Saint-Venant's principle in linear isotropic elasticity for incompressible or nearly incompressible materials

One of the unresolved issues on Saint-Venant's principle concerns the energy decay estimates established in the literature for the traction boundary-value problem of three-dimensional linear isotropic elastostatics for a cylinder. For the semi-infinite cylinder with traction-free lateral surface and self-equilibrated loads at the near end, it has been shown that the stresses decay exponentially from the end and results were obtained for the estimated decay rate, which is a lower bound for the exact decay rate. These results are, however, generally conservative in that they underestimate the exact decay rate. Another shortcoming, which motivated the present investigation, is that the estimated decay rates tend to zero as the Poisson's ratio tends to the value 1/2. Thus for the limiting case of an incompressible material, these methods fail to establish exponential decay. The purpose of the present paper is to remedy this defect. In particular, an exponential decay estimate is established with estimated decay rate independent of Poisson's ratio. Thus, in particular, the results here hold in the incompressible limit as 1/2. An alternative treatment directly for the incompressible case has been given recently. It should be noted that the stresses in the three-dimensional traction boundary-value problem do depend on Poisson's ratio and that stress decay estimates for the cylinder problem with estimated decay rates dependent on are, in fact, to be expected. However, in the absence of such results that do not deteriorate as 1/2, we obtain here an estimated decay rate that is independent of .     

The effect of nonlinearity on a principle of Saint-Venant type

Summary This paper establishes a principle of Saint-Venant type associated with finite anti-plane shear of a cylinder whose cross-section is a semi-infinite strip. The long sides of the strip are traction-free, and the short side carries an arbitrarily distributed shear traction. At the infinity in the strip, the deformation is prescribed to be one of simple shear, and the associated shear stress is uniform. The analysis is based on the fully nonlinear theory of finite elastostatics and is carried out for a special class of homogenous, isotropic incompressible materials. It is shown that, along the parallel sides of the strip, the nonvanishing component of shear stress differs from its average value (taken across the strip) by an exponentially decaying function of the distance from the end. A lower bound is given for the rate of decay.Paper presented at the 15th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Toronto, Canada, August 1980.     

Stress concentration factors in finite anti-plane shear: numerical calculations and analytical estimates

In two recent papers [1, 2], an analytical approach for obtaining bounds on elastic stress concentration factors in the theory of finite anti-plane shear of homogeneous isotropic incompressible materials was presented. For the problem of an infinite slab, with a traction-free circular or elliptical cavity, subject to a state of finite simple shear deformation, explicit estimates for the stress concentration factor were obtained in terms of the cavity geometry, applied stress at infinity and constitutive parameters. In this paper, numerical results for these stress concentration factors are obtained using a finite-difference scheme and the analytical and numerical results are compared.     

A new constitutive theory for fiber-reinforced incompressible nonlinearly elastic solids

We consider an incompressible nonlinearly elastic material in which a matrix is reinforced by strong fibers, for example fibers of nylon or carbon aligned in one family of curves in a rubber matrix. Rather than adopting the constraint of fiber inextensibility as has been previously assumed in the literature, here we develop a theory of fiber-reinforced materials based on the less restrictive idea of limiting fiber extensibility. The motivation for such an approach is provided by recent research on limiting chain extensibility models for rubber. Thus the basic idea of the present paper is simple: we adapt the limiting chain extensibility concept to limiting fiber extensibility so that the usual inextensibility constraint traditionally used is replaced by a unilateral constraint. We use a strain-energy density composed with two terms, the first being associated with the isotropic matrix or base material and the second reflecting the transversely isotropic character of the material due to the uniaxial reinforcement introduced by the fibers. We consider a base neo-Hookean model plus a special term that takes into account the limiting extensibility in the fiber direction. Thus our model introduces an additional parameter, namely that associated with limiting extensibility in the fiber direction, over previously investigated models. The aim of this paper is to investigate the mathematical and mechanical feasibility of this new model and to examine the role played by the extensibility parameter. We examine the response of the proposed models in some basic homogeneous deformations and compare this response to those of standard models for fiber reinforced rubber materials. The role of the strain-stiffening of the fibers in the new models is examined. The enhanced stability of the new models is then illustrated by investigation of cavitation instabilities. One of the motivations for the work is to apply the model to the biomechanics of soft tissues and the potential merits of the proposed models for this purpose are briefly discussed.     

On Saint-Venant's principle in plane anisotropic elasticity

Methods involving energy-decay inequalities are applied in investigating Saint-Venant's principle for the planproblem of linear elastostatics for a wide class of anisotropic media. A lower bound (in terms of the elastic constants) is obtained for the rate of exponential decay of stresses and this is compared with the known result for the isotropic case.

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Résumé Par une méthode applicable à un très grand nombre de milieu anisotropique, l'auteur utilise les inégalités concernant la décroissance de l'énergie dans le cas d'un problème plan et dans l'hypothèse de conditions élastostatiques linéaires, l'auteur précise la validité du principe de Saint-Venant dans le cadre de ses applications. Une limite inférieure (en fonction des constantes élastiques) de la décroissance exponentielle des contraintes est mise en évidence et comparée aux résultats obtenus en milieux isotropes.

     

Radiative improvement of the lattice nonrelativistic QCD action using the background field method and application to the hyperfine splitting of quarkonium states

We present the first application of the background field method to nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) on the lattice in order to determine the one-loop radiative corrections to the coefficients of the NRQCD action in a manifestly gauge-covariant manner. The coefficients of the σ·B term in the NRQCD action and the four-fermion spin-spin interaction are computed at the one-loop level; the resulting shift of the hyperfine splitting of bottomonium is found to bring the lattice predictions in line with experiment.     

The finite deformation of a pressurized circular tube for a class of compressible materials

This investigation is concerned with the problem of a hollow circular cylinder subjected to uniform internal and external pressure within the equilibrium theory of finite elasticity. The tube is composed of homogeneous, isotropic,compressible materials of special type, namely harmonic materials. Explicit closed-form solutions for the deformation and stress fields are obtained. The true stress distribution, expressed as a function of the undeformed coordinates, is shown to be essentially independent of material properties. The two cases of internal pressure only, and external pressure only, are examined in detail. In the former case, there is a critical value of the applied pressure at which the maximum hoop stress in the tube, occurring at the inner surface, becomes unbounded. Results appropriate for thin shells are also obtained. For the case of external pressure only, a critical value of the applied pressure exists for which closing of the cavity is predicted. For nearly solid cylinders, or equivalently, for a cavity in an unbounded medium, explicit results are provided for the corresponding stress concentration factor.Furthermore the stability of the preceding equilibrium states is investigated by employing a standard linearized perturbation scheme. It is found that an internally pressurized tube is always stable in the range of interest whereas an externally pressurized tube buckles prior to cavity closure.

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Zusammenfassung Die Untersuchung befaßt sich im Rahmen der Gleichgewichtstheorie fmiter Elastizität mit dem Problem eines Hohlzylinders, der einem gleichförmigen inneren und äußeren Druck ausgesetzt ist. Das Rohr besteht aus homogenen, isotropen,kompressiblen Materialien eines speziellen Typs, nämlich harmonischen Materialien. Explizite Lösungen in geschlossener Form werden für Verformung und Spannungsfelder erhalten. Es wird gezeigt, daß die Verteilung der wahren Spannung in Abhängigkeit von den unverformten Koordinaten im wesentlichen unabhängig von den Materialeigenschaften ist. Die beiden Fälle, nur innerer Druck und nur äußerer Druck, werden detailliert behandelt. Im ersten Fall gibt es einen kritischen Druck, bei dem die maximale Tangentialspannung im Rohr, und zwar an der inneren Oberfläche, über alle Grenzen wächst. Es werden außerdem Ergebnisse erhalten, die für dünne Schalen zutreffen. Im Fall eines ausschließlich äußeren Drucks existiert ein kritischer Druckwert, bei dem ein Schließen des Hohlraums vorhergesagt wird. Für annähernd massive Zylinder, oder damit gleichbedeutend, für einen Hohlraum in einem unendlichen Medium, werden explizite Ergebnisse für den entsprechenden Spannungskonzentrationsfaktor vorgelegt.Darüberhinaus wird die Stabilität vorausgehender Gleichgewichtszustände durch Anwendung eines üblichen linearisierten Störungsschemas untersucht. Es wird gefunden, daß das Rohr unter Innendruck im interessierenden Bereich immer stabil ist, während ein Rohr unter Außendruck einknickt, bevor sich der Hohlraum schließt.

     

Particularist semantic normativity

We sketch the view we call contextual semantics. It asserts that truth is semantically correct affirmability under contextually variable semantic standards, that truth is frequently an indirect form of correspondence between thought/language and the world, and that many Quinean commitments are not genuine ontological commitments. We argue that contextualist semantics fits very naturally with the view that the pertinent semantic standards are particularist rather than being systematizable as exceptionless general principles.     

The stochastic method for numerical simulations:: Higher order corrections

We derive discrete versions of stochastic differential equations governing the evolution of some random variable x(t) to arbitrary order in Δt, giving explicit formulae to second order. These are tested in the static case by examples where x takes values in the groups U(1) and SU(2).