Departmental Colloquia Spring 2010

Colloquium talks will take place some Tuesdays at 4.00 pm in Room 505 on the 5th floor of the mathematics department. See how to find us for further details. There will be tea afterwards in room 606.

If you require any more information on these talks, please contact either Dr Nadia Sidorova (e-mail: n.sidorova AT ucl.ac.uk or tel: 020-7679-7864) or Professor Yaroslav Kurylev (e-mail: y.kurylev AT ucl.ac.uk or tel: 020-7679-7896).

09 February 2010 

Professor Frank Smith - UCL 

Many-body problems in fluids

Abstract:

The talk is on a series of particular problems involving interactions between an arbitrary number of bodies and the surrounding fluid. In each case application of mathematics rather than direct simulation has led to significant contributions towards understanding. All cases arise from a medical modelling or industrial background and motivation. A review of recent studies will be included, concerned with relatively high flow rates and thin bodies. This will be followed by a more detailed account of one type of fluid-body interplay.

09 March 2010

Professor John Toland - University of Bath 

Steady wave with vorticity prescribed by a distribution function

Abstract:

The existence question for waves on the surface of an incompressible inviscid fluid flow with vorticity is formulated as a variational problem over functions with prescribed distribution (a class of rearrangements). A weak formulation is derived and the existence of non-trivial waves is proved in the presence of surface tension. (Non-trivial means that the waves are not parallel flows.) Many problems remain. Joint work with G R Burton.