Stress concentration for closely located inclusions in nonlinear perfect conductivity problems

We study the stress concentration, which is the gradient of the solution, when two smooth inclusions are closely located in a possibly anisotropic medium $\mathrm{\Omega }?{\mathbb{R}}^N$, $N\ge 2$. The governing equation may be degenerate of p-Laplace type, with $1<p\le N$. We prove optimal $L^{\infty }$ estimates for the blow-up of the gradient of the solution as the distance between the inclusions tends to zero.     

Decomposition theorems and fine estimates for electrical fields in the presence of closely located circular inclusions

When two inclusions get closer and their conductivities degenerate to zero or infinity, the gradient of the solution to the conductivity equation blows up in general. In this paper, we show that the solution to the conductivity equation can be decomposed into two parts in an explicit form: one of them has a bounded gradient and the gradient of the other part blows up. Using the decomposition, we derive the best possible estimates for the blow-up of the gradient. We then consider the case when the inclusions have positive permittivities. We show quantitatively that in this case the size of the blow-up is reduced.     

A priori time regularity estimates and a simplified proof of existence in perfect plasticity

We revisit the time‐incremental method for proving existence of a quasistatic evolution in perfect plasticity. We show how, as a consequence of a priori time regularity estimates on the stress and the plastic strain, the piecewise affine interpolants of the solutions of the incremental minimum problems satisfy the conditions defining a quasistatic evolution up to some vanishing error. This allows for a quicker proof of existence: furthermore, this proof bypasses the usual variational reformulation of the problem and directly tackles its original mechanical formulation in terms of an equilibrium condition, a stress constraint, and the principle of maximum plastic work.