The Cauchy–Born rule provides a crucial link between continuum theories of elasticity and the atomistic nature of matter. In its strongest form it says that application of affine displacement boundary conditions to a monatomic crystal will lead to an affine deformation of the whole crystal lattice. We give a general condition in arbitrary dimensions which ensures the validity of the Cauchy–Born rule for boundary deformations which are close to rigid motions. This generalizes results of Friesecke...

In this paper, we develop a thermodynamically consistent description of the uniaxial behavior of thermovisco-elastoplastic materials for which the total stress $\sigma$ contains, in addition to elastic, viscous and thermic contributions, a plastic component ${\sigma }^p$ of the form ${\sigma }^p(x,t)=𝒫[\epsilon ,\theta (x,t)](x,t)$. Here $\epsilon$ and $\theta$ are the fields of strain and absolute temperature, respectively, and ${\left\{𝒫[·,\theta ]\right\}}_{\theta >0}$ denotes a family of (rate-independent) hysteresis operators of Prandtl-Ishlinskii type, parametrized by the absolute temperature. The system of momentum...

Let $K:=SO\left(2\right)A_1\cup SO\left(2\right)A_2\cdots SO\left(2\right)A_N$ where $A_1,A_2,\cdots ,A_N$ are matrices of non-zero determinant. We establish a sharp relation between the following two minimisation problems in two dimensions. Firstly the $N$-well problem with surface energy. Let $p\in \left[1,2\right]$, $\Omega \subset {ℝ}^2$ be a convex polytopal region. Define$$I_{ϵ}^p\left(u\right)={\int }_{\Omega }{d}^p\left(Du\left(z\right),K\right)+ϵ{\left|D^{2}u\left(z\right)\right|}^2\mathrm{d}{L}^{2}z$$and let $A_F$ denote the subspace of functions in $W^{2,2}\left(\Omega \right)$ that satisfy the affine boundary condition $Du=F$ on $\partial \Omega$ (in the sense of trace), where $F\notin K$. We consider the scaling (with respect to $ϵ$) of$$m_{ϵ}^p:=\underset{u\in A_F}{inf}{I}_{ϵ}^p\left(u\right).$$Secondly the finite element approximation to the $N$-well problem without surface...

Let $K:=SO\left(2\right)A_1\cup SO\left(2\right)A_2\cdots SO\left(2\right)A_N$ where $A_1,A_2,\cdots ,A_N$ are matrices of non-zero determinant. We establish a sharp relation between the following two minimisation problems in two dimensions. Firstly the N-well problem with surface energy. Let $p\in \left[1,2\right]$, $\Omega \subset {ℝ}^2$ be a convex polytopal region. Define $$I_{ϵ}^p\left(u\right)={\int }_{\Omega }{d}^p\left(Du\left(z\right),K\right)+ϵ{\left|D^{2}u\left(z\right)\right|}^2\mathrm{d}{L}^{2}z$$ and let AF denote the subspace of functions in $W^{2,2}\left(\Omega \right)$ that satisfy the affine boundary condition Du=F on $\partial \Omega$ (in the sense of trace), where $F\notin K$. We consider the scaling (with respect to ϵ) of $$m_{ϵ}^p:=\underset{u\in A_F}{inf}{I}_{ϵ}^p\left(u\right).$$ Secondly the finite element approximation to the N-well problem without...

L'attività di ricerca di chi scrive si è finora indirizzata principalmente verso l'esame dei modelli di transizione di fase, dei modelli di isteresi, e delle relative equazioni non lineari alle derivate parziali. Qui si illustrano brevemente tali problematiche, indicando alcuni degli elementi che le collegano tra di loro. Il lavoro è organizzato come segue. I paragrafi 1, 2, 3 vertono sulle transizioni di fase: si introducono le formulazioni forte e debole del classico modello di Stefan, e si illustrano...

We present a model of the full thermo-mechanical evolution of a shape memory body undergoing a uniaxial tensile stress. The well-posedness of the related quasi-static thermo-inelastic problem is addressed by means of hysteresis operators techniques. As a by-product, details on a time-discretization of the problem are provided.

We present a phase field approach to wetting problems, related to the minimization of capillary energy. We discuss in detail both the Γ-convergence results on which our numerical algorithm are based, and numerical implementation. Two possible choices of boundary conditions, needed to recover Young's law for the contact angle, are presented. We also consider an extension of the classical theory of capillarity, in which the introduction of a dissipation mechanism can explain and predict the hysteresis...

Microstructures in phase-transitions of alloys are modeled by the energy minimization of a nonconvex energy density $\phi$. Their time-evolution leads to a nonlinear wave equation $u_{tt}=divS\left(Du\right)$ with the non-monotone stress-strain relation $S=D\phi$ plus proper boundary and initial conditions. This hyperbolic-elliptic initial-boundary value problem of changing types allows, in general, solely Young-measure solutions. This paper introduces a fully-numerical time-space discretization of this equation in a corresponding very...

Microstructures in phase-transitions of alloys are modeled by the energy minimization of a nonconvex energy density ϕ. Their time-evolution leads to a nonlinear wave equation $u_{tt}=\text{div}S\left(Du\right)$ with the non-monotone stress-strain relation $S=D\phi$ plus proper boundary and initial conditions. This hyperbolic-elliptic initial-boundary value problem of changing types allows, in general, solely Young-measure solutions. This paper introduces a fully-numerical time-space discretization of this equation in a corresponding...