Necessary conditions at the boundary for minimizers in finite elasticity

Dedicated to Bernard Coleman on the occasion of his 60^th birthday     

Gradient elasticity and nonstandard boundary conditions

Gradient elasticity for a second gradient model is addressed within a suitable thermodynamic framework apt to account for nonlocality. The pertinent thermodynamic restrictions upon the gradient constitutive equations are derived, which are shown to include, besides the field (differential) stress–strain laws, a set of nonstandard boundary conditions. Consistently with the latter thermodynamic requirements, a surface layer with membrane stresses is envisioned in the strained body, which together with the above nonstandard boundary conditions make the body constitutively insulated (i.e. no long distance energy flows out of the boundary surface due to nonlocality). The total strain energy is shown to include a bulk and surface strain energy. A minimum total potential energy principle is provided for the related structural boundary-value problem. The Toupin–Mindlin polar-type strain gradient material model is also addressed and compared with the above one, their substantial differences are pointed out, particularly for what regards the constitutive equations and the boundary conditions accompanying the solving displacement equilibrium equations. A gradient one-dimensional bar sample in tension is considered for a few applications of the proposed theory.     

Some research directions in finite elasticity theory

Summary A number of topics in finite elasticity theory which appear to lend themselves to further development were briefly discussed. These include (i) the effect of kinematic constraints which are exactly, or approximately, satisfied; (ii) the mechanics of elastic membranes; (iii) the applicability of results in finite elasticity theory to problems involving stress relaxing materials; (iv) the development of necessary and sufficient conditions for material stability of isotropic elastic materials; (v) the conditions for bifurcation solutions to exist in deformed elastic bodies.

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Zusammenfassung Es werden einige Themen der nichtlinearen Elastizitätstheorie, die sich für weitere Entwicklungen anbieten, kurz besprochen. Darunter sind (i) die Wirkung kinematischer Zwangsbedingungen, die exakt oder näherungsweise erfüllt werden; (ii) die Mechanik elastischer Membranen; (iii) die Anwendbarkeit von Ergebnissen in der nichtlinearen Elastizitätstheorie auf Probleme, die Materialien mit Spannungsrelaxation einschließen; (iv) die Entwicklung notwendiger und hinreichender Bedingungen für materielle Stabilität isotroper elastischer Materialien; (v) die Bedingungen für die Existenz von Verzweigungslösungen in deformierten elastischen Körpern.

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With 1 figure     

Generalized stroh formalism for anisotropic elasticity for general boundary conditions

The Stroh formalism is most elegant when the boundary conditions are simple, namely, they are prescribed in terms of traction or displacement. For mixed boundary conditions such as there for a slippery boundary, the concise matrix expressions of the Stroh formalism are destroyed. We present a generalized Stroh formalism which is applicable to a class of general boundary conditions. The general boundary conditions include the simple and slippery boundary conditions as special cases. For Green's functions for the half space, the general solution is applicable to the case when the surface of the half-space is a fixed, a free, a slippery, or other more general boundary. For the Griffith crack in the infinite space, the crack can be a slit-like crack with free surfaces, a rigid line inclusion (which is sometimes called an anticrack), or a rigid line with slippery surface or with other general surface conditions. It is worth mention that the modifications required on the Stroh formalism are minor. The generalized formalism and the final solutions look very similar to those of unmodified version. Yet the results are applicable to a rather wide range of boundary conditions.     

Some new aspects of boundary conditions at cracks in piezoelectrics

Fracture mechanical investigations of piezoelectric materials as components of smart structures have become popular in the last 30?years. In the early years of research, boundary conditions at crack faces have been adopted from pure mechanical systems under the assumption that boundaries were traction free. From the electrostatic point of view, cracks have been assumed to be either free of charge or fully permeable. Later, limitedly permeable crack boundary conditions have become popular among the community, nevertheless still assuming traction-free crack faces. Recently, the theoretical framework has been extended to include electrostatically induced mechanical tractions in crack models yielding a significant crack closure effect. However, these models are still simple, neglecting, e.g., the piezoelectric field coupling. In this work, we present an extended model for crack surface tractions yielding some interesting effects. In particular, the orientation of the electrical field with respect to the poling axis becomes important. Furthermore, applying a collinear stress parallel to the crack faces influences the Mode-I stress intensity factor and a Mode-II shear loading couples to the Mode-I SIF.     

Closed form stress distribution in 2D elasticity for all boundary conditions

This paper applies a Hamiltonian method to study analytically the stress dis- tributions of orthotropic two-dimensional elasticity in(x,z)plane for arbitrary boundary conditions without beam assumptions.It is a method of separable variables for partial differential equations using displacements and their conjugate stresses as unknowns.Since coordinates(x,z)can not be easily separated,an alternative symplectic expansion is used. Similar to the Hamiltonian formulation in classical dynamics,we treat the x coordinate as time variable so that z becomes the only independent coordinate in the Hamiltonian ma- trix differential operator.The exponential of the Hamiltonian matrix is symplectic.There are homogenous solutions with constants to be determined by the boundary conditions and particular integrals satisfying the loading conditions.The homogenous solutions consist of the eigen-solutions of the derogatory zero eigenvalues(zero eigen-solutions) and that of the well-behaved nonzero eigenvalues(nonzero eigen-solutions).The Jordan chains at zero eigenvalues give the classical Saint-Venant solutions associated with aver- aged global behaviors such as rigid-body translation,rigid-body rotation or bending.On the other hand,the nonzero eigen-solutions describe the exponentially decaying localized solutions usually ignored by Saint-Venant's principle.Completed numerical examples are newly given to compare with established results.     

Some refinements concerning the boundary conditions at the macroscopic level

The study of boundary effects initiated in a previous paper is continued. New assumptions regarding the geometrical structure of the boundary surface are introduced. Under these assumptions, it is shown that macroscopic Neumann conditions do not generally affect the determination of the macroscopic field in the case of the transport process considered — heat conduction. For this type of boundary condition, the boundary effect is generally confined within a thin layer near the boundary. When heat sources are taken into account within the porous domain, the result is different. In this case, making use of a Neumann boundary condition, expressed in terms of macroscopic variables, amounts to introducing an extra flux. Under normal circumstances, however, this additional flux is negligible.Roman Letters A cross-sectional area of a unit cell - A _e cross-sectional area of a unit cell at the boundary surface - A _sf interfacial area of the s-f interface contained within the averaging volume - surface area per unit volume (A _sf/ ) - A _sf interfacial area of the s-f interface contained within the macroscopic system - g closure vector - h closure vector - k heat transfer coefficient at the s-f interface - K_eff effective thermal conductivity tensor - _x unit cell length - n unit vector - n_e outwardly directed unit normal vector at the boundary - n_sf outwardly directed unit normal vector for thes-phase at f-s interface - q heat flux density - T ^* macroscopic temperature defined by the macroscopic problem - s closure variable - V volume of the macroscopic system - V boundary surface of the macroscopic domain - V ₁ macroscopic sub-surface of the boundary surface - x local coordinate Greek Letters _s,_f volume fraction - _s, gl_f microscopic thermal conductivities - true microscopic temperature - ^* microscopic temperature corresponding toT ^* - microscopic error temperature - vector defined by Equation (34) - < > spatial average     

Analytic methods in problems for finite bodies with improperly mixed boundary conditions

Elastic finite bodies whose surface consists of pieces of coordinate surfaces are considered. The boundary conditions posed on one of such pieces can be different from the boundary conditions on the other pieces. Such problems are said to be improperly mixed. An survey of analytic methods for solving such problems is given.     

Radiation boundary conditions for finite element solutions of generalized wave equations

On the basis of the dispersion relation of the generalized linear wave equation we derive a radiation boundary condition (RBC) that explicitly incorporates the physical parameters of the governing equation into the form of the boundary condition. Using finite element techniques we investigate the properties of the generalized RBC by examining forced and unforced solutions to the telegraph and Klein-Gordon equations in one dimension. The results show that within the limits of the physical parameters of the problem the generalized RBC is an improvement over the Sommerfeld RBC when the governing equation contains additional terms that influence the propagation. These gains are achieved without introducing any computational overhead. A two-dimensional example suggests that the 1D findings can generalize to higher dimensions.     

On simulation of outflow boundary conditions in finite difference calculations for incompressible fluid

For incompressible Navier–Stokes equations in primitive variables, a method of setting absorbing outflow boundary conditions on an artificial boundary is considered. The advection equations used on the outflow boundary are convenient for finite difference (FD) methods, where a weak formulation of a problem is inapplicable. An unsteady viscous incompressible Navier–Stokes flow in a channel with a moving damper is modeled. An accurate comparison and analysis of numerical and mechanical situations are carried out for a variety of boundary conditions and Reynolds numbers. The proposed outflow conditions provide that the problem with Dirichlet boundary conditions should be solved on each time step.     

Energetic bounds in finite elasticity

Summary We study the conditions under which the internal work of deformation in an elastic isotropic body in finite deformations may be bounded by results obtained from a suitably defined linear infinitesimal problem. The values of the constants appearing in the principal inequalities are calculated and discussed for a certain class of extensional deformations.     

Inequalities sufficient for material stability in finite elasticity

Summary Some restrictions on the response function of isotropic elastic solids under finite strain are discussed. These restrictions follow when a strong localization of the classical Hadamard condition of infinitesimal stability is adopted as an a priori inequality under certain side conditions which are not fullfilled by all of the possible strained states.

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Sommario Vengono discusse alcune restrizioni sulla funzione di risposta dei solidi elastici isotropi in deformazioni finite. Queste restrizioni sono determinate da una versione locale della classica definizione di stabilità infinitesima di Hadamard, qui considerata come una diseguaglianzaa priori sotto certe condizioni che non sono verificate da tutte le possibili configurazioni deformate.

     

The initial-value problem for neutron transport in a finite body with generalized boundary conditions

Summary We prove the existence and the uniqueness of the solution of the initial-value problem for neutron transport in a finite convex body with generalized boundary conditions which include both the perfect reflection and the vacuum boundary condition as particular cases.Moreover, we show that the transport operator has at least one real eigenvalue provided a perfect reflection boundary condition is valid over a finite portion of the boundary surface.Finally, we indicate the asymptotic behavior of the neutron density as t + .

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Sommario Si prova l'esistenza e l'unicità della soluzione di un problema di trasporto di neutroni in un mezzo finito con condizioni al contorno generalizzate.Si mostra che l'operatore del trasporto ammette almeno un autovalore reale purché la condizione di perfetta riflessione sia soddisfatta su almeno una porzione finita della superficie.Infine si studia il comportamento asintotico della densità neutronica per t+.

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This paper was partly written during the author's stay at the Department of Physics of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois) with a NATO fellowship.     

Analysis of micro-sized beams for various boundary conditions based on the strain gradient elasticity theory

Bending analysis of micro-sized beams based on the Bernoulli-Euler beam theory is presented within the modified strain gradient elasticity and modified couple stress theories. The governing equations and the related boundary conditions are derived from the variational principles. These equations are solved analytically for deflection, bending, and rotation responses of micro-sized beams. Propped cantilever, both ends clamped, both ends simply supported, and cantilever cases are taken into consideration as boundary conditions. The influence of size effect and additional material parameters on the static response of micro-sized beams in bending is examined. The effect of Poisson’s ratio is also investigated in detail. It is concluded from the results that the bending values obtained by these higher-order elasticity theories have a significant difference with those calculated by the classical elasticity theory.     

Approximate nonreflecting inflow-outflow boundary conditions for the calculation of navier-stokes equations in internal flows

In this paper, the nonreflecting boundary conditions based upon fundamental ideas of the linear analysis are developed for gas dynamic equations, and the modified boundary conditions for Navier-Stokes equations are proposed as a substitute of the nonreflecting boundary conditions inside boundary layers near rigid walls. These derived boundary conditions are then applied to calculations both for the Euler equations and the Navier-Stokes equations to determine if they can produce acceptable results for the subsonic flows in channels. The numerical results obtained by an implicit second-order upwind difference scheme show the effectiveness and generality of the boundary conditions. Furthermore, the formulae and the analysis performed here may be extended to three dimensional problems. recommended by Prof. Cui Erjie     

Antiplane electro-mechanical field of a piezoelectric finite wedge under shear loading and at fixed-grounded boundary conditions

This paper presents the general solutions of antiplane electro-mechanical field solutions for a piezoelectric finite wedge subjected to a pair of concentrated forces and free charges. The boundary conditions on the circular segment are considered as fixed and grounded. Employing the finite Mellin transform method, the stress and electrical displacement at all fields of the piezoelectric finite wedge are derived analytically. In addition, the singularity orders and intensity factors of stress and electrical displacement can also be obtained. These parameters can be applied to examine the fracture behavior of the wedge structure. After being reduced to the problem of an antiplane edge crack or an infinite wedge in a piezoelectric medium, the results compare well with those of previous studies.     

On the physical meaning of an uniqueness condition in finite elasticity

With the help of the concept of work done by the deformation of an elastic body an uniqueness condition in nonlinear elasticity is interpreted. A work theorem is reformulated.

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Resume A l'aide de concept de travail donné par la deformation d'un materiaux élastique on discute la signification physique d'une condition d'unicité en élasticité non linéaire. Une théorème de travail est reformulé.