Search results for "variational principle"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
Fractional hereditariness of lipid membranes: Instabilities and linearized evolution
2016
In this work lipid ordering phase changes arising in planar membrane bilayers is investigated both accounting for elas- ticity alone and for effective viscoelastic response of such assemblies. The mechanical response of such membranes is studied by minimizing the Gibbs free energy which penalizes perturbations of the changes of areal stretch and their gradients only [1]. As material instabilities arise whenever areal stretches characterizing homogeneous configurations lie inside the spinoidal zone of the free energy density, bifurcations from such configurations are shown to occur as oscillatory perturbations of the in-plane displacement. Experimental observations [2] show a power-law in-pl…
Nonlocal elasticity and related variational principles
2001
Abstract The Eringen model of nonlocal elasticity is considered and its implications in solid mechanics studied. The model is refined by assuming an attenuation function depending on the `geodetical distance' between material particles, such that in the diffusion processes of the nonlocality effects certain obstacles as holes or cracks existing in the domain can be circumvented. A suitable thermodynamic framework with nonlocality is also envisaged as a firm basis of the model. The nonlocal elasticity boundary-value problem for infinitesimal displacements and quasi-static loads is addressed and the conditions for the solution uniqueness are established. Three variational principles, nonlocal…
Stress gradient versus strain gradient constitutive models within elasticity
2014
Abstract A stress gradient elasticity theory is developed which is based on the Eringen method to address nonlocal elasticity by means of differential equations. By suitable thermodynamics arguments (involving the free enthalpy instead of the free internal energy), the restrictions on the related constitutive equations are determined, which include the well-known Eringen stress gradient constitutive equations, as well as the associated (so far uncertain) boundary conditions. The proposed theory exhibits complementary characters with respect to the analogous strain gradient elasticity theory. The associated boundary-value problem is shown to admit a unique solution characterized by a Helling…
A note on the uniqueness result for the inverse Henderson problem
2019
The inverse Henderson problem of statistical mechanics is the theoretical foundation for many bottom-up coarse-graining techniques for the numerical simulation of complex soft matter physics. This inverse problem concerns classical particles in continuous space which interact according to a pair potential depending on the distance of the particles. Roughly stated, it asks for the interaction potential given the equilibrium pair correlation function of the system. In 1974, Henderson proved that this potential is uniquely determined in a canonical ensemble and he claimed the same result for the thermodynamical limit of the physical system. Here, we provide a rigorous proof of a slightly more …
Triangular Bézier Surfaces of Minimal Area
2003
We study some methods of obtaining approximations to surfaces of minimal area with prescribed border using triangular Bezier patches. Some methods deduced from a variational principle are proposed and compared with some masks.
A regular variational boundary model for free vibrations of magneto-electro-elastic structures
2011
In this paper a regular variational boundary element formulation for dynamic analysis of two-dimensional magneto-electro-elastic domains is presented. The method is based on a hybrid variational principle expressed in terms of generalized magneto-electro-elastic variables. The domain variables are approximated by using a superposition of weighted regular fundamental solutions of the static magneto-electro-elastic problem, whereas the boundary variables are expressed in terms of nodal values. The variational principle coupled with the proposed discretization scheme leads to the calculation of frequency-independent and symmetric generalized stiffness and mass matrices. The generalized stiffne…
A meshfree method for transverse vibrations of anisotropic plates
2003
A meshfree approach, called displacement boundary method, for anisotropic Kirchhoff plate dynamic analysis is presented. This method is deduced from a variational principle, which uses a modified hybrid functional involving the generalized displacements and generalized tractions on the boundary and the lateral deflection in the domain as independent variables. The discretization process is based on the employment of the fundamental solutions of the static problem operator for the expression of the variables involved in the functional. The stiffness and mass matrices obtained for the dynamic model are frequency-independent, symmetric and positive definite and their computation involves bound…
BIEM-based variational principles for elastoplasticity with unilateral contact boundary conditions
1998
The structural step problem for elastic-plastic internal-variable materials is addressed in the presence of frictionless unilateral contact conditions. Basing on the BIEM (boundary integral equation method) and making use of deformation-theory plasticity (through the backward-difference method of computational plasticity), two variational principles are shown to characterize the solution to the step problem: one is a stationarity principle having as unknowns all the problem variables, the other is a saddle-point principle having as unknowns the increments of the boundary tractions and displacements, along with the plastic strain increments in the domain. The discretization by boundary and i…
Boundary/Field Variational Principles for the Elastic Plastic Rate Problem
1991
An elastic-plastic continuous solid body under quasi-statically variable external actions is herein addressed in the hypoteses of rate-independent material model with dual internal variables and of infinitesimal displacements and strains. The related analysis problem for assigned rate actions is first formulated through a boundary/field integral equation approach, then is shown to be characterized by two variational principles, one of which is a stationarity theorem, the other a min-max one.
Heat and mass flows coupled with stress in a continuous medium
1996
Abstract The present paper is concerned with the formulation of the generalization of theories describing heat and mass flows in a continuous medium. The considerations are based on the non-equilibrium thermodynamics. As a result the fundamental equations for the mass and heat fluxes and for the thermodynamic and mechanical fields, are obtained and the corresponding set of differential equations is formulated. Certain differences are pointed out between the general theories presented here and the thermodiffusion theory and the theory of mixtures. A thermodynamic variational principle is constructed. All the investigations concern only flows with a single temperature field. Copyright © 1996 …