5,257 research outputs found
Mechanics of complex bodies: commentary on the unified modelling of material substructures
Basic issues of the general model-building framework of the mechanics of
complex bodies are discussed. Attention is focused on the representation of the
material elements, the conditions for the existence of ground states in
conservative setting and the interpretation of the nature of the various
balance laws occurring.Comment: 14 pages, in print on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 200
Ground states in complex bodies
A unified framework for analyzing the existence of ground states in wide
classes of elastic complex bodies is presented here. The approach makes use of
classical semicontinuity results, Sobolev mappinngs and Cartesian currents.
Weak diffeomorphisms are used to represent macroscopic deformations. Sobolev
maps and Cartesian currents describe the inner substructure of the material
elements. Balance equations for irregular minimizers are derived. A
contribution to the debate about the role of the balance of configurational
actions follows. After describing a list of possible applications of the
general results collected here, a concrete discussion of the existence of
ground states in thermodynamically stable quasicrystals is presented at the
end.Comment: 30 pages, in print on ESAIM-COC
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