F. dell’Isola

Large deformations of planar extensible beams and pantographic lattices: Heuristic homogenization, experimental and numerical examples of equilibrium

The aim of this paper is to find a computationally efficient and predictive model for the class of systems that we call ‘pantographic structures’. The interest in these materials was increased by the possibilities opened by the diffusion of technology of three-dimensional printing. They can be regarded, once choosing a suitable length scale, as families of beams (also called fibres) interconnected to each other by pivots and undergoing large displacements and large deformations. There are, however, relatively few ‘ready-to-use’ results in the literature of nonlinear beam theory. In this paper, we consider a discrete spring model for extensible beams and propose a heuristic homogenization technique of the kind first used by Piola to formulate a continuum fully nonlinear beam model. The homogenized energy which we obtain has some peculiar and interesting features which we start to describe by solving numerically some exemplary deformation problems. Furthermore, we consider pantographic structures, find the corresponding homogenized second gradient deformation energies and study some planar problems. Numerical solutions for these two-dimensional problems are obtained via minimization of energy and are compared with some experimental measurements, in which elongation phenomena cannot be neglected.

Analytical continuum mechanics à la Hamilton-Piola: least action principle for second gradient continua and capillary fluids

In this paper a stationary action principle is proved to hold for capillary fluids, i.e. fluids for which the deformation energy has the form suggested, starting from molecular arguments. We remark that these fluids are sometimes also called Korteweg–de Vries or Cahn–Allen fluids. In general, continua whose deformation energy depends on the second gradient of placement are called second gradient (or Piola–Toupin, Mindlin, Green–Rivlin, Germain or second grade) continua. In the present paper, a material description for second gradient continua is formulated. A Lagrangian action is introduced in both the material and spatial descriptions and the corresponding Euler–Lagrange equations and boundary conditions are found. These conditions are formulated in terms of an objective deformation energy volume density in two cases: when this energy is assumed to depend on either C and ∇C or on C−1 and ∇C−1, where C is the Cauchy–Green deformation tensor. When particularized to energies which characterize fluid materials, the capillary fluid evolution conditions are recovered. A version of Bernoulli’s law valid for capillary fluids is found and useful kinematic formulas for the present variational formulation are proposed. Historical comments about Gabrio Piola’s contribution to analytical continuum mechanics are also presented.

Macroscopic Description of Microscopically Strongly Inhomogenous Systems: A Mathematical Basis for the Synthesis of Higher Gradients Metamaterials

We consider the time evolution of a one dimensional n-gradient continuum. Our aim is to construct and analyze discrete approximations in terms of physically realizable mechanical systems, referred to as microscopic because they are living on a smaller space scale. We validate our construction by proving a convergence theorem of the microscopic system to the given continuum, as the scale parameter goes to zero.

The postulations á la D’Alembert and á la Cauchy for higher gradient continuum theories are equivalent: a review of existing results

In order to found continuum mechanics, two different postulations have been used. The first, introduced by Lagrange and Piola, starts by postulating how the work expended by internal interactions in a body depends on the virtual velocity field and its gradients. Then, by using the divergence theorem, a representation theorem is found for the volume and contact interactions which can be exerted at the boundary of the considered body. This method assumes an a priori notion of internal work, regards stress tensors as dual of virtual displacements and their gradients, deduces the concept of contact interactions and produces their representation in terms of stresses using integration by parts. The second method, conceived by Cauchy and based on the celebrated tetrahedron argument, starts by postulating the type of contact interactions which can be exerted on the boundary of every (suitably) regular part of a body. Then it proceeds by proving the existence of stress tensors from a balance-type postulate. In this paper, we review some relevant literature on the subject, discussing how the two postulations can be reconciled in the case of higher gradient theories. Finally, we underline the importance of the concept of contact surface, edge and wedge s-order forces.