Regularity for Shearable Nonlinearly Elastic Rods in Obstacle Problems

Based on the Cosserat theory describing planar deformations of shearable nonlinearly elastic rods we study the regularity of equilibrium states for problems where the deformations are restricted by rigid obstacles. We start with the discussion of general conditions modeling frictionless contact. In particular we motivate a contact condition that, roughly speaking, requires the contact forces to be directed normally, in a generalized sense, both to the obstacle and to the deformed shape of the rod. We show that there is a jump in the strains in the case of a concentrated contact force, i.e., the deformed shape of the rod has a corner. Then we assume some smoothness for the boundary of the obstacle and derive corresponding regularity for the contact forces. Finally we compare the results with the case of unshearable rods and obtain interesting qualitative differences. (Accepted January 21, 1998)     

Paradoxical Bending Behavior of Shearable Nonlinearly Elastic Rods

In nonlinear elasticity the exact geometry of deformation is combined with general constitutive relations. This allows a very sophisticated interaction of deformations in different material directions. Based on the Cosserat theory for planar deformations of nonlinearly elastic rods we demonstrate some paradoxical bending effects caused by a nontrivial interaction of extension, flexure, and shear. The analytical results are illustrated by numerical examples.     

Contact with a Corner for Nonlinearly Elastic Rods

In elastic contact problems it is usually required that the contact force has to be directed normally to the contact surface in the absence of friction. For an obstacle with nonsmooth surface this gives infinitely many normal directions at an edge or at a corner. For the case where a nonlinearly elastic rod under terminal loads is hanging over a needle, it is shown that the balance equations supplemented with such a normality condition have a continuum of solutions. Moreover, an additional contact condition is derived from a corresponding variational problem by means of special inner variations that preserve the shape of the rod. This way one is finally lead to a unique solution at least locally.     

Euler-Lagrange Equations for Nonlinearly Elastic Rods with Self-Contact

 We derive the Euler-Lagrange equations for nonlinearly elastic rods with self-contact. The excluded-volume constraint is formulated in terms of an upper bound on the global curvature of the centre line. This condition is shown to guarantee the global injectivity of the deformation of the elastic rod. Topological constraints such as a prescribed knot and link class to model knotting and supercoiling phenomena as observed, e.g., in DNA-molecules, are included by using the notion of isotopy and Gaussian linking number. The bound on the global curvature as a nonsmooth side condition requires the use of Clarke's generalized gradients to obtain the explicit structure of the contact forces, which appear naturally as Lagrange multipliers in the Euler-Lagrange equations. Transversality conditions are discussed and higher regularity for the strains, moments, the centre line and the directors is shown. (Accepted December 20, 2002) Published online April 8, 2003 Communicated by S. S. Antman     

Nonlinearly Elastic Shell Models: A Formal Asymptotic Approach I. The Membrane Model

We consider a family of three‐dimensional shells with the same middle surface, all composed of the same nonlinearly elastic Saint Venant‐Kirchhoff material. Using the method of asymptotic expansions with the thickness as the “small” parameter, and making specific assumptions on the applied forces, the geometry of the middle surface, and the kinematic boundary conditions, we show how a “limiting”, “large‐deformation” two‐dimensional model can be identified in this fashion. By linearization, this nonlinear membrane model reduces to the linear membrane model. (Accepted January 13, 1997)     

Nonlinearly Elastic Shell Models: A Formal Asymptotic Approach II. The Flexural Model

This paper is the sequel of Part I, in which the limiting displacement field of a thin shell when its thickness approaches zero is identified as the solution of a two‐dimensional nonlinear membrane shell model. When the geometry of the middle surface of the shell and the boundary conditions allow non‐zero “inextensional displacements”, the previous membrane limit model is not relevant. In this case, we show how to “update” the assumptions on the applied forces acting on the shell so that a limiting model can be derived by an asymptotic analysis. Furthermore, we identify this limit as the two‐dimensional nonlinear flexural shell model. (Accepted January 13, 1997)     

Polyconvexity and Existence Theorem for Nonlinearly Elastic Shells

We present an existence theorem for a large class of nonlinearly elastic shells with low regularity in the framework of a two-dimensional theory involving the mean and Gaussian curvatures. We restrict our discussion to hyperelastic materials, that is to elastic materials possessing a stored energy function. Under some specific conditions of polyconvexity, coerciveness and growth of the stored energy function, we prove the existence of global minimizers. In addition, we define a general class of polyconvex stored energy functions which satisfies a coerciveness inequality.     

Free Vibration Analysis of Rotating Nonlinearly Elastic Structures with Symmetry: An Efficient Group-Equivariance Approach

A study is made of the dynamics of oscillating systems with a slowly varying parameter. A slowly varying forcing periodically crosses a critical value corresponding to a pitchfork bifurcation. The instantaneous phase portrait exhibits a centre when the forcing does not exceed the critical value, and a saddle and two centres with an associated double homoclinic loop separatrix beyond this value. The aim of this study is to construct a Poincaré map in order to describe the dynamics of the system as it repeatedly crosses the bifurcation point. For that purpose averaging methods and asymptotic matching techniques connecting local solutions are applied. Given the initial state and the values of the parameters the properties of the Poincaré map can be studied. Both sensitive dependence on initial conditions and (quasi) periodicity are observed. Moreover, Lyapunov exponents are computed. The asymptotic expressions for the Poincaré map are compared with numerical solutions of the full system that includes small damping.     

An Existence Theorem for Nonlinearly Elastic ‘Flexural’ Shells

The two-dimensional equations of a nonlinearly elastic ‘flexural’ shell have been recently identified and justified by V. Lods and B. Miara, by means of the method of formal asymptotic expansions applied to the three-dimensional equations of nonlinear elasticity. These equations can be recast as a minimization problem for a ‘two-dimensional energy’ over a manifold of ‘admissible deformations’. The stored energy function is a quadratic expression in terms of the exact difference between the curvature tensor of the deformed middle surface and that of the undeformed one; the admissible deformations are those that preserve the metric of the undeformed middle surface and satisfy boundary conditions of clamping or of simple support. We establish here that this minimization problem has at least one solution. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

From Damage to Delamination in Nonlinearly Elastic Materials at Small Strains

Brittle Griffith-type delamination of compounds is deduced by means of ??-convergence from partial, isotropic damage of three-specimen-sandwich-structures by flattening the middle component to the thickness 0. The models used here allow for nonlinearly elastic materials at small strains and consider the processes to be unidirectional and rate-independent. The limit passage is performed via a double limit: first, we gain a delamination model involving the gradient of the delamination variable, which is essential to overcome the lack of a uniform coercivity arising from the passage from partial damage to delamination. Second, the delamination gradient is suppressed. Noninterpenetration- and transmission-conditions along the interface are obtained.     

A Variational Approach to Particles in Lipid Membranes

A variety of models for the membrane-mediated interaction of particles in lipid membranes, mostly well-established in theoretical physics, is reviewed from a mathematical perspective. We provide mathematically consistent formulations in a variational framework, relate apparently different modelling approaches in terms of successive approximation, and investigate existence and uniqueness. Numerical computations illustrate that the new variational formulations are directly accessible to effective numerical methods.     

Existence of a Solution for a Nonlinearly Elastic Plane Membrane Subject to Plane Forces

The two-dimensional nonlinear ‘membrane’ equations for a plate made of a Saint Venant–Kirchhoff material have been justified by D. Fox, A. Raoult and J.C. Simo (1993) by means of the method of formal asymptotic expansions applied to the three-dimensional equations of nonlinear elasticity. This model, which retains the material-frame indifference of the original three dimensional problem in the sense that its energy density is invariant under the rotations of R³, is equivalent to finding the critical points of a functional whose nonlinear part depends on the first fundamental form of the unknown deformed surface. We establish here a local existence result for these equations in the case of the membrane subject to forces parallel to its plane and we give qualitative properties of the solutions found in this fashion in terms of injectivity and of minimization. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Constitutive Models for Compressible Nonlinearly Elastic Materials with Limiting Chain Extensibility

Constitutive models are proposed for compressible isotropic hyperelastic materials that reflect limiting chain extensibility. These are generalizations of the model proposed by Gent for incompressible materials. The goal is to understand the effects of limiting chain extensibility when the compressibility of polymeric materials is taken into account. The basic homogeneous deformation of simple tension is considered and simple closed-form relations for the deformation characteristics are obtained for slightly compressible materials. An explicit first-order approximation is obtained for the lateral contraction and for the Poisson function in terms of the axial extension which is shown to be valid for each of two specific compressible versions of the Gent model. One of the main results obtained is that the effect of limiting chain extensibility is to stiffen the material relative to the neo-Hookean compressible case. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 74B20, 74G55.     

Energy Approach to the Formulation of Boundary Problems of Nonlinear Thermomechanics for Elastic Systems

An energy approach is proposed to derive the physical constitutive equations of nonlinear thermomechanics for inertial elastic systems. A potential of local inertial thermodynamic state and a potential of thermoelastic energy dissipation are introduced. The variational formulation of nonlinear boundary problems of thermoelasticity is implemented on the basis of the Hamiltonian energy functional. Sufficient conditions for the convexity of the functional are formulated __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 41, No. 9, pp. 52–59, September 2005.     

A Variational Approach to Dynamics of Flexible Multibody Systems

Abstract

This paper presents a variational formulation of constrained dynamics of flexible multibody systems, using a vector-variational calculus approach. Body reference frames are used to define global position and orientation of individual bodies in the system, located and oriented by position of its origin and Euler parameters, respectively. Small strain linear elastic deformation of individual components, relative to their body reference frames, is defined by linear combinations of deformation modes that are induced by constraint reaction forces and normal modes of vibration. A library of kinematic couplings between flexible and/or rigid bodies is defined and analyzed. Variational equations of motion for multibody systems are obtained and reduced to mixed differential-algebraic equations of motion. A space structure that must deform during deployment is analyzed, to illustrate use of the methods developed     

A Variational Approach to the Isoperimetric Inequality for the Robin Eigenvalue Problem

The isoperimetric inequality for the first eigenvalue of the Laplace operator with Robin boundary conditions was recently proved by Daners in the context of Lipschitz sets. This paper introduces a new approach to the isoperimetric inequality, based on the theory of special functions of bounded variation (SBV). We extend the notion of the first eigenvalue λ₁ for general domains with finite volume (possibly unbounded and with irregular boundary), and we prove that the balls are the unique minimizers of λ₁ among domains with prescribed volume.     

The Interaction between a Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate and an Isotropic Elastic Halfspace: A Variational Approach

ABSTRACT

The axially symmetric flexural interaction of a uniformly loaded circular plate resting in smooth contact with an isotropic elastic halfspace is examined by using an energy method. In this development the deflected shape of the plate is represented in the form of a power series expansion which satisfies the kinematic constraints of the plate deformation. The flexural behavior of the plate is described by the classical Poisson-Kirchhoff thin plate theory. Using the energy formulation, analytical solutions are obtained for the maximum deflection, the relative deflection, and the maximum flexural moment in the circular plate. The results derived from the energy method are compared with equivalent results derived from numerical techniques. The solution based on the energy method yields accurate results for a wide range of relative rigidities of practical interest.