particular realization. With this basis the solution corresponding to this particular realization is approximated in LSO mixed MsFEM. In both approaches the accuracy of the method is related to the number of snapshots computed based on different realizations that one uses to pre-compute a multiscale basis. We note that LSO approaches share similarities with reduced basis methods [11, 21, 22]. In multi-level Monte Carlo methods ([14, 13]), more accurate (and expensive) forward simulations are run with fewer samples while less accurate(and inexpensive) forward simulations are run with a larger number of samples. Selecting the number of expensive and inexpensive simulations carefully, one can show that MLMC methods can provide better accuracy at the same cost as MC methods. In our simulations, our goal is twofold. First, we would like to compare NLSO and LSO mixed MsFEMs. In particular, we show that NLSO mixed MsFEM is more accurate compared to LSO mixed MsFEM. Further, we use both approaches in the context of MLMC to speed-up MC calculations. We present basic aspects of the algorithm and numerical results for coupled flow and transport in heterogeneous porous media.

A simple transformation of the Equation of Motion (EoM) allows us to directly integrate nonlinear structural models into the recursive Multibody System (MBS) formalism of SIMPACK. This contribution describes how the integration is performed for a discrete Cosserat rod model which has been developed at the ITWM. As a practical example, the run-up of a simplified three-bladed wind turbine is studied where the dynamic deformations of the three blades are calculated by the Cosserat rod model.

One of the fundamental problems in computational structural biology is the prediction of RNA secondary structures from a single sequence. To solve this problem, mainly two different approaches have been used over the past decades: the free energy minimization (MFE) approach which is still considered the most popular and successful method and the competing stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) approach. While the accuracy of the MFE based algorithms is limited by the quality of underlying thermodynamic models, the SCFG method abstracts from free energies and instead tries to learn about the structural behavior of the molecules by training the grammars on known real RNA structures, making it highly dependent on the availability of a rich high quality training set. However, due to the respective problems associated with both methods, new statistics based approaches towards RNA structure prediction have become increasingly appreciated. For instance, over the last years, several statistical sampling methods and clustering techniques have been invented that are based on the computation of partition functions (PFs) and base pair probabilities according to thermodynamic models. A corresponding SCFG based statistical sampling algorithm for RNA secondary structures has been studied just recently. Notably, this probabilistic method is capable of producing accurate (prediction) results, where its worst-case time and space requirements are equal to those of common RNA folding algorithms for single sequences. The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive study on how enriching the underlying SCFG by additional information on the lengths of generated substructures (i.e. by incorporating length-dependencies into the SCFG based sampling algorithm, which is actually possible without significant losses in performance) affects the reliability of the induced RNA model and the accuracy of sampled secondary structures. As we will see, significant differences with respect to the overall quality of generated sample sets and the resulting predictive accuracy are typically implied. In principle, when considering the more specialized length-dependent SCFG model as basis for statistical sampling, a higher accuracy of predicted foldings can be reached at the price of a lower diversity of generated candidate structures (compared to the more general traditional SCFG variant or sampling based on PFs that rely on free energies).

In this work we extend the multiscale finite element method (MsFEM) as formulated by Hou and Wu in [14] to the PDE system of linear elasticity. The application, motivated from the multiscale analysis of highly heterogeneous composite materials, is twofold. Resolving the heterogeneities on the finest scale, we utilize the linear MsFEM basis for the construction of robust coarse spaces in the context of two-level overlapping Domain Decomposition preconditioners. We motivate and explain the construction and present numerical results validating the approach. Under the assumption that the material jumps are isolated, that is they occur only in the interior of the coarse grid elements, our experiments show uniform convergence rates independent of the contrast in the Young's modulus within the heterogeneous material. Elsewise, if no restrictions on the position of the high coefficient inclusions are imposed, robustness can not be guaranteed any more. These results justify expectations to obtain coefficient-explicit condition number bounds for the PDE system of linear elasticity similar to existing ones for scalar elliptic PDEs as given in the work of Graham, Lechner and Scheichl [12]. Furthermore, we numerically observe the properties of the MsFEM coarse space for linear elasticity in an upscaling framework. Therefore, we present experimental results showing the approximation errors of the multiscale coarse space w.r.t. the fine-scale solution.

In this work, some model reduction approaches for performing simulations with a pseudo-2D model of Li-ion battery are presented. A full pseudo-2D model of processes in Li-ion batteries is presented following [3], and three methods to reduce the order of the full model are considered. These are: i) directly reduce the model order using proper orthogonal decomposition, ii) using fractional time step discretization in order to solve the equations in decoupled way, and iii) reformulation approaches for the diffusion in the solid phase. Combinations of above methods are also considered. Results from numerical simulations are presented, and the efficiency and the accuracy of the model reduction approaches are discussed.

SHIM is a concurrent deterministic programming language for embedded systems built on rendezvous communication. It abstracts away many details to give the developer a high-level view that includes virtual shared variables, threads as orthogonal statements, and deterministic concurrent exceptions. In this paper, we present a new way to compile a SHIM-like language into a set of asynchronous guarded actions, a well-established intermediate representation for concurrent systems. By doing so, we build a bridge to many other tools, including hardware synthesis and formal verification. We present our translation in detail, illustrate it through examples, and show how the result can be used by various other tools.

This work presents the dynamic capillary pressure model (Hassanizadeh, Gray, 1990, 1993a) adapted for the needs of paper manufacturing process simulations. The dynamic capillary pressure-saturation relation is included in a one-dimensional simulation model for the pressing section of a paper machine. The one-dimensional model is derived from a two-dimensional model by averaging with respect to the vertical direction. Then, the model is discretized by the finite volume method and solved by Newton’s method. The numerical experiments are carried out for parameters typical for the paper layer. The dynamic capillary pressure-saturation relation shows significant influence on the distribution of water pressure. The behaviour of the solution agrees with laboratory experiments (Beck, 1983).

We introduce a refined tree method to compute option prices using the stochastic volatility model of Heston. In a first step, we model the stock and variance process as two separate trees and with transition probabilities obtained by matching tree moments up to order two against the Heston model ones. The correlation between the driving Brownian motions in the Heston model is then incorporated by the node-wise adjustment of the probabilities. This adjustment, leaving the marginals fixed, optimizes the match between tree and model correlation. In some nodes, we are even able to further match moments of higher order. Numerically this gives convergence orders faster than 1/N, where N is the number of dis- cretization steps. Accuracy of our method is checked for European option prices against a semi closed-form, and our prices for both European and American options are compared to alternative approaches.

We study the efficient computation of Nash and strong equilibria in weighted bottleneck games. In such a game different players interact on a set of resources in the way that every player chooses a subset of the resources as her strategy. The cost of a single resource depends on the total weight of players choosing it and the personal cost every player tries to minimize is the cost of the most expensive resource in her strategy, the bottleneck value. To derive efficient algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in these games, we generalize a tranformation of a bottleneck game into a special congestion game introduced by Caragiannis et al. [1]. While investigating the transformation we introduce so-called lexicographic games, in which the aim of a player is not only to minimize her bottleneck value but to lexicographically minimize the ordered vector of costs of all resources in her strategy. For the special case of network bottleneck games, i.e., the set of resources are the edges of a graph and the strategies are paths, we analyse different Greedy type methods and their limitations for extension-parallel and series-parallel graphs.

In a dynamic network, the quickest path problem asks for a path minimizing the time needed to send a given amount of flow from source to sink along this path. In practical settings, for example in evacuation or transportation planning, the reliability of network arcs depends on the specific scenario of interest. In this circumstance, the question of finding a quickest path among all those having at least a desired path reliability arises. In this article, this reliable quickest path problem is solved by transforming it to the restricted quickest path problem. In the latter, each arc is associated a nonnegative cost value and the goal is to find a quickest path among those not exceeding a predefined budget with respect to the overall (additive) cost value. For both, the restricted and reliable quickest path problem, pseudopolynomial exact algorithms and fully polynomial-time approximation schemes are proposed.

Das Smart Grid, „intelligentes Stromnetz“, ist eines der Themen, welche von der Politik und natürlich auch der Stromwirtschaft immer wieder in den Vordergrund gestellt werden. Das Potential der erneuerbaren Energien reicht aus, um Deutschland und Europa zuverlässig mit Strom zu versorgen. Der Umbau der Stromnetze ist dabei von zentraler Bedeutung und bedarf einer Anstrengung der gesamten Gesellschaft. Leider kommt dabei der Stromkunde zu kurz — die Bedürfnisse von Stromkunden werden weitgehend ignoriert und der Datenschutz wird oft ausser acht gelassen. Aber auch kleinere Stadtwerke haben mit dieser Entwicklung Probleme: Aufgrund politischer Vorgaben müssen sie zum Beispiel Smart Meter einführen, obwohl ihnen dadurch Kosten entstehen, die sie nicht direkt auf den Kunden umlegen können. Die Bereitschaft der Kunden, für ein Smart Grid mehr Geld zu bezahlen, ist wohl kaum vorhanden. Gleichzeitig ist es aber notwendig, die bestehenden Stromnetze zu flexibilisieren und auf einen weiter steigenden Anteil von erneuerbaren Energiequellen vorzubereiten

This report describes the calibration and completion of the volatility cube in the SABR model. The description is based on a project done for Assenagon GmbH in Munich. However, we use fictitious market data which resembles realistic market data. The problem posed by our client is formulated in section 1. Here we also motivate why this is a relevant problem. The SABR model is briefly reviewed in section 2. Section 3 discusses the calibration and completion of the volatility cube. An example is presented in section 4. We conclude by suggesting possible future research in section 5.

This report gives an insight into basics of stress field simulations for geothermal reservoirs. The quasistatic equations of poroelasticity are deduced from constitutive equations, balance of mass and balance of momentum. Existence and uniqueness of a weak solution is shown. In order of to find an approximate solution numerically, usage of the so–called method of fundamental solutions is a promising way. The idea of this method as well as a sketch of how convergence may be proven are given.

Input loads are essential for the numerical simulation of vehicle multibody system (MBS)- models. Such load data is called invariant, if it is independent of the specific system under consideration. A digital road profile, e.g., can be used to excite MBS models of different vehicle variants. However, quantities efficiently obtained by measurement such as wheel forces are typically not invariant in this sense. This leads to the general task to derive invariant loads on the basis of measurable, but system-dependent quantities. We present an approach to derive input data for full-vehicle simulation that can be used to simulate different variants of a vehicle MBS model. An important ingredient of this input data is a virtual road profile computed by optimal control methods.

This work presents a proof of convergence of a discrete solution to a continuous one. At first, the continuous problem is stated as a system of equations which describe filtration process in the pressing section of a paper machine. Two flow regimes appear in the modeling of this problem. The model for the saturated flow is presented by the Darcy’s law and the mass conservation. The second regime is described by the Richards approach together with a dynamic capillary pressure model. The finite volume method is used to approximate the system of PDEs. Then the existence of a discrete solution to proposed finite difference scheme is proven. Compactness of the set of all discrete solutions for different mesh sizes is proven. The main Theorem shows that the discrete solution converges to the solution of continuous problem. At the end we present numerical studies for the rate of convergence.

We consider a highly-qualified individual with respect to her choice between two distinct career paths. She can choose between a mid-level management position in a large company and an executive position within a smaller listed company with the possibility to directly affect the company’s share price. She invests in the financial market includ- ing the share of the smaller listed company. The utility maximizing strategy from consumption, investment, and work effort is derived in closed form for logarithmic utility. The power utility case is discussed as well. Conditions for the individual to pursue her career with the smaller listed company are obtained. The participation constraint is formulated in terms of the salary differential between the two posi- tions. The smaller listed company can offer less salary. The salary shortfall is offset by the possibility to benefit from her work effort by acquiring own-company shares. This gives insight into aspects of optimal contract design. Our framework is applicable to the pharma- ceutical and financial industry, and the IT sector.

In order to improve the design of Li ion batteries the complex interplay of various physical phenomena in the active particles of the electrodes and in the electrolyte has to be balanced. The separate transport phenomena in the electrolyte and in the active particle as well as their coupling due to the electrochemical reactions at the interfaces between the electrode particles and the electrolyte will inuence the performance and the lifetime of a battery. Any modeling of the complex phenomena during the usage of a battery has therefore to be based on sound physical and chemical principles in order to allow for reliable predictions for the response of the battery to changing load conditions. We will present a modeling approach for the transport processes in the electrolyte and the electrodesbased on non-equilibrium thermodynamics and transport theory. The assumption of local charge neutrality, which is known to be valid in concentrated electrolytes, is explicitly used to identify the independent thermodynamic variables and uxes. The theory guarantees strictly positive entropy production. Dierences to other theories will be discussed.

Wireless sensor networks are the driving force behind many popular and interdisciplinary research areas, such as environmental monitoring, building automation, healthcare and assisted living applications. Requirements like compactness, high integration of sensors, flexibility, and power efficiency are often very different and cannot be fulfilled by state-of-the-art node platforms at once. In this paper, we present and analyze AmICA: a flexible, compact, easy-to-program, and low-power node platform. Developed from scratch and including a node, a basic communication protocol, and a debugging toolkit, it assists in an user-friendly rapid application development. The general purpose nature of AmICA was evaluated in two practical applications with diametric requirements. Our analysis shows that AmICA nodes are 67% smaller than BTnodes, have five times more sensors than Mica2Dot and consume 72% less energy than the state-of-the-art TelosB mote in sleep mode.

Simulation of multibody systems (mbs) is an inherent part in developing and design of complex mechanical systems. Moreover, simulation during operation gained in importance in the recent years, e.g. for HIL-, MIL- or monitoring applications. In this paper we discuss the numerical simulation of multibody systems on different platforms. The main section of this paper deals with the simulation of an established truck model [9] on different platforms, one microcontroller and two real-time processor boards. Additional to numerical C-code the latter platforms provide the possibility to build the model with a commercial mbs tool, which is also investigated. A survey of different ways of generating code and equations of mbs models is given and discussed concerning handling, possible limitations as well as performance. The presented benchmarks are processed under terms of on-board real time applications. A further important restriction, caused by the real-time requirement, is a fixed integration step size. Whence, carefully chosen numerical integration algorithms are necessary, especially in the case of closed loops in the model. We investigate linearly-implicit time integration methods with fixed step size, so-called Rosenbrock methods, and compare them with respect to their accuracy and performance on the tested processors.

We will present a rigorous derivation of the equations and interface conditions for ion, charge and heat transport in Li-ion insertion batteries. The derivation is based exclusively on universally accepted principles of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and the assumption of a one step intercalation reaction at the interface of electrolyte and active particles. Without loss of generality the transport in the active particle is assumed to be isotropic. The electrolyte is described as a fully dissociated salt in a neutral solvent. The presented theory is valid for transport on a spatial scale for which local charge neutrality holds i.e. beyond the scale of the diffuse double layer. Charge neutrality is explicitely used to determine the correct set of thermodynamically independent variables. The theory guarantees strictly positive entropy production. The various contributions to the Peltier coeficients for the interface between the active particles and the electrolyte as well as the contributions to the heat of mixing are obtained as a result of the theory.

The optimal design of rotational production processes for glass wool manufacturing poses severe computational challenges to mathematicians, natural scientists and engineers. In this paper we focus exclusively on the spinning regime where thousands of viscous thermal glass jets are formed by fast air streams. Homogeneity and slenderness of the spun fibers are the quality features of the final fabric. Their prediction requires the computation of the fuidber-interactions which involves the solving of a complex three-dimensional multiphase problem with appropriate interface conditions. But this is practically impossible due to the needed high resolution and adaptive grid refinement. Therefore, we propose an asymptotic coupling concept. Treating the glass jets as viscous thermal Cosserat rods, we tackle the multiscale problem by help of momentum (drag) and heat exchange models that are derived on basis of slender-body theory and homogenization. A weak iterative coupling algorithm that is based on the combination of commercial software and self-implemented code for ow and rod solvers, respectively, makes then the simulation of the industrial process possible. For the boundary value problem of the rod we particularly suggest an adapted collocation-continuation method. Consequently, this work establishes a promising basis for future optimization strategies.

The modelling of hedge funds poses a difficult problem since the available reported data sets are often small and incomplete. We propose a switching regression model for hedge funds, in which the coefficients are able to switch between different regimes. The coefficients are governed by a Markov chain in discrete time. The different states of the Markov chain represent different states of the economy, which influence the performance of the independent variables. Hedge fund indices are chosen as regressors. The parameter estimation for the switching parameter as well as for the switching error term is done through a filtering technique for hidden Markov models developed by Elliott (1994). Recursive parameter estimates are calculated through a filter-based EM-algorithm, which uses the hidden information of the underlying Markov chain. Our switching regression model is applied on hedge fund series and hedge fund indices from the HFR database.

In this article, we summarise the rotation-free and quaternionic parametrisation of a rigid body. We derive and explain the close interrelations between both parametrisations. The internal constraints due to the redundancies in the parametrisations, which lead to DAEs, are handled with the null space technique. We treat both single rigid bodies and general multibody systems with joints, which lead to external joint constraints. Several numerical examples compare both formalisms to the index reduced versions of the corresponding standard formulations.

We study global and local robustness properties of several estimators for shape and scale in a generalized Pareto model. The estimators considered in this paper cover maximum likelihood estimators, skipped maximum likelihood estimators, moment-based estimators, Cramér-von-Mises Minimum Distance estimators, and, as a special case of quantile-based estimators, Pickands Estimator as well as variants of the latter tuned for higher finite sample breakdown point (FSBP), and lower variance. We further consider an estimator matching population median and median of absolute deviations to the empirical ones (MedMad); again, in order to improve its FSBP, we propose a variant using a suitable asymmetric Mad as constituent, and which may be tuned to achieve an expected FSBP of 34%. These estimators are compared to one-step estimators distinguished as optimal in the shrinking neighborhood setting, i.e., the most bias-robust estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) bias and the estimator minimizing the maximal (asymptotic) MSE. For each of these estimators, we determine the FSBP, the influence function, as well as statistical accuracy measured by asymptotic bias, variance, and mean squared error—all evaluated uniformly on shrinking convex contamination neighborhoods. Finally, we check these asymptotic theoretical findings against finite sample behavior by an extensive simulation study.

A number of water flow problems in porous media are modelled by Richards’ equation [1]. There exist a lot of different applications of this model. We are concerned with the simulation of the pressing section of a paper machine. This part of the industrial process provides the dewatering of the paper layer by the use of clothings, i.e. press felts, which absorb the water during pressing [2]. A system of nips are formed in the simplest case by rolls, which increase sheet dryness by pressing against each other (see Figure 1). A lot of theoretical studies were done for Richards’ equation (see [3], [4] and references therein). Most articles consider the case of x-independent coefficients. This simplifies the system considerably since, after Kirchhoff’s transformation of the problem, the elliptic operator becomes linear. In our case this condition is not satisfied and we have to consider nonlinear operator of second order. Moreover, all these articles are concerned with the nonstationary problem, while we are interested in the stationary case. Due to complexity of the physical process our problem has a specific feature. An additional convective term appears in our model because the porous media moves with the constant velocity through the pressing rolls. This term is zero in immobile porous media. We are not aware of papers, which deal with such kind of modified steady Richards’ problem. The goal of this paper is to obtain the stability results, to show the existence of a solution to the discrete problem, to prove the convergence of the approximate solution to the weak solution of the modified steady Richards’ equation, which describes the transport processes in the pressing section. In Section 2 we present the model which we consider. In Section 3 a numerical scheme obtained by the finite volume method is given. The main part of this paper is theoretical studies, which are given in Section 4. Section 5 presents a numerical experiment. The conclusion of this work is given in Section 6.

This work deals with the optimal control of a free surface Stokes flow which responds to an applied outer pressure. Typical applications are fiber spinning or thin film manufacturing. We present and discuss two adjoint-based optimization approaches that differ in the treatment of the free boundary as either state or control variable. In both cases the free boundary is modeled as the graph of a function. The PDE-constrained optimization problems are numerically solved by the BFGS method, where the gradient of the reduced cost function is expressed in terms of adjoint variables. Numerical results for both strategies are finally compared with respect to accuracy and efficiency.

Numerical modeling of electrochemical process in Li-Ion battery is an emerging topic of great practical interest. In this work we present a Finite Volume discretization of electrochemical diffusive processes occurring during the operation of Li-Ion batteries. The system of equations is a nonlinear, time-dependent diffusive system, coupling the Li concentration and the electric potential. The system is formulated at length-scale at which two different types of domains are distinguished, one for the electrolyte and one for the active solid particles in the electrode. The domains can be of highly irregular shape, with electrolyte occupying the pore space of a porous electrode. The material parameters in each domain differ by several orders of magnitude and can be non-linear functions of Li ions concentration and/or the electrical potential. Moreover, special interface conditions are imposed at the boundary separating the electrolyte from the active solid particles. The field variables are discontinuous across such an interface and the coupling is highly non- linear, rendering direct iteration methods ineffective for such problems. We formulate a Newton iteration for an purely implicit Finite Volume discretization of the coupled system. A series of numerical examples are presented for different type of electrolyte/electrode configurations and material parameters. The convergence of the Newton method is characterized both as function of nonlinear material parameters as well as the nonlinearity in the interface conditions.

In the Dynamic Multi-Period Routing Problem, one is given a new set of requests at the beginning of each time period. The aim is to assign requests to dates such that all requests are fulfilled by their deadline and such that the total cost for fulling the requests is minimized. We consider a generalization of the problem which allows two classes of requests: The 1st class requests can only be fulfilled by the 1st class server, whereas the 2nd class requests can be fulfilled by either the 1st or 2nd class server. For each tour, the 1st class server incurs a cost that is alpha times the cost of the 2nd class server, and in each period, only one server can be used. At the beginning of each period, the new requests need to be assigned to service dates. The aim is to make these assignments such that the sum of the costs for all tours over the planning horizon is minimized. We study the problem with requests located on the nonnegative real line and prove that there cannot be a deterministic online algorithm with a competitive ratio better than alpha. However, if we require the difference between release and deadline date to be equal for all requests, we can show that there is a min{2*alpha, 2 + 2/alpha}-competitive algorithm.

We present extensions to the Online Delay Management Problem on a Single Train Line. While a train travels along the line, it learns at each station how many of the passengers wanting to board the train have a delay of delta. If the train does not wait for them, they get delayed even more since they have to wait for the next train. Otherwise, the train waits and those passengers who were on time are delayed by delta. The problem consists in deciding when to wait in order to minimize the total delay of all passengers on the train line. We provide an improved lower bound on the competitive ratio of any deterministic online algorithm solving the problem using game tree evaluation. For the extension of the original model to two possible passenger delays delta_1 and delta_2, we present a 3-competitive deterministic online algorithm. Moreover, we study an objective function modeling the refund system of the German national railway company, which pays passengers with a delay of at least Delta a part of their ticket price back. In this setting, the aim is to maximize the profit. We show that there cannot be a deterministic competitive online algorithm for this problem and present a 2-competitive randomized algorithm.

This work specifies and analyzes the ChordNet protocol. ChordNet is able to connect huge numbers of nodes in an efficient peer-to-peer network.

We present an exact algorithm for computing an earliest arrival flow in a discrete time setting on series-parallel graphs. In contrast to previous results for the earliest arrival flow problem this algorithm runs in polynomial time.

Radiotherapy is one of the major forms in cancer treatment. The patient is irradiated with high-energetic photons or charged particles with the primary goal of delivering sufficiently high doses to the tumor tissue while simultaneously sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. The inverse search for the treatment plan giving the desired dose distribution is done by means of numerical optimization [11, Chapters 3-5]. For this purpose, the aspects of dose quality in the tissue are modeled as criterion functions, whose mathematical properties also affect the type of the corresponding optimization problem. Clinical practice makes frequent use of criteria that incorporate volumetric and spatial information about the shape of the dose distribution. The resulting optimization problems are of global type by empirical knowledge and typically computed with generic global solver concepts, see for example [16]. The development of good global solvers to compute radiotherapy optimization problems is an important topic of research in this application, however, the structural properties of the underlying criterion functions are typically not taken into account in this context.

Home Health Care (HHC) services are becoming increasingly important in Europe’s aging societies. Elderly people have varying degrees of need for assistance and medical treatment. It is advantageous to allow them to live in their own homes as long as possible, since a long-term stay in a nursing home can be much more costly for the social insurance system than a treatment at home providing assistance to the required level. Therefore, HHC services are a cost-effective and flexible instrument in the social system. In Germany, organizations providing HHC services are generally either larger charities with countrywide operations or small private companies offering services only in a city or a rural area. While the former have a hierarchical organizational structure and a large number of employees, the latter typically only have some ten to twenty nurses under contract. The relationship to the patients (“customers”) is often long-term and can last for several years. Therefore acquiring and keeping satisfied customers is crucial for HHC service providers and intensive competition among them is observed.

Four aspects are important in the design of hydraulic lters. We distinguish between two cost factors and two performance factors. Regarding performance, filter eciencynd lter capacity are of interest. Regarding cost, there are production considerations such as spatial restrictions, material cost and the cost of manufacturing the lter. The second type of cost is the operation cost, namely the pressure drop. Albeit simulations should and will ultimately deal with all 4 aspects, for the moment our work is focused on cost. The PleatGeo Module generates three-dimensional computer models of a single pleat of a hydraulic lter interactively. PleatDict computes the pressure drop that will result for the particular design by direct numerical simulation. The evaluation of a new pleat design takes only a few hours on a standard PC compared to days or weeks used for manufacturing and testing a new prototype of a hydraulic lter. The design parameters are the shape of the pleat, the permeabilities of one or several layers of lter media and the geometry of a supporting netting structure that is used to keep the out ow area open. Besides the underlying structure generation and CFD technology, we present some trends regarding the dependence of pressure drop on design parameters that can serve as guide lines for the design of hydraulic lters. Compared to earlier two-dimensional models, the three-dimensional models can include a support structure.

In nancial mathematics stock prices are usually modelled directly as a result of supply and demand and under the assumption that dividends are paid continuously. In contrast economic theory gives us the dividend discount model assuming that the stock price equals the present value of its future dividends. These two models need not to contradict each other - in their paper Korn and Rogers (2005) introduce a general dividend model preserving the stock price to follow a stochastic process and to be equal to the sum of all its discounted dividends. In this paper we specify the model of Korn and Rogers in a Black-Scholes framework in order to derive a closed-form solution for the pricing of American Call options under the assumption of a known next dividend followed by several stochastic dividend payments during the option's time to maturity.

Classical geometrically exact Kirchhoff and Cosserat models are used to study the nonlinear deformation of rods. Extension, bending and torsion of the rod may be represented by the Kirchhoff model. The Cosserat model additionally takes into account shearing effects. Second order finite differences on a staggered grid define discrete viscoelastic versions of these classical models. Since the rotations are parametrised by unit quaternions, the space discretisation results in differential-algebraic equations that are solved numerically by standard techniques like index reduction and projection methods. Using absolute coordinates, the mass and constraint matrices are sparse and this sparsity may be exploited to speed-up time integration. Further improvements are possible in the Cosserat model, because the constraints are just the normalisation conditions for unit quaternions such that the null space of the constraint matrix can be given analytically. The results of the theoretical investigations are illustrated by numerical tests.

In this paper, the model of Köttgen, Barkey and Socie, which corrects the elastic stress and strain tensor histories at notches of a metallic specimen under non-proportional loading, is improved. It can be used in connection with any multiaxial s -e -law of incremental plasticity. For the correction model, we introduce a constraint for the strain components that goes back to the work of Hoffmann and Seeger. Parameter identification for the improved model is performed by Automatic Differentiation and an established least squares algorithm. The results agree accurately both with transient FE computations and notch strain measurements.

A numerical method for special Cosserat rods based on Antman’s description [1] is developed for hyperelastic materials and potential forces. This method preserves the relevant properties of the underlying PDE system, namely the orthonormality of the directors and the conservation of the energy.

The rotational spinning of viscous jets is of interest in many industrial applications, including pellet manufacturing [4, 14, 19, 20] and drawing, tapering and spinning of glass and polymer fibers [8, 12, 13], see also [15, 21] and references within. In [12] an asymptotic model for the dynamics of curved viscous inertial fiber jets emerging from a rotating orifice under surface tension and gravity was deduced from the three-dimensional free boundary value problem given by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for a Newtonian fluid. In the terminology of [1], it is a string model consisting of balance equations for mass and linear momentum. Accounting for inner viscous transport, surface tension and placing no restrictions on either the motion or the shape of the jet’s center-line, it generalizes the previously developed string models for straight [3, 5, 6] and curved center-lines [4, 13, 19]. Moreover, the numerical results investigating the effects of viscosity, surface tension, gravity and rotation on the jet behavior coincide well with the experiments of Wong et.al. [20].

In this paper, an extension to the classical capacitated single-allocation hub location problem is studied in which the size of the hubs is part of the decision making process. For each potential hub a set of capacities is assumed to be available among which one can be chosen. Several formulations are proposed for the problem, which are compared in terms of the bound provided by the linear programming relaxation. Di®erent sets of inequalities are proposed to enhance the models. Several preprocessing tests are also presented with the goal of reducing the size of the models for each particular instance. The results of the computational experiments performed using the proposed models are reported.

We introduce a new game, the so-called bin coloring game, in which selfish players control colored items and each player aims at packing its item into a bin with as few different colors as possible. We establish the existence of Nash and strong as well as weakly and strictly Pareto optimal equilibria in these games in the cases of capacitated and uncapacitated bins. For both kinds of games we determine the prices of anarchy and stability concerning those four equilibrium concepts. Furthermore, we show that extreme Nash equilibria, those with minimal or maximal number of colors in a bin, can be found in time polynomial in the number of items for the uncapcitated case.

The understanding of the motion of long slender elastic fibers in turbulent flows is of great interest to research, development and production in technical textiles manufacturing. The fiber dynamics depend on the drag forces that are imposed on the fiber by the fluid. Their computation requires in principle a coupling of fiber and flow with no-slip interface conditions. However, theneeded high resolution and adaptive grid refinement make the direct numerical simulation of the three-dimensional fluid-solid-problem for slender fibers and turbulent flows not only extremely costly and complex, but also still impossible for practically relevant applications. Embedded in a slender body theory, an aerodynamic force concept for a general drag model was therefore derived on basis of a stochastic k-o; description for a turbulent flow field in [23]. The turbulence effects on the fiber dynamics were modeled by a correlated random Gaussian force and its asymptotic limit on a macroscopic fiber scale by Gaussian white noise with flow-dependent amplitude. The concept was numerically studied under the conditions of a melt-spinning process for nonwoven materials in [24] – for the specific choice of a non-linear Taylor drag model. Taylor [35] suggested the heuristic model for high Reynolds number flows, Re in [20, 3 · 105], around inclined slender objects under an angle of attack of alpha in (pi/36, pi/2] between flow and object tangent. Since the Reynolds number is considered with respect to the relative velocity between flow and fiber, the numerical results lackaccuracy evidently for small Re that occur in cases of flexible light fibers moving occasionally with the flow velocity. In such a regime (Re << 1), linear Stokes drag forces were successfully applied for the prediction of small particles immersed in turbulent flows, see e.g. [25, 26, 32, 39], a modifiedStokes force taking also into account the particle oscillations was presented in [14]. The linear drag relation was also conferred to longer filaments by imposing free-draining assumptions [29, 8]. Apart from this, the Taylor drag suffers from its non-applicability to tangential incident flow situations (alpha = 0) that often occur in fiber and nonwoven production processes.

In this paper we investigate the use of the sharp function known from functional analysis in image processing. The sharp function gives a measure of the variations of a function and can be used as an edge detector. We extend the classical notion of the sharp function for measuring anisotropic behaviour and give a fast anisotropic edge detection variant inspired by the sharp function. We show that these edge detection results are useful to steer isotropic and anisotropic nonlinear diffusion filters for image enhancement.

An efficient mathematical model to virtually generate woven metal wire meshes is presented. The accuracy of this model is verified by the comparison of virtual structures with three-dimensional images of real meshes, which are produced via computer tomography. Virtual structures are generated for three types of metal wire meshes using only easy to measure parameters. For these geometries the velocity-dependent pressure drop is simulated and compared with measurements performed by the GKD - Gebr. Kufferath AG. The simulation results lie within the tolerances of the measurements. The generation of the structures and the numerical simulations were done at GKD using the Fraunhofer GeoDict software.

Inspired by Kirchhoff’s kinetic analogy, the special Cosserat theory of rods is formulatedin the language of Lagrangian mechanics. A static rod corresponds to an abstract Lagrangian system where the energy density takes the role of the Lagrangian function. The equilibrium equations are derived from a variational principle. Noether’s theorem relates their first integrals to frame-indifference, isotropy and uniformity. These properties can be formulated in terms of Lie group symmetries. The rotational degrees of freedom, present in the geometrically exact beam theory, are represented in terms of orthonormal director triads. To reduce the number of unknowns, Lagrange multipliers associated with the orthonormality constraints are eliminated using null-space matrices. This is done both in the continuous and in the discrete setting. The discrete equilibrium equations are used to compute discrete rod configurations, where different types of boundary conditions can be handled.