In this paper, we consider periodic soft inclusions $T_ε$ with periodicity $ε$, where the solution, $u_ε$, satisfies semi-linear elliptic equations of non-divergence in $Ω_ε=Ω\setminus \bar{T}_ε$ with a Neumann data on $\partial T^{\mathfrak a}$ . The difficulty lies in the non-divergence structure of the operator where the standard energy method based on the divergence theorem can not be applied. The main object is developing a viscosity method to find the homogenized equation satisfied by the limit of $u_ε$, called as $u$, as $ε$ approaches to zero. We introduce the concept of a compatibility condition between the equation and the Neumann condition on the boundary for the existence of uniformly bounded periodic first correctors. The concept of second corrector has been developed to show the limit, $u$, is the viscosity solution of a homogenized equation.
We present a simple example of toughening mechanism in the homogenization of composites with soft inclusions, produced by crack deflection at microscopic level. We show that the mechanism is connected to the irreversibility of the crack process. Because of that it cannot be detected through the standard homogenization tool of the $Γ$-convergence.
We investigate the homogenization of inclusions of infinite conductivity, randomly stationary distributed inside a homogeneous conducting medium. A now classical result by Zhikov shows that, under a logarithmic moment bound on the inter-particle distance, an effective model with finite homogeneous conductivity exists. Relying on ideas from network approximation, we provide a relaxed criterion ensuring homogenization. Several examples not covered by the previous theory are discussed.
We establish large-scale interior Lipschitz estimates for solutions to systems of linear elasticity with rapidly oscillating periodic coefficients and Dirichlet boundary conditions in domains with periodically placed inclusions of size $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon)$ and magnitude $δ$ by establishing $H^1$-convergence rates for such solutions. The interior estimates at the macroscopic scale are derived directly without the use of compactness via a Campanato-type scheme presented by S. Armstrong and C.K. Smart and that was adapted for uniformly elliptic equations in by Armstrong and Z. Shen.
This paper is devoted to the study of uniform $W^{1,\frac{np}{n-p}}$- and $W^{2,p}$-estimates for viscosity solutions to fully nonlinear, uniformly elliptic, periodic homogenization problems, up to boundaries, subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions. We characterize the size of "effective" Hessian and gradient of viscosity solutions to homogenization problems, and prove its uniform integrability without any regularity assumption on the governing functionals. Our estimates are new even for the standard problems. Our analysis applies to a large class of non-convex functionals.
We prove a homogenization result for Mumford-Shah-type energies associated to a brittle composite material with weak inclusions distributed periodically at a scale ${\varepsilon}>0$. The matrix and the inclusions in the material have the same elastic moduli but very different toughness moduli, with the ratio of the toughness modulus in the matrix and in the inclusions being $1/β_{\varepsilon}$, with $β_{\varepsilon}>0$ small. We show that the high-contrast behaviour of the composite leads to the emergence of interesting effects in the limit: The volume and surface energy densities interact by …
We consider a suspension of active rigid particles (swimmers) in a steady Stokes flow, where particles are distributed according to a stationary ergodic random process, and we study its homogenization in the macroscopic limit. A key point in the model is that swimmers are allowed to adapt their propulsion to the surrounding fluid deformation: swimming forces are not prescribed a priori, but are rather obtained through the retroaction of the fluid. Qualitative homogenization of this nonlinear model requires an unusual proof that crucially relies on a semi-quantitative two-scale analysis. After …
This contribution is concerned with the effective viscosity problem, that is, the homogenization of the steady Stokes system with a random array of rigid particles, for which the main difficulty is the treatment of close particles. Standard approaches in the literature have addressed this issue by making moment assumptions on interparticle distances. Such assumptions however prevent clustering of particles, which is not compatible with physically-relevant particle distributions. In this contribution, we take a different perspective and consider moment bounds on the size of clusters of close pa…
We consider the homogenization of a semilinear heat equation with vanishing viscosity and with oscillating positive potential depending on $u/\varepsilon$. According to the rate between the frequency of oscillations in the potential and the vanishing factor in the viscosity, we obtain different regimes in the limit evolution and we discuss the locally uniform convergence of the solutions to the effective problem. The interesting feature of the model is that in the strong diffusion regime the effective operator is discontinuous in the gradient entry. We get a complete characterization of the li…
In this article, we investigate the spectrum of the Neumann-Poincaré operator associated to a periodic distribution of small inclusions with size $\varepsilon$, and its asymptotic behavior as the parameter $\varepsilon$ vanishes. Combining techniques pertaining to the fields of homogenization and potential theory, we prove that the limit spectrum is composed of the `trivial' eigenvalues $0$ and $1$, and of a subset which stays bounded away from $0$ and $1$ uniformly with respect to $\varepsilon$. This non trivial part is the reunion of the \textit{Bloch spectrum}, accounting for the collective…
We obtain the first quantitative stochastic homogenization result for reaction-diffusion equations, for ignition reactions in dimensions $d\le 3$ that either have finite ranges of dependence or are close enough to such reactions, and for solutions with initial data that approximate characteristic functions of general convex sets. We show algebraic rate of convergence of these solutions to their homogenized limits, which are (discontinuous) viscosity solutions of certain related Hamilton-Jacobi equations.
In this paper we deal with a second order nonlinear evolution inclusion, with a nonmonotone, noncoercive viscosity term. Using a parabolic regularization (approximation) of the problem and {\it a priori} bounds that permit passing to the limit, we prove that the problem has a solution.
In this work, we study the Bloch wave homogenization for the Stokes system with periodic viscosity coefficient. In particular, we obtain the spectral interpretation of the homogenized tensor. The presence of the incompressibility constraint in the model raises new issues linking the homogenized tensor and the Bloch spectral data. The main difficulty is a lack of smoothness for the bottom of the Bloch spectrum, a phenomenon which is not present in the case of the elasticity system. This issue is solved in the present work, completing the homogenization process of the Stokes system via the Bloch…
We consider the homogenization of the Hele-Shaw problem in periodic media that are inhomogeneous both in space and time. After extending the theory of viscosity solutions into this context, we show that the solutions of the inhomogeneous problem converge in the homogenization limit to the solution of a homogeneous Hele-Shaw-type problem with a general, possibly nonlinear dependence of the free boundary velocity on the gradient. Moreover, the free boundaries converge locally uniformly in Hausdorff distance.
We consider a non--homogeneous incompressible and heat conducting fluid confined to a 3D domain perforated by tiny holes. The ratio of the diameter of the holes and their mutual distance is critical, the former being equal to $ε^3$, the latter proportional to $ε$, where $ε$ is a small parameter. We identify the asymptotic limit for $ε\to 0$, in which the momentum equation contains a friction term of Brinkman type determined uniquely by the viscosity and geometric properties of the perforation. Besides the inhomogeneity of the fluid, we allow the viscosity and the heat conductivity coefficient …
This paper deals with the periodic homogenization of nonlocal parabolic Hamilton-Jacobi equations with superlinear growth in the gradient terms. We show that the problem presents different features depending on the order of the nonlocal operator, giving rise to three different limit problems. To prove the locally uniform convergence to the unique solution of the Cauchy problem for the effective equation we need a new comparison principle among viscosity semi-solutions of integro-differential equations that can be of independent interest.
This paper is concerned with space-time homogenization problems for damped wave equations with spatially periodic oscillating elliptic coefficients and temporally (arithmetic) quasi-periodic oscillating viscosity coefficients. Main results consist of a homogenization theorem, qualitative properties of homogenized matrices which appear in homogenized equations and a corrector result for gradients of solutions. In particular, homogenized equations and cell problems will turn out to deeply depend on the quasi-periodicity as well as the log ratio of spatial and temporal periods of the coefficients…
We establish higher order convergence rates in the theory of periodic homogenization of both linear and fully nonlinear uniformly elliptic equations of non-divergence form. The rates are achieved by involving higher order correctors which fix the errors occurring both in the interior and on the boundary layer of our physical domain. The proof is based on a viscosity method and a new regularity theory which captures the stability of the correctors with respect to the shape of our limit profile.
In this paper we study the homogenization of a linear elastodynamics system in an elastic body with soft inclusions, which is embedded in a highly oscillating magnetic field. We show two limit behaviors according to the magnetic field. On the one hand, if the magnetic field has two different directions on the interface between the hard phase and the soft phase, then the limit of the displacement in the hard phase is independent of time, so that the magnetic field induces an effective infinite mass. On the other hand, if the magnetic field has a constant direction $ξ$ on the interface, then the…
We study the stochastic homogenization for a Cauchy problem for a first-order Hamilton-Jacobi equation whose operator is not coercive w.r.t. the gradient variable. We look at Hamiltonians like $H(x,σ(x)p,ω)$ where $σ(x)$ is a matrix associated to a Carnot group. The rescaling considered is consistent with the underlying Carnot group structure, thus anisotropic. We will prove that under suitable assumptions for the Hamiltonian, the solutions of the $\varepsilon$-problem converge to a deterministic function which can be characterized as the unique (viscosity) solution of a suitable deterministic…
We study the homogenization properties in the small viscosity limit and in periodic environments of the (viscous) backward-forward mean-field games system. We consider separated Hamiltonians and provide results for systems with (i) "smoothing" coupling and general initial and terminal data, and (ii) with "local coupling" but well-prepared data.The limit is a first-order forward-backward system. In the nonlocal coupling case, the averaged system is of mfg-type, which is well-posed in some cases. For the problems with local coupling, the homogenization result is proved assuming that the formally…
We consider viscosity solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi equations with oscillatory spatial dependence and rough time dependence. The time dependence is in the form of the derivative of a continuous path that converges to a possibly nowhere-differentiable path, for example a Brownian motion. In the case where the path is one-dimensional, we prove that the solutions converge locally uniformly to the solution of a spatially homogenous, stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi equation in the sense of Lions and Souganidis. We also provide examples of equations in which the path is multi-dimensional, and show that ma…
This work deals with the homogenization of an initial- and boundary-value problem for the doubly-nonlinear system $$ D_t w -\nabla\cdot \vec z = \nabla\cdot \vec h(x,t,x/\varepsilon), \qquad w\in α(u,x/\varepsilon), \qquad \vec z\in \vecγ(\nabla u,x/\varepsilon). $$ Here $\varepsilon$ is a positive parameter, and the prescribed mappings $α$ and $\vecγ$ are maximal monotone with respect to the first variable and periodic with respect to the second one. The two inclusions are here formulated as null-minimization principles, via the theory of Fitzpatrick [MR 1009594]. As $\varepsilon\to 0$, a two…
Let $u^\varepsilon$ and $u$ be viscosity solutions of the oscillatory Hamilton-Jacobi equation and its corresponding effective equation. Given bounded, Lipschitz initial data, we present a simple proof to obtain the optimal rate of convergence $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon)$ of $u^\varepsilon \rightarrow u$ as $\varepsilon \rightarrow 0^+$ for a large class of convex Hamiltonians $H(x,y,p)$ in one dimension. This class includes the Hamiltonians from classical mechanics with separable potential. The proof makes use of optimal control theory and a quantitative version of the ergodic theorem for perio…
We derive optimal estimates in stochastic homogenization of linear elliptic equations in divergence form in dimensions $d\ge 2$. In previous works we studied the model problem of a discrete elliptic equation on $\mathbb{Z}^d$. Under the assumption that a spectral gap estimate holds in probability, we proved that there exists a stationary corrector field in dimensions $d>2$ and that the energy density of that corrector behaves as if it had finite range of correlation in terms of the variance of spatial averages - the latter decays at the rate of the central limit theorem. In this article we ext…
We determine the effective behavior of a class of composites in finite-strain crystal plasticity, based on a variational model for materials made of fine parallel layers of two types. While one component is completely rigid in the sense that it admits only local rotations, the other one is softer featuring a single active slip system with linear self-hardening. As a main result, we obtain explicit homogenization formulas by means of Γ-convergence. Due to the anisotropic nature of the problem, the findings depend critically on the orientation of the slip direction relative to the layers, leadin…
This paper is concerned with the behavior of the ergodic constant associated with convex and superlinear Hamilton-Jacobi equation in a periodic environment which is perturbed either by medium with increasing period or by a random Bernoulli perturbation with small parameter. We find a first order Taylor's expansion for the ergodic constant which depends on the dimension d. When d = 1 the first order term is non trivial, while for all d $\ge$ 2 it is always 0. Although such questions have been looked at in the context of linear uniformly elliptic homogenization, our results are the first of this…
Consider a colloidal suspension of rigid particles in a steady Stokes flow. In a celebrated work, Einstein argued that in the regime of dilute particles the system behaves at leading order like a Stokes fluid with some explicit effective viscosity. In the present contribution, we rigorously define a notion of effective viscosity, regardless of the dilute regime assumption. More precisely, we establish a homogenization result when particles are distributed according to a given stationary and ergodic random point process. The main novelty is the introduction and analysis of suitable corrector eq…
It is now well established that the homogenization of a periodic array of parallel dielectric fibers with suitably scaled high permittivity can lead to a (possibly) negative frequency-dependent effective permeability. However this result based on a two-dimensional approach holds merely in the case of linearly polarized magnetic fields, reducing thus its applications to infinite cylindrical obstacles. In this paper we consider a dielectric structure placed in a bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^3$ and perform a full 3D asymptotic analysis. The main ingredient is a new averaging method for character…
This work concerns the analysis of wave propagation in random media. Our medium of interest is sea ice, which is a composite of a pure ice background and randomly located inclusions of brine and air. From a pulse emitted by a source above the sea ice layer, the main objective of this work is to derive a model for the backscattered signal measured at the source/detector location. The problem is difficult in that, in the practical configuration we consider, the wave impinges on the layer with a non-normal incidence. Since the sea ice is seen by the pulse as an effective (homogenized) medium, the…
