A UNIFIED ENERGY APPROACH TO A CLASS OF MICROMECHANICS MODELS FOR MICROCRACKED SOLIDS

Micromechanics models have been developed for the determination ofthe elastic moduli of microcracked solids based on different approaches andinterpretations,including the dilute or non-interacting solution,the Mori-Tanakamethod,the self-consistent method,and the generalized self-consistent method.It isshown in the present study that all these micromechanics models can be unified withinan energy-equivalence framework,and that they differ only in the way in which themicrocrack opening and sliding displacements are evaluated.Relevance to thedifferential methods and the verification of these models are discussed.     

Asymptotic crack-tip fields for dynamic crack growth in compressive power-law hardening materials

The effect of material compressibility on the stress and strain fields for a mode-I crack propagating steadily in a power-law hardening material is investigated under plane strain conditions. The plastic deformation of materials is characterized by the J₂ flow theory within the framework of isotropic hardening and infinitesimal displacement gradient. The asymptotic solutions developed by the present authors [Zhu, X.K., Hwang K.C., 2002. Dynamic crack-tip field for tensile cracks propagating in power-law hardening materials. International Journal of Fracture 115, 323–342] for incompressible hardening materials are extended in this work to the compressible hardening materials. The results show that all stresses, strains, and particle velocities in the asymptotic fields are fully continuous and bounded without elastic unloading near the dynamic crack tip. The stress field contains two free parameters σ_eq0 and s₃₃₀ that cannot be determined in the asymptotic analysis, and can be determined from the full-field solutions. For the given values of σ_eq0 and s₃₃₀, all field quantities around the crack tip are determined through numerical integration, and then the effects of the hardening exponent n, the Poisson ratio ν, and the crack growth speed M on the asymptotic fields are studied. The approximate behaviors of the proposed solutions are discussed in the limit of ν → 0.5 or n → ∞.     

House exchange and residential segregation in networks

This paper considers a Schelling model in an arbitrary fixed network where there are no vacant houses. Agents have preferences either for segregation or for mixed neighborhoods. Utility is non-transferable. Two agents exchange houses when the trade is mutually beneficial. We find that an allocation is stable when for two agents of opposite-color each black (white) agent has a higher proportion of neighbors who are black (white). This result holds irrespective of agents’ preferences. When all members of both groups prefer mixed neighborhoods, an allocation is also stable provided that if an agent belongs to the minority (majority), then any neighbor of opposite-color is in a smaller minority (larger majority).     

Base manifolds for fibrations of projective irreducible symplectic manifolds

Given a projective irreducible symplectic manifold M of dimension 2n, a projective manifold X and a surjective holomorphic map f:M→X with connected fibers of positive dimension, we prove that X is biholomorphic to the projective space of dimension n. The proof is obtained by exploiting two geometric structures at general points of X: the affine structure arising from the action variables of the Lagrangian fibration f and the structure defined by the variety of minimal rational tangents on the Fano manifold X.     

Uniqueness for weak solutions of a one-dimensional boundary value problem for the Vlasov-Poisson system

The Vlasov-Poisson system models a collisionless plasma. When a boundary condition is included in the problem it is known that singularities can occur but that weak solutions exist globally in time. This article shows that the weak solution is unique for a problem in one dimension with specular reflection at the boundary.     

Parameter identification problem for the equation of motion of membrane with strong viscosity

The parameter identification problem of constant parameters in the equation of membrane with strong viscosity is studied. The problem is formulated by a minimization of quadratic cost functionals by distributive measurements. The existence of optimal parameters and necessary optimality conditions for the parameters are proved.