A well-posed Euler-Bernoulli beam model incorporating nonlocality and surface energy effect

This study shows that it is possible to develop a well-posed size-dependent model by considering the effect of both nonlocality and surface energy, and the model can provide another effective way of nanomechanics for nanostructures. For a practical but simple problem(an Euler-Bernoulli beam model under bending), the ill-posed issue of the pure nonlocal integral elasticity can be overcome. Therefore, a well-posed governing equation can be developed for the Euler-Bernoulli beams when considering both the pure nonlocal integral elasticity and surface elasticity. Moreover, closed-form solutions are found for the deflections of clamped-clamped(C-C), simply-supported(S-S) and cantilever(C-F) nano-/micro-beams. The effective elastic moduli are obtained in terms of the closed-form solutions since the transfer of physical quantities in the transition region is an important problem for span-scale modeling methods. The nonlocal integral and surface elasticities are adopted to examine the size-dependence of the effective moduli and deflection of Ag beams.     

Local and Global Injective Solution of the Rotationally Symmetric Sphere Problem

There are problems in the classical linear theory of elasticity whose closed form solutions, while satisfying the governing equations of equilibrium together with well-posed boundary conditions, predict the existence of regions, often quite small, inside the body where material overlaps. Of course, material overlapping is not physically realistic, and one possible way to prevent it combines linear theory with the requirement that the deformation field be injective. A formulation of minimization problems in classical linear elasticity proposed by Fosdick and Royer [3] imposes this requirement through a Lagrange multiplier technique. An existence theorem for minimizers of plane problems is also presented. In general, however, it is not certain that such minimizers exist. Here, the Euler–Lagrange equations corresponding to a family of three-dimensional problems is investigated. In classical linear elasticity, these problems do not have bounded solutions inside a body of anisotropic material for a range of material parameters. For another range of parameters, bounded solutions do exist but yield stresses that are infinite at a point inside the body. In addition, these solutions are not injective in a region surrounding this point, yielding unrealistic behavior such as overlapping of material. Applying the formulation of Fosdick and Royer on this family of problems, it is shown that both the displacements and the constitutive part of the stresses are bounded for all values of the material parameters and that the injectivity constraint is preserved. In addition, a penalty functional formulation of the constrained elastic problems is proposed, which allows to devise a numerical approach to compute the solutions of these problems. The approach consists of finding the displacement field that minimizes an augmented potential energy functional. This augmented functional is composed of the potential energy of linear elasticity theory and of a penalty functional divided by a penalty parameter. A sequence of solutions is then constructed, parameterized by the penalty parameter, that converges to a function that satisfies the first variation conditions for a minimizer of the constrained minimization problem when this parameter tends to infinity. This approach has the advantages of being mathematically appealling and computationally simple to implement.     

Waves in Constrained Linear Elastic Materials

This paper deals with the propagation of acceleration waves in constrained linear elastic materials, within the framework of the so-called linearized finite theory of elasticity, as defined by Hoger and Johnson in [12, 13]. In this theory, the constitutive equations are obtained by linearization of the corresponding finite constitutive equations with respect to the displacement gradient and significantly differ from those of the classical linear theory of elasticity. First, following the same procedure used for the constitutive equations, the amplitude condition for a general constraint is obtained. Explicit results for the amplitude condition for incompressible and inextensible materials are also given and compared with those of the classical linear theory of elasticity. In particular, it is shown that for the constraint of incompressibility the classical linear elasticity provides an amplitude condition that, coincidently, is correct, while for the constraint of inextensibility the disagreement is first order in the displacement gradient. Then, the propagation condition for the constraints of incompressibility and inextensibility is studied. For incompressible materials the propagation condition is solved and explicit values for the squares of the speeds of propagation are obtained. For inextensible materials the propagation condition is solved for plane acceleration waves propagating into a homogeneously strained material. For both constraints, it is shown that the squares of the speeds of propagation depend by terms that are first order in the displacement gradient, while in classical linear elasticity they are constant. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Perturbations of flows of incompressible nonlinearly viscous and viscoplastic fluids caused by variations in material functions

Material functions are necessary element of the constitutive relations determining any model of continuum. These functions can be defined as a collection of objects from which the operator of constitutive relations can be reconstructed completely. The material functions are found in test experiments and show the differences between a given medium and other media in the framework of the same model [1]. The “test experiment theory” is an important part of modern experimental mechanics.Just as in any experiment, from determining the viscosity coefficient by using the rotational viscosimeters to constructing the yield surface by using machines combined loading, the material functions are determined with an unavoidable error. For example, experimenters know that, in experiments with arbitrary accuracy, the moduli of elasticity can only be measured with an unimprovable tolerance of about 7%. Starting already from [2], the investigators’ attention has been repeatedly drawn to the fact that it is necessary to take into account this tolerance in determining the material constants, functions, and functionals in problems of mechanics and especially in analyzing the stability of deformation processes. Mathematically, this means that problems of stability under perturbations of the initial data, external constantly acting forces, domain boundaries, etc. should be supplemented with the assumption that the material functions have unknown perturbations of a certain class [3].The variations of material functions in the framework of the linearized stability theory were considered in [2, 4, 5]. In what follows, we study isotropic tensor functions in the most general case of scalar and tensor nonlinearity. These functions are assigned the meaning of constitutive relations between the stress and strain rate tensors in continuum. These constitutive relations contain scalar material functions of invariants on which, as follows from the above, some variations proportional to a small physical parameter α can be imposed. These variations imply perturbations of the tensor function itself. The components of such perturbations linear and quadratic in α are determined. In each of the approximations, we write out a closed system of equations consisting of the equations of motion (linear in the variables of the respective approximation) and the incompressibility condition.We analyze tensor-linear functions with arbitrary scalar rheology inmore detail. Materials with such constitutive relations include non-Newtonian viscous fluids and viscoplastic materials. Viscoplastic materials are characterized by the existence of rigidity zones, where the stress intensity is less than the yield strength. We derive equations for the boundaries of the rigidity zones in the perturbed motion, in particular, for the case in which the unperturbed medium is a viscous Newtonian fluid. Throughout the paper, index-free notation is used.     

Energy relaxation of non-convex incremental stress potentials in a strain-softening elastic–plastic bar

We propose a fundamentally new concept to the treatment of material instabilities and localization phenomena based on energy minimization principles in a strain-softening elastic–plastic bar. The basis is a recently developed incremental variational formulation of the local constitutive response for generalized standard media. It provides a quasi-hyperelastic stress potential that is obtained from a local minimization of the incremental energy density with respect to the internal variables. The existence of this variational formulation induces the definition of the material stability of inelastic solids based on convexity properties in analogy to treatments in elasticity. Furthermore, localization phenomena are understood as micro-structure development associated with a non-convex incremental stress potential in analogy to phase decomposition problems in elasticity. For the one-dimensional bar considered the two-phase micro-structure can analytically be resolved by the construction of a sequentially weakly lower semicontinuous energy functional that envelops the not well-posed original problem. This relaxation procedure requires the solution of a local energy minimization problem with two variables which define the one-dimensional micro-structure developing: the volume fraction and the intensity of the micro-bifurcation. The relaxation analysis yields a well-posed boundary-value problem for an objective post-critical localization analysis. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated for different discretizations of the elastic–plastic bar which document on the mesh-independence of the results.     

弹性力学的一种正交关系

在弹性力学求解新体系中，将对偶向量进行重新排序后，提出了一种新的对偶微分矩阵，对于有一个方向正交的各向异性材料的三维弹性力学问题发现了一种新的正交关系．将材料的正交方向取为z轴，证明了这种正交关系的成立．对于z方向材料正交的各向异性弹性力学问题，新的正交关系包含弹性力学求解新体系提出的正交关系。     

Internal constraints in linear elasticity

Sufficient conditions are obtained for continuous dependence of solutions of boundary value problems of linear elasticity on internal constraints. Arbitrary hyperelastic materials with arbitrary (linear) internal constraints are included. In particular the results of Bramble and Payne, Kobelkov, Mikhlin for homogeneous, isotropic, incompressible materials are obtained as a special case. In the case of boundary value problem of place, a compatibility condition is obtained between the internal constraints and the boundary data which is necessary for the existence of solutions. With a further coercivity assumption on the compliance tensor, it is shown that the compatibility condition is also sufficient for existence. An orthogonal decomposition theorem for second order tensor fields modeled after Weyl's decomposition of solenoidal and gradient fields leads to the variational formulation of the problem and existence theorems.Almost all the results here apply to materials both with or without internal constraints. For internally constrained materials however, the verification of certain hypothesis is surprisingly non-trivial as indicated by the computation in the appendix.     

Couette flow of granular materials

The flow of granular materials between rotating cylinders is studied using a continuum model proposed by Rajagopal and Massoudi (A method for measuring material moduli for granular materials: flow in an orthogonal rheometer, DOE/PETC/TR90/3, 1990). For a steady, fully developed condition, the governing equations are reduced to a system of coupled non-linear ordinary differential equations. The resulting boundary value problem is non-dimensionalized and is then solved numerically. The effect of material parameters, i.e., dimensionless numbers on the volume fraction and the velocity fields are studied.     

Inverse spectral problems for inhomogeneous elastic cylinders

The goal of the paper is to formulate the inverse spectral problems for a determination of elastic moduli and to develop a method of their solution. These types of problems always arise when one tries to determine moduli in inhomogeneous materials using spectral data which are received from an experiment of excitation of free oscillations. Our treatment of the problems is within the framework of linear elasticity and is based on the Levitan and Marchenko's theory of Sturm-Liouville inverse problems.     

Dynamic stability analysis of an elastic composite material having a negative-stiffness phase

The rigorous classical bounds of elastic composite materials theory provide limits on the achievable composite stiffnesses in terms of the properties and arrangements of the composite's constituents. These bounds result from the assumption, presumably made for stability reasons, that each constituent material must have positive-definite elastic moduli. If this assumption is relaxed, recently published elasticity analyses and experimental measurements show these bounds can be greatly exceeded, resulting in new materials of enormous potential.The key question is whether a composite material having a non-positive-definite constituent can be stable overall in the practically useful situation of applied traction boundary conditions. Drugan [2007. Elastic composite materials having a negative-stiffness phase can be stable. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (5), article no. 055502] first proved the answer is yes, by applying the energy criterion of elastic stability to the basic two- and three-dimensional composites consisting of a cylinder or sphere having non-positive-definite (but strongly elliptic) moduli with a thin positive-definite coating and proving overall stability provided the coating is sufficiently stiff.Here, we perform a complete and direct dynamic stability analysis of the plane strain fundamental elastic composite consisting of a circular cylinder of non-positive-definite material firmly bonded to a positive-definite concentric coating, for the full range of coating thicknesses (i.e., volume fractions). We determine quantitatively the full permissible range of inclusion and coating moduli, as a function of coating thickness, for which the overall composite is stable under dead traction boundary conditions. Among the results, we show that in the thin-coating case, the present dynamic stability analysis leads to precisely the same analytical stability requirements as those derived via the energy criterion by Drugan [2007. Elastic composite materials having a negative-stiffness phase can be stable. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 (5), article no. 055502], and we derive new analytical stability requirements that are valid for a wider range of coating thickness. At the other extreme, we show that in the case of very thick coatings (corresponding to the dilute case of a matrix-inclusion composite), even an inclusion with merely strongly elliptic moduli can be stabilized by a positive-definite matrix satisfying weak requirements, for which we derive analytical expressions. Overall, our results show that surprisingly weak restrictions on the moduli and thickness of the positive-definite coating are sufficient to stabilize a non-positive-definite inclusion, even one whose moduli are merely strongly elliptic. These results legitimize expanding the search for novel materials with extreme properties to those incorporating a non-positive-definite constituent, and they provide quantitative restrictions on the constituent materials’ moduli and volume fractions, for the geometry examined here, that ensure overall stability of such composite materials.     

Stroh formulation for a generally constrained and pre-stressed elastic material

The Stroh formalism is essentially a spatial Hamiltonian formulation and has been recognized to be a powerful tool for solving elasticity problems involving generally anisotropic elastic materials for which conventional methods developed for isotropic materials become intractable. In this paper we develop the Stroh/Hamiltonian formulation for a generally constrained and prestressed elastic material. We derive the corresponding integral representation for the surface-impedance tensor and explain how it can be used, together with a matrix Riccati equation, to calculate the surface-wave speed. The proposed algorithm can deal with any form of constraint, pre-stress, and direction of wave propagation. As an illustration, previously known results are reproduced for surface waves in a pre-stressed incompressible elastic material and an unstressed inextensible fibre-reinforced composite, and an additional example is included analyzing the effects of pre-stress upon surface waves in an inextensible material.     

On the overall moduli of non-linear elastic composite materials

From the work of R. Hill on constitutive macro-variables it is known that for an inhomogeneous elastic solid under finite strain an overall elastic constitutive law may be defined. In particular, the volume average of the strain energy of the solid is a function only of the volume-averaged deformation gradient. In view of the importance of this result it is re-derived in this paper as a prelude to a discussion of composite materials. A composite material consisting of a dilute suspension of initially spherical inclusions embedded in a matrix of different material is considered. For second-order isotropic elasticity theory an expression for the overall bulk modulus of the composite material is obtained in terms of the moduli of the constituents. When the inclusions are vacuous a known result for the bulk modulus of porous materials is recovered. In certain situations the strengthening/ weakening effects of the inclusions are less pronounced in the second-order theory than in the linear theory.     

On the mechanical modeling of anisotropic biological soft tissue and iterative parallel solution strategies

Biological soft tissues appearing in arterial walls are characterized by a nearly incompressible, anisotropic, hyperelastic material behavior in the physiological range of deformations. For the representation of such materials we apply a polyconvex strain energy function in order to ensure the existence of minimizers and in order to satisfy the Legendre–Hadamard condition automatically. The 3D discretization results in a large system of equations; therefore, a parallel algorithm is applied to solve the equilibrium problem. Domain decomposition methods like the Dual-Primal Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting (FETI-DP) method are designed to solve large linear systems of equations, that arise from the discretization of partial differential equations, on parallel computers. Their numerical and parallel scalability, as well as their robustness, also in the incompressible limit, has been shown theoretically and in numerical simulations. We are using a dual-primal FETI method to solve nonlinear, anisotropic elasticity problems for 3D models of arterial walls and present some preliminary numerical results.     

Memory decay rates of viscoelastic solids: not too slow, but not too fast either

Fading memory is a distinguishing characteristic of viscoelastic solids. Its assessment is often achieved by measuring the stress due to harmonic strain histories at different frequencies: from the experimental point of view, the storage and loss moduli are, hence, introduced. On the other side, the mathematical modeling of viscoelastic materials is usually based on the consideration of a kernel function whose decay rate is sufficiently fast. For several different solid materials, we have collated experimental evidence showing an high sensitivity to frequency variations of both the storage and loss moduli. By contrast, we prove that the commonly employed viscoelastic kernels (Prony series, continuous kernel, etc.) cannot reproduce this experimental behavior, as the resulting frequency sensitivity of the storage modulus is always zero when assessed at low frequency. This leads to identification problems of the material parameters which are strongly ill conditioned. However, we identify the specific kernel property which is responsible for this misbehavior: the long-term material memory must not decrease too fast. Some viscoelastic kernels, showing the correct memory??s rate of decay, are introduced and their improved ability to match the experimental data analyzed.     

Preparation of Materials for Composite Photoelastic Models

For composite structural problems, modulus of elasticity may vary appreciably for different material zones. For example, a concrete dam founded on faulted or layered rock, a steel-framed building resting on a soil foundation or the bone-flesh interaction problem in biomechanics. For the exact representation of a composite structure, photoelastic materials of the same modular ratios as in the prototype should be used, provided such materials are available.     

Influence of interfaces on effective properties of nanomaterials with stochastically distributed spherical inclusions

The method of conditional moments is generalized to include evaluation of the effective elastic properties of particulate nanomaterials and to investigate the size effect in those materials. Determining the effective constants necessitates finding a stochastically averaged solution to the fundamental equations of linear elasticity coupled with surface/interface conditions (Gurtin–Murdoch model). To obtain such a solution the system of governing stochastic differential equations is first transformed to an equivalent system of stochastic integral equations. Using statistical averaging, the boundary-value problem is then converted to an infinite system of linear algebraic equations. A two-point approximation is considered and the stress fluctuations within the inclusions are neglected in order to obtain a finite system of algebraic equations in terms of component-average strains. Closed-form expressions are derived for the effective moduli of a composite consisting of a matrix and randomly distributed spherical inhomogeneities. As a numerical example a nanoporous material is investigated assuming a model in which the interface effects influence only the bulk modulus of the material. In that model the resulting shear modulus is the same as for the material without surface effects. Dependence of the bulk moduli on the radius of nanopores and on the pore volume fraction is analyzed. The results are compared to, and discussed in the context of other theoretical predictions.     

A novel atomistic approach to determine strain-gradient elasticity constants: Tabulation and comparison for various metals, semiconductors, silica, polymers and the (Ir) relevance for nanotechnologies

Strain-gradient elasticity is widely used as a suitable alternative to size-independent classical continuum elasticity to, at least partially, capture elastic size effects at the nanoscale. In this work, borrowing methods from statistical mechanics, we present mathematical derivations that relate the strain-gradient material constants to atomic displacement correlations in a molecular dynamics computational ensemble. Using the developed relations and numerical atomistic calculations, the strain-gradient constants are explicitly determined for some representative semiconductor, metallic, amorphous and polymeric materials. This method has the distinct advantage that amorphous materials can be tackled in a straightforward manner. For crystalline materials we also employ and compare results from both empirical and ab initio based lattice dynamics. Apart from carrying out a systematic tabulation of the relevant material parameters for various materials, we also discuss certain subtleties of strain-gradient elasticity, including: the paradox associated with the sign of the strain-gradient constants, physical reasons for low or high characteristic length scales associated with the strain-gradient constants, and finally the relevance (or the lack thereof) of strain-gradient elasticity for nanotechnologies.