No description available.

Thin elastic objects, including leaves, flowers, plastic sheets and sails, are ubiquitous in nature and their technological applications are growing with the introduction of hydrogel thin-films, flexible electronics and environmentally responsive gels. The intricate rippling and buckling patterns are postulated to be the result of minimizing an elastic energy. In this dissertation, we investigate the role of regularity in minimizing the elastic energy. Though there exist smooth isometric immersions of arbitrarily large subsets of H2 into R3, we show that the introduction of weakly-irregular singularities, of smoothness class C^{1,1}, significantly reduces the energy; we provide numerical evidence supporting an upper bound on the asymptotic scaling of the minimum energy over C^{1,1} isometries which is an exponentially large improvement as compared to the conjectured lower bound over C2 surfaces. This work provides insight into the quantitative nature of the Hilbert-Efimov theorem. The introduction of such singularities is energetically inexpensive, and so too is their relocation. Therefore, isometries are "floppy" or easily-deformable, motivating a shift in focus from finding the exact minimizers of the elastic energy in favor of understanding the statistical mechanics of the collection of zero-stretching immersions.

This dissertation is a continuation of the work by Zabolotskaya (Sov. Phys. Acoust. 32, 296-299 (1986)) and Wochner et al. (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125, 2488-2495 (2008)) on the nonlinear propagation of shear wave beams in an isotropic solid. In those works, a coupled pair of nonlinear parabolic equations was derived for the transverse components of the particle motion in a collimated shear wave beam, accounting consistently for the effects of diffraction, viscosity and nonlinearity. The nonlinearity includes a cubic nonlinear term that is equivalent to the nonlinearity present in plane shear waves, as well as a quadratic nonlinear term that is unique to diffracting beams. The purpose of this work is to investigate the quadratic nonlinear term by considering second-harmonic generation in Gaussian beams as a second-order nonlinear effect using standard perturbation theory. Since shear wave beams with translational polarizations (linear, elliptical, and circular) do not exhibit any second-order nonlinear effects, we broaden the class of source polarizations considered by including higher-order polarizations that account for stretching, shearing and rotation of the transverse plane. We find that the polarization of the second harmonic generated by the quadratic nonlinearity is not necessarily the same as the polarization of the source-frequency beam, and we are able to derive a general analytic solution for second-harmonic generation that gives explicitly the relationship between the polarization of the source-frequency beam and the polarization of the second harmonic. Additionally, we consider the focusing of shear wave beams with this broader class of source polarizations, and find that a tightly-focused, radially-polarized shear wave beam contains a highly-localized region of longitudinal motion at the focal spot. When the focal distance of the beam becomes sufficiently short, the amplitude of the longitudinal motion becomes equal to the amplitude of the transverse motion. This phenomenon has a direct analogy in the focusing properties of radially-polarized optical beams, which was investigated experimentally by Dorn et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 233901 (2003)). / text

In this thesis, the effect of inhomogeneous pre-stress on elastic wave propagation and scattering in nonlinear elastic materials is investigated. Four main problems are considered: 1. torsional wave propagation in a pre-stressed annular cylinder, 2. the scattering of horizontally polarised shear waves from a cylindrical cavity in a pre-stressed, infinite, nonlinear elastic material, 3. the use of pre-stress to cloak cylindrical cavities from incoming horizontally polarised shear waves, and 4. the scattering of shear waves from a spherical cavity in a pre-stressed, infinite, nonlinear elastic material.It is observed that waves in a hyperelastic material are significantly affected by pre-stress, and different results are obtained from those which would be obtained if the underlying stress was neglected and only geometrical changes were considered. In Chapter 3 we show that the dispersion curves for torsional waves propagating in an annular cylinder are strongly dependent on the pre-stress applied. A greater pressure on the inner surface than the outer causes the roots of the dispersion curves to be spaced further apart, whereas a greater pressure on the outer surface than the inner causes them to be spaced closer together. We also show that a longitudinal stretch causes the cut-on frequencies to move closer together and decreases the gradient of the dispersion curves, whilst a longitudinal compression causes the cut-on frequencies to move further apart and increases the gradient of the dispersion curves. In Chapter 4 we observe that pre-stress affects the scattering coefficients for shear waves scattered from a cylindrical cavity. It is shown that, for certain parameter values, the scattering coefficients obtained in a pre-stressed medium are closer to those that would be obtained in the undeformed configuration than those that would be obtained in the deformed configuration if the pre-stress were neglected. This result is utilised in Chapter 5 where the cloaking of a cylindrical cavity from horizontally polarised shear waves is examined. It is shown that neo-Hookean materials are optimal for this type of cloaking. A stonger dependence of the strain energy function on the second strain invariant leads to a less efficient cloak.We observe that, for a Mooney-Rivlin material, as S1 tends from 1 towards 0 (in other words, as a material becomes less dependent on the first strain invariant, and more dependent on the second strain invariant), there is more scattering from the cloaking region. For materials which are strongly dependent on the second strain invariant the pre-stress actually increases the scattering cross-section relative to the scattering cross-section for an unstressed material, hence these materials are unsuitable for pre-stress cloaking.Finally, in Chapter 6 we study the effect of pressure applied to the inner surface of a spherical cavity and at infinity on the propagation and scattering of shear waves in an unbounded medium. It is shown that the scattering coefficients and cross-sections for this problem are strongly dependent on the pre-stress considered. We observe that a region of inhomogeneous pre-stress can lead to some counterintuitive relationships between cavity size and scattering cross-sections and coefficients.

The insect respiratory system serves as a model for both robust microfluidic transport and mate- rial design. In the system, the convective flow of gas is driven through local deformations of the tracheal network, a phenomenon that is dependent on the unique structure and material properties of the tracheal tissue. To understand the underlying mechanics of this method of gas transport, we studied the microstructure and material properties of the primary thoracic tracheal tubes of the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana). We performed quasi-static uniaxial tests on the tissue which revealed a nonlinear stress-strain response even under small deformations. A detailed analysis of the tissue's microstructural arrangement using both light and electron mi- croscopy revealed the primary sources of reinforcement for the tissue as well as heterogeneity on the meso-scale that may contribute to the physiological function of the tracheae during respi- ration. Finally, a custom mechanical testing system was developed with which inflation-extension tests on the tracheae were used to gather data on the biaxial elastic response of the tissue over a wide range of physiologically relevant loading conditions. From information gathered about the material microstructure, a robust constitutive model was chosen to quantify the biaxial response of the tracheae. This model will provide a basis from which to simulate the behavior of tracheal net- works in future computational studies. This study gives the first description of the elastic response of the tracheae which is essential for understanding the mechanics of respiration in insects. Thus it brings us closer to the realization of novel bio-inspired microfluidic systems and materials that utilize mechanical principles from the insect respiratory system. / Ph. D.

In this dissertation we investigate the behavior of radially symmetric non-Euclidean plates of thickness t with constant negative Gaussian curvature. We present a complete study of these plates using the Föppl-von Kármán and Kirchhoff reduced theories of elasticity. Motivated by experimental results, we focus on deformations with a periodic profile. For the Föppl-von Kármán model, we prove rigorously that minimizers of the elastic energy converge to saddle shaped isometric immersions. In studying this convergence, we prove rigorous upper and lower bounds for the energy that scale like the thickness t squared. Furthermore, for deformation with n-waves we prove that the lower bound scales like nt² while the upper bound scales like n²t². We also investigate the scaling with thickness of boundary layers where the stretching energy is concentrated with decreasing thickness. For the Kichhoff model, we investigate isometric immersions of disks with constant negative curvature into R³, and the minimizers for the bending energy, i.e. the L² norm of the principal curvatures over the class of W^2,2 isometric immersions. We show the existence of smooth immersions of arbitrarily large geodesic balls in H² into R³. In elucidating the connection between these immersions and the nonexistence/ singularity results of Hilbert and Amsler, we obtain a lower bound for the L^∞ norm of the principal curvatures for such smooth isometric immersions. We also construct piecewise smooth isometric immersions that have a periodic profile, are globally W^2,2, and numerically have lower bending energy than their smooth counterparts. The number of periods in these configurations is set by the condition that the principal curvatures of the surface remain finite and grow approximately exponentially with the radius of the disc.

In this thesis, the propagation of transient waves in heterogeneous media and the tuning of periodic elastic materials are studied. The behaviour of time harmonic waves in complex media is a well understood phenomenon. The primary aim of this text is to gain a deeper understanding into the propagation of transient waves in periodic media. The secondary aim is to explore the time harmonic behaviour of two dimensional pre-stressed elastic media and investigate the plausibility of band gap tuning. We begin this text by investigating the reflection of pulses from a semi-infinite set of point masses (we call 'beads') on a string. The reflected pulse is formulated using Fourier transforms which involve the harmonic reflection coefficient. We find that the reflected amplitude of a harmonic wave depends on its frequency. We then ask whether it is possible to find an effective reflection coefficient by assuming the beaded portion of the string is given by some effective homogeneous medium. An effective reflection coefficient is found by assuming the homogeneous medium has the wavenumber given by the infinite beaded string. This effective reflection coefficient is compared to the exact reflection coefficient found using the Wiener-Hopf technique. The results from studying the reflection problem gave inspiration to chapter 4, which focuses on the time dependent forcing of an infinite beaded string that is initially at rest. We again use the Fourier transform to find a time dependent solution. The z-transform is then used, after sampling the solution at the bead positions. We impose a sinusoidal loading which is switched on at a specified time. In doing this we are able to explore how the system behaves differently when excited in a stop band, a pass band and at a frequency on the edge between the two. An exact solution for the infinite beaded string is found at any point in time by expanding the branch points of the solution as a series of poles. We compare this exact solution to the long time asymptotics. The energy input into the system is studied with the results from the exact solution and long time approximation showing agreement. Interesting behaviour is discovered on the two edges between stop and pass bands. In chapter 5 the effect of a nonlinear elastic pre-stress on the wave band structure of a two dimensional phononic crystal is investigated. In this chapter we restrict ourselves to incompressible materials with the strain energy functions used being the neo-Hookean, Mooney-Rivlin and Fung. The method of small-on-large is used to derive the equation for incremental elastic waves and then the plane wave expansion method is used to find the band structure. Finally, chapter 6 focuses on the same geometry with a compressible elastic material. The strain energy function used is the one suggested by Levinson and Burgess. We use the theory of small-on-large to derive the incremental equations for coupled small amplitude pressure and shear waves in this material. In both compressible and incompressible materials we show how it is possible to control the stop bands in a material by applying a large elastic pre-stress.

Employing the Finite Element Method (FEM), we numerically study three problems involving free and forced vibrations of linearly and nonlinearly elastic plates with a third order shear and normal deformable theory (TSNDT) and the three dimensional (3D) elasticity theory. We used the commercial software ABAQUS for analyzing 3D deformations, and an in-house developed and verified software for solving the plate theory equations. In the first problem, we consider trapezoidal load-time pulses with linearly increasing and affinely decreasing loads of total durations equal to integer multiples of the time period of the first bending mode of vibration of a plate. For arbitrary spatial distributions of loads applied to monolithic and laminated orthotropic plates, we show that plates' vibrations become miniscule after the load is removed. We call this phenomenon as vibration attenuation. It is independent of the dwell time during which the load is a constant. We hypothesize that plates exhibit this phenomenon because nearly all of plate's strain energy is due to deformations corresponding to the fundamental bending mode of vibration. Thus taking the 1st bending mode shape of the plate vibration as the basis function, we reduce the problem to that of solving a single second-order ordinary differential equation. We show that this reduced-order model gives excellent results for monolithic and composite plates subjected to different loads. Rectangular plates studied in the 2nd problem have points on either one or two normals to their midsurface constrained from translating in all three directions. We find that deformations corresponding to several modes of vibration are annulled in a region of the plate divided by a plane through the constraining points; this phenomenon is termed mode localization. New results include: (i) the localization of both in-plane and out-of-plane modes of vibration, (ii) increase in the mode localization intensity with an increase in the length/width ratio of a rectangular plate, (iii) change in the mode localization characteristics with the fiber orientation angle in unidirectional fiber- reinforced laminae, (iv) mode localization due to points on two normals constrained, and (iv) the exchange of energy during forced harmonic vibrations between two regions separated by the line of nearly stationary points that results in a beating-like phenomenon in a sub-region of the plate. This technique can help design a structure with vibrations limited to its small sub-region, and harvesting energy of vibrations of the sub-region. In the third problem, we study finite transient deformations of rectangular plates using the TSNDT. The mathematical model includes all geometric and material nonlinearities. We compare the results of linear and nonlinear TSNDT FEM with the corresponding 3D FEM results from ABAQUS and note that the TSNDT is capable of predicting reasonably accurate results of displacements and in-plane stresses. However, the errors in computing transverse stresses are larger and the use of a two point stress recovery scheme improves their accuracy. We delineate the effects of nonlinearities by comparing results from the linear and the nonlinear theories. We observe that the linear theory over-predicts the deformations of a plate as compared to those obtained with the inclusion of geometric and material nonlinearities. We hypothesize that this is an effect of stiffening of the material due to the nonlinearity, analogous to the strain hardening phenomenon in plasticity. Based on this observation, we propose that the consideration of nonlinearities is essential in modeling plates undergoing large deformations as linear model over-predicts the deformation resulting in conservative design criteria. We also notice that unlike linear elastic plate bending, the neutral surface of a nonlinearly elastic bending plate, defined as the plane unstretched after the deformation, does not coincide with the mid-surface of the plate. Due to this effect, use of nonlinear models may be of useful in design of sandwich structures where a soft core near the mid-surface will be subjected to large in-plane stresses. / Doctor of Philosophy / Plates and shells are defined as structures which have thickness much smaller as compared to their length and width. These structures are extensively used in many fields of engineering such as, designing ship hulls, airplane wings and fuselage, bodies of automobile, etc. Depending on the complexity of a plate/shell deformation problem, deriving analytical solutions is not always viable and one relies on computational methods to obtain numerical solutions of the problem. However, obtaining 3-dimensional (3D) numerical solutions of deforming plates/shells often require high computational effort. To avoid this, plate/shell theories are used for modeling these structures, which, based on certain assumptions, reduce the 3D problem into an equivalent 2-dimensional (2D) problem. However, quality of the solution obtained from such a theory depends on how suitable the assumptions are for the specific problem being studied. In this work, one such plate theory called as the Third Order Shear and Normal Deformable Theory (TSNDT) is used to model the mechanics of deforming rectangular plates under different boundary conditions (constraint conditions for the boundaries of the plate) and loading conditions (conditions of applied loads on the plate). We develop the TSNDT mathematical model of plate deformations and solve it using a computational technique called as the Finite Element Method (FEM) to analyze three different problems of mechanics of rectangular plates. These problems are briefly described below. vi In the first problem, we study vibrations of rectangular plates under time dependent (dynamic) loads. When a dynamic load acts on a plate, due to the effects of inertia, the plate continues to vibrate after the removal of the load. This is analogous to ringing of a bell long after the strike of the hammer on the bell. In this study we show that such vibrations of a rectangular plate can be varied by changing time dependencies of the applied load. We observe that under certain particular loading conditions, vibrations of the plate becomes miniscule after the load removal. We call this phenomenon as Vibration Attenuation and investigate this computationally in different problems of plate deformation using FEM solutions. In the second problem, we computationally investigate the effects of presence of internal fixed points (points within the volume of the plate restricted of motion) on the vibration characteristics of rectangular plate using TSNDT FEM solutions. We observe that when one or more points at locations inside a rectangular plate are fixed, vibration behavior of the plate significantly changes and the deformations are localized in certain regions of the plate. This phenomenon is called as Mode Localization. We study mode localization in rectangular plates under different boundary and loading conditions and analyze the effects of plate dimensions, locations of the internal fixed points and dynamic load characteristics on mode localization. In the third problem, we investigate the effects of introduction of nonlinearities into the TSNDT mathematical model of plate deformations. Simple models in mechanics consider materials to be linearly elastic, which means that the deformations of a body are proportional to the applied loads in a linear relation. However, most materials in nature undergoing large deformations (human tissues, rubbers, and polymers, for example) do not behave in this fashion and their deformation depends nonlinearly to applied loads. To investigate the effects of such nonlinearities, we study the behavior of nonlinearly elastic plates under different boundary and loading conditions and delineate the differences in the results of linearly elastic and nonlinearly elastic plates using the TSNDT FEM solutions. Findings of this study establishes that linear models overestimate the plate deformation under given boundary and loading conditions as compared to nonlinear models. This understanding may help in developing better design criteria for plates undergoing large deformations.

We have investigated gradient models, one of them was a model with double-well potential and the other one a so called extended model. In dimension two we have calculated exact free energies of the disseminated edge configurations for the extended model and for arbitrary dimension we have derived bounds on these free energies. Combining these bounds with an argument on exstince of bad contours together with the estimate of the number of these contours and using the method of reflection positivity we have been able to show that at low temperatures there is a phase transition in the extended model. We have further shown that the phase transition exists also in the double-well model as long as a conjecture on estimates of mean energy holds. Besides these results the thesis also contains basic tools of statistical physics and facts from related fields, as well as basic results on gradient models, so that our work can serve as an introduction into these areas.

Es werden Kontaktprobleme im Rahmen der nichtlinearen Elastizitätstheorie mit Mitteln der Variationsrechnung behandelt. Dabei liegt das Hauptaugenmerk auf der Untersuchung des Selbstkontakts eines nichtlinear elastischen Körpers. Unter Verwendung einer geeigneten Lagrangeschen Multiplikatorenregel wird eine notwendige Bedingung für Minimierer hergeleitet. Weiterhin werden Ergebnisse für den Kontakt zweier elastischer Körper formuliert.