Temporally quasiperiodic data, propagating in the laboratory frame, can be rendered periodic by Galilean transformation.

Abstract

For a broad class of distributions of temperature, concentration, or another quantity propagating rectilinearly, we show that temporally quasiperiodic behavior in the laboratory frame can be rendered periodic by Galilean transformation. The approach is illustrated analytically and numerically using as an example a closed-form model distribution generated from a one-dimensional partial differential equation, and a detailed process is developed to determine frame speed from more general quasiperiodic, one-dimensional, temporally- and spatially-discretized data. The approach is extended to two- and three-dimensional rectilinear propagation, and its application to nonrectilinear propagation, along with implications for interpreting noise-corrupted data, are also discussed.