Communicating Applied Mathematics: Four Examples

Communicating Applied Mathematics is a writing- and speaking-intensive graduate course at North Carolina State University. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief description of the course objectives and the assignments. Parts A--D of of this article represent the class projects and illustrate the outcome of the course: We introduce a water-supply problem considered by the optimization and hydrology communities for benchmarking purposes. The objective is to drill five wells so that the cost of pumping water out of the ground is minimized. Using the implicit filtering optimization algorithm to locate the wells, we save approximately $2,500 over the cost of a given initial well configuration. The volume of powder poured into a bin with obstructions is found by calculating the height of the surface at every point. This is done using the fast marching algorithm. We look at two different bin geometries and determine the volumes as a function of the powder height under the spout. The surface of the powder satisfies a two-dimensional eikonal equation. This equation is solved using the fast marching method. Resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) are ultrasmall semiconductor devices that have potential as very high-frequency oscillators. To describe the electron transport within these devices, physicists use the Wigner--Poisson equations which incorporate quantum mechanics to describe the distribution of electrons within the RTD. Continuation methods are employed to determine the steady-state electron distributions as a function of the voltage difference across the device. These simulations predict the operating state of the RTD under different applied voltages and will be a tool to help physicists understand how changing the voltage applied to the device leads to the development of current oscillations. When a thin film flows down an inclined plane, a bulge of fluid, known as a capillary ridge, forms on the leading edge and is subject to a fingering instability in which the fluid is channeled into rivulets. This process is familiar to us in everyday experiments such as painting a wall or pouring syrup over a stack of pancakes. It is also observed that changes in surface tension due to a temperature gradient can draw fluid up an inclined plane. Amazingly, in this situation the capillary ridge broadens and no fingering instability is observed. Numerical and analytical studies of a mathematical model of this process led to the discovery that these observations are associated with a nonclassical shock wave previously unknown to exist in thin liquid films.