49S05 Variational principles of physics (should also be assigned at least one other classification number in section 49)
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- energetic solution (3)
- Gamma convergence (1)
- Generalized gradient structure (1)
- Higher integrabilty of gradients of minimizers (1)
- Prandtl--Reuss elastic/perfectly plastic model (1)
- Rate-independent plasticity (1)
- approximate incremental problems (1)
- approximation (1)
- complete damage (1)
- convergence (1)
Classical gradient systems have a linear relation between rates and driving forces. In generalized gradient systems we allow for arbitrary relations derived from general non-quadratic dissipation potentials. This paper describes two natural origins for these structures.
A first microscopic origin of generalized gradient structures is given by the theory of large-deviation principles. While Markovian diffusion processes lead to classical gradient structures, Poissonian jump processes give rise to cosh-type dissipation potentials.
A second origin arises via a new form of convergence, that we call EDP-convergence. Even when starting with classical gradient systems, where the dissipation potential is a quadratic functional of the rate, we may obtain a generalized gradient system in the evolutionary -limit. As examples we treat (i) the limit of a diffusion equation having a thin layer of low diffusivity, which leads to a membrane model, and (ii) the limit of difusion over a high barrier, which gives a reaction-diffusion system.
Complete damage in linear elastic materials — Modeling, weak formulation and existence results
(2013)
In this work, we introduce a degenerating PDE system with a time-depending
domain for complete damage processes under time-varying
Dirichlet boundary conditions. The evolution of the system is
described by a doubly nonlinear differential inclusion for the damage
process and a degenerating quasi-static balance equation for the displacement field
which are strongly nonlinearly coupled.
In our proposed model, the material
may completely disintegrate which is indispensable for a realistic modeling of
damage processes in elastic materials. Complete damage theories
lead to several mathematical problems since, for instance, coercivity properties
of the free energy are lost and, therefore, several difficulties arise.
For the introduced complete damage model, we propose a classical
formulation and a corresponding suitable weak formulation in an
$SBV$-framework. The main aim is to prove existence of weak solutions
for the introduced degenerating model. In addition, we show that the classical
differential inclusion can be regained from the notion of weak solutions under
certain regularity assumptions which is a novelty in the theory of complete damage
models of this type.
For the existence results, we had to handle the following problem:
During the damage process it might occur that not completely damaged material regions are isolated
from the Dirichlet boundary. In this case, the
deformation field cannot be controlled in the transition from incomplete
to complete damage. To tackle this problem, we consider the evolution
process on a time-depending domain. In this context, two major challenges
arise:
Firstly, the time-dependent domain approach leads to jumps in the energy
which have to be accounted for in the energy inequality of the notion of
weak solutions. To handle this problem, several energy estimates are established
by $\Gamma$-convergence techniques. Secondly, the time-depending domain
might have bad smoothness properties such that Korn's inequality cannot be
applied. To this end, a covering result for such sets with smooth
compactly embedded domains has been shown.
Global higher integrability of minimizers of variational problems with mixed boundary conditions
(2012)
We consider integral functionals with densities of p-growth, with respect to gradients, on a Lipschitz domain with mixed boundary conditions. The aim of this paper is to prove that, under uniform estimates within certain classes of p-growth and coercivity assumptions on the density, the minimizers are of higher integrability order, meaning that they belong to the space of first order Sobolev functions with an integrability of order $p+\epsilon$ for a uniform $\epsilon >0$. The results are applied to a model describing damage evolution in a nonlinear elastic body and to a model for shape memory alloys.
Energetic solutions to rate-independent processes are usually constructed via time-incremental minimization problems. In this work we show that all energetic solutions can be approximated by incremental problems if we allow approximate minimizers, where the error in minimization has to be of the order of the time step. Moreover, we study sequences of problems where the energy functionals have a Gamma limit.
Quasistatic small-strain plasticity in the limit of small hardening and its numerical approximation
(2011)
The quasistatic rate-independent evolution of the Prager-Ziegler-type model of linearized plasticity with hardening is shown to converge to the rate-independent evolution of the Prandtl-Reuss elastic/perfectly plastic model. Based on the concept of energetic solutions we study the convergence of the solutions in the limit for hardening coefficients converging to 0 by using the abstract method of Gamma-convergence for rate-independent systems. An unconditionally convergent numerical scheme is devised and 2D and 3D numerical experiments are presented. A two-sided energy inequality is a posteriori verified to document experimental convergence rates.
We propose a model for phase transformations that are driven by changes in the temperature. We consider the temperature as a prescribed prescribed quantity like an applied load. The model is based on the energetic formulation for rate-independent systems and thus allows for finite-strain elasticity. Time-dependent Dirichlet boundary conditions can be treated by decomposing the deformation as a composition of a given deformation satisfying the time-dependent boundary conditions and a part coinciding with the identity on the Dirichlet boundary.
A general abstract approximation scheme for rate-independent processes in the
energetic formulation is proposed and its convergence is proved under various
rather mild data qualifications. The abstract theory is illustrated on several
examples: plasticity with isotropic hardening, damage, debonding,
magnetostriction, and two models of martensitic transformation in
shape-memory alloys.