Continuum mechanics

About: Continuum mechanics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5042 publications have been published within this topic receiving 181027 citations.

An anisotropic flow law for incompressible polycrystalline materials

Abstract: New and explicit anisotropic constitutive equations between the stretching and deviatoric stress tensors for the two- and three-dimensional cases of incompressible polycrystalline materials are presented. The anisotropy is assumed to be driven by an Orientation Distribution Function (ODF). The polycrystal is composed of transversally isotropic crystallites, the lattice orientation of which can be characterized by a single unit vector. The proposed constitutive equations are valid for any frame of reference and for every state of deformation. The basic assumption of this method is that the principle directions of the stretching and of the stress deviator are the same in the isotropic as well as in the anisotropic case. This means that the proposed constitutive laws are able to model the effects of anisotropy only via a change of the fluidity due to a change of the ODF. Such an assumption is justified to guarantee that, besides knowledge of the parameters involved in the isotropic constitutive equation, the anisotropic material response is completely characterized by only one additional parameter, a type of enhancement factor. Explicit comparisons with experimental data are conducted for Ih–ice.

Relaxation mechanism of plastic deformation and its justification using the example of the sharp yield point phenomenon in whiskers

Abstract: The generality of the dynamic approach to a wide range of problems of the continuum mechanics, including deformation at the rates determining quasi-static deformation conditions has been demonstrated using the example of deformation of cadmium and copper whiskers. The sharp yield point phenomenon has been analyzed in terms of the theory of dislocations and phenomenological integrated criteria of plasticity. It has been shown that the characteristic relaxation times used in these criteria, regardless of the applied model of plasticity, reflect essential properties of the very deformation process itself.

The modified indeterminate couple stress model: Why Yang et al.'s arguments motivating a symmetric couple stress tensor contain a gap and why the couple stress tensor may be chosen symmetric nevertheless

Abstract: We show that the reasoning in favor of a symmetric couple stress tensor in Yang et al.'s introduction of the modified couple stress theory contains a gap, but we present a reasonable physical hypothesis, implying that the couple stress tensor is traceless and may be symmetric anyway. To this aim, the origin of couple stress is discussed on the basis of certain properties of the total stress itself. In contrast to classical continuum mechanics, the balance of linear momentum and the balance of angular momentum are formulated at an infinitesimal cube considering the total stress as linear and quadratic approximation of a spatial Taylor series expansion.

A continuum mechanics constitutive framework for transverse isotropic soft tissues

Abstract: In this work, a continuum constitutive framework for the mechanical modelling of soft tissues that incorporates strain rate and temperature dependencies as well as the transverse isotropy arising from fibres embedded into a soft matrix is developed. The constitutive formulation is based on a Helmholtz free energy function decoupled into the contribution of a viscous-hyperelastic matrix and the contribution of fibres introducing dispersion dependent transverse isotropy. The proposed framework considers finite deformation kinematics, is thermodynamically consistent and allows for the particularisation of the energy potentials and flow equations of each constitutive branch. In this regard, the approach developed herein provides the basis on which specific constitutive models can be potentially formulated for a wide variety of soft tissues. To illustrate this versatility, the constitutive framework is particularised here for animal and human white matter and skin, for which constitutive models are provided. In both cases, different energy functions are considered: Neo-Hookean, Gent and Ogden. Finally, the ability of the approach at capturing the experimental behaviour of the two soft tissues is confirmed.