SUMMARY An improvement of a new technique for modelling cracks in the nite element framework is presented. A standard displacement-based approximation is enriched near a crack by incorporating both discontinuous elds and the near tip asymptotic elds through a partition of unity method. A methodology that constructs the enriched approximation from the interaction of the crack geometry with the mesh is developed. This technique allows the entire crack to be represented independently of the mesh, and so remeshing is not necessary to model crack growth. Numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the utility and robustness of the proposed technique. Copyright ? 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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A finite element method for crack growth without remeshing

: This reprint will introduce and study the most basic properties of three new variational problems which are suggested by applications to computer vision. In computer vision, a fundamental problem is to appropriately decompose the domain R of a function g (x,y) of two variables. This problem starts by describing the physical situation which produces images: assume that a three-dimensional world is observed by an eye or camera from some point P and that g1(rho) represents the intensity of the light in this world approaching the point sub 1 from a direction rho. If one has a lens at P focusing this light on a retina or a film-in both cases a plane domain R in which we may introduce coordinates x, y then let g(x,y) be the strength of the light signal striking R at a point with coordinates (x,y); g(x,y) is essentially the same as sub 1 (rho) -possibly after a simple transformation given by the geometry of the imaging syste. The function g(x,y) defined on the plane domain R will be called an image. What sort of function is g? The light reflected off the surfaces Si of various solid objects O sub i visible from P will strike the domain R in various open subsets R sub i. When one object O1 is partially in front of another object O2 as seen from P, but some of object O2 appears as the background to the sides of O1, then the open sets R1 and R2 will have a common boundary (the 'edge' of object O1 in the image defined on R) and one usually expects the image g(x,y) to be discontinuous along this boundary. (JHD)

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Optimal approximations by piecewise smooth functions and associated variational problems

The evolution of the state of many systems modeled by linear partial diﬁerentialequations (PDEs) or linear delay-diﬁerential equations can be described by operatorsemigroups. The state of such a system is an element in an inﬂnite-dimensionalnormed space, whence the name \inﬂnite-dimensional linear system".The study of operator semigroups is a mature area of functional analysis, which isstill very active. The study of observation and control operators for such semigroupsis relatively more recent. These operators are needed to model the interactionof a system with the surrounding world via outputs or inputs. The main topicsof interest about observation and control operators are admissibility, observability,controllability, stabilizability and detectability. Observation and control operatorsare an essential ingredient of well-posed linear systems (or more generally systemnodes). Inthisbookwedealonlywithadmissibility, observabilityandcontrollability.We deal only with operator semigroups acting on Hilbert spaces.This book is meant to be an elementary introduction into the topics mentionedabove. By \elementary" we mean that we assume no prior knowledge of ﬂnite-dimensional control theory, and no prior knowledge of operator semigroups or ofunbounded operators. We introduce everything needed from these areas. We doassume that the reader has a basic understanding of bounded operators on Hilbertspaces, diﬁerential equations, Fourier and Laplace transforms, distributions andSobolev spaces on

Observation and Control for Operator Semigroups

Basic error estimates for elliptic problems

The Heat Equation is one of the three classical linear partial differential equations of second order that form the basis of any elementary introduction to the area of PDEs, and only recently has it come to be fairly well understood. In this monograph, aimed at research students and academics in mathematics and engineering, as well as engineering specialists, Professor Vazquez provides a systematic and comprehensive presentation of the mathematical theory of the nonlinear heat equation usually called the Porous Medium Equation (PME). This equation appears in a number of physical applications, such as to describe processes involving fluid flow, heat transfer or diffusion. Other applications have been proposed in mathematical biology, lubrication, boundary layer theory, and other fields. Each chapter contains a detailed introduction and is supplied with a section of notes, providing comments, historical notes or recommended reading, and exercises for the reader.

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The Porous Medium Equation: Mathematical Theory

Foreword Preface 1. Sobolev spaces 2. Regular second-order elliptic boundary value problems 3. Second-order elliptic boundary value problems in convex domains 4. Second-order boundary value problems in polygons 5. More singular solutions 6. Results in spaces of Holder functions 7. A model fourth-order problem 8. Miscellaneous Bibliography Index.

Pierre Grisvard

Papers

Elliptic Problems in Nonsmooth Domains