The asymptotic behaviour of the equilibrium configurations of a thin elastic plate is studied, as the thickness $h$ of the plate goes to zero. More precisely, it is shown that critical points of the nonlinear elastic functional $\mathcal E^h$, whose energies (per unit thickness) are bounded by $Ch^4$, converge to critical points of the $Γ$-limit of $h^{-4}\mathcal E^h$. This is proved under the physical assumption that the energy density $W(F)$ blows up as $\det F\to0$.
Modelling of thin isotropic elastic plates with small piezoelectric inclusions and distributed electric circuits. Models for inclusions larger or comparable to the thickness of the plate
In this work we derive by Gamma-convergence techniques a model for brittle fracture linearly elastic plates. Precisely, we start from a brittle linearly elastic thin film with positive thickness $ρ$ and study the limit as $ρ$ tends to 0. The analysis is performed with no a priori restrictions on the admissible displacements and on the geometry of the fracture set. The limit model is characterized by a Kirchhoff-Love type of structure.
We consider a conservative system consisting of an elastic plate interacting with a gas filling a semi-infinite tube. The plate is placed on the bottom of the tube. The dynamics of the gas velocity potential is governed by the linear wave equation. The plate displacement satisfies the linear Kirchhoff equation. We show that this system possesses an infinite number of periodic solutions with the frequencies tending to infinity. This means that the well-known property of decaying of local wave energy in tube domains does not hold for the system considered.
We consider a recent plate model obtained as a scaled limit of the three dimensional Biot system of poro-elasticity. The result is a "2.5" dimensional linear system that couples traditional Euler-Bernoulli plate dynamics to a pressure equation in three dimensions, where diffusion acts only transversely. We alow the permeability function to be time-dependent, making the problem non-autonomous and disqualifying much of the standard abstract theory. Weak solutions are defined in the so called quasi-static case, and the problem is framed abstractly as an implicit, degenerate evolution problem. Uti…
In this paper we study the homogenization effects on the model of elastic plate in the bending regime, under the assumption that the energy density (material) oscillates in the direction of thickness. We study two different cases. First, we show, starting from 3D elasticity, by means of $Γ$-convergence and under general (not necessarily periodic) assumption, that the effective behavior of the limit is not influenced by oscillations in the direction of thickness. In the second case, we study periodic in-plane oscillations of the energy density coupled with periodic oscillations in the direction…
A quasistatic model for a horizontally loaded thin elastic composite at small strains is studied. The composite consists of two adjacent plates whose interface behaves in a cohesive fashion with respect to the slip of the two layers. We allow for different loading-unloading regimes, distinguished by the presence of an irreversible variable describing the maximal slip reached during the evolution. Existence of energetic solutions, characterized by equilibrium conditions together with energy balance, is proved by means of a suitable version of the Minimizing Movements scheme. A crucial tool to a…
An idealized electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical system (MEMS) involving an elastic plate with a heterogeneous dielectric material is considered. Starting from the electrostatic and mechanical energies, the governing evolution equations for the electrostatic potential and the plate deflection are derived from the corresponding energy balance. This leads to a free boundary transmission problem due to a jump of the dielectric permittivity across the interface separating elastic plate and free space. Reduced models retaining the influence of the heterogeneity of the elastic plate un…
An asymptotic analysis is performed for thin anisotropic elastic plate clamped along its lateral side and also supported at a small area $θ_{h}$ of one base with diameter of the same order as the plate thickness $h\ll1.$ A three-dimensional boundary layer in the vicinity of the support $θ_{h}$ is involved into the asymptotic form which is justified by means of the previously derived weighted inequality of Korn's type provides an error estimate with the bound $ ch^{1/2} \left | \ln h\right| .$ Ignoring this boundary layer effect reduces the precision order down to $\left| \ln h\right| ^{-1/2}.$…
In this paper, we derive a linearized Kirchhoff model from three dimensional nonlinear elastic energy of plates with incompatible prestrain as its thickness $h$ tends to zero and its elastic energy scales like $h^β$ with $2<β<4.$ The incompatible prestrain is given as a Riemannian metric $G(x')$ in the three dimensional thin plate which only depends on mid-plate of the thin plates. The problem is studied rigorously by using a variational approach and establishing the $Γ-$ limit of the non-Euclidean version of the nonlinear elasticity functional when the gauss curvature of the mid-plate $(Ω, g=…
This paper is concerned with the reconstruction issue of an inverse crack problem in a two-dimensional bounded domain which may have a possible application to the nondestructive evaluation of materials. It is assumed that the domain consists of two elastic plates welded together and has some unknown cracks on the junction line and the governing equation of in-plane displacement is Navier's equation. The problem is to extract information about the location of cracks from the observation data which is a single set of a loading surface traction and the resulted in-plane displacement field on the …
We investigate equilibria of charged deformable materials via the minimization of an electroelastic energy. This features the coupling of elastic response and electrostatics by means of a capacitary term, which is naturally defined in Eulerian coordinates. The ensuing electroelastic energy is then of mixed Lagrangian-Eulerian type. We prove that minimizers exist by investigating the continuity properties of the capacitary terms under convergence of the deformations
A variational approach is employed to find stationary solutions to a free boundary problem modeling an idealized electrostatically actuated MEMS device made of an elastic plate coated with a thin dielectric film and suspended above a rigid ground plate. The model couples a non-local fourth-order equation for the elastic plate deflection to the harmonic electrostatic potential in the free domain between the elastic and the ground plate. The corresponding energy is non-coercive reflecting an inherent singularity related to a possible touchdown of the elastic plate. Stationary solutions are const…
We show weak-strong uniqueness and stability results for the motion of a two or three dimensional fluid governed by the Navier-Stokes equation interacting with a flexible, elastic plate of Koiter type. The plate is situated at the top of the fluid and as such determines the variable part of a time changing domain (that is hence a part of the solution) containing the fluid. The uniqueness result is a consequence of a stability estimate where the difference of two solutions is estimated by the distance of the initial values and outer forces. For that we introduce a methodology that overcomes the…
In this paper we investigate the interaction of fluid flow with a thin porous elastic layer. We consider two fluid-filled bulk domains which are separated by a thin periodically perforated layer consisting of a fluid and an elastic solid part. Thickness and periodicity of the layer are of order $ε$, where $ε$ is small compared to the size of the bulk domains. The fluid flow is described by an instationary Stokes equation and the solid via linear elasticity. The main contribution of this paper is the rigorous homogenization of the porous structure in the layer and the reduction of the layer to …
A model for a MEMS device, consisting of a fixed bottom plate and an elastic plate, is studied. It was derived in a previous work as a reinforced limit when the thickness of the insulating layer covering the bottom plate tends to zero. This asymptotic model inherits the dielectric properties of the insulating layer. It involves the electrostatic potential in the device and the deformation of the elastic plate defining the geometry of the device. The electrostatic potential is given by an elliptic equation with mixed boundary conditions in the possibly non-Lipschitz region between the two plate…
We derive upper and lower estimates of the area of unknown defects in the form of either cavities or rigid inclusions in Mindlin-Reissner elastic plates in terms of the difference $δW$ of the works exerted by boundary loads on the defected and on the reference plate. It turns out that the upper estimates depend linearly on $δW$, whereas the lower ones depend quadratically on $δW$. These results continue a line of research concerning size estimates of extreme inclusions in electric conductors, elastic bodies and plates.
We show that nonlinearly elastic plates of thickness $h\to 0$ with an $\varepsilon$-periodic structure such that $\varepsilon^{-2}h\to 0$ exhibit non-standard behaviour in the asymptotic two-dimensional reduction from three-dimensional elasticity: in general, their effective stored-energy density is "discontinuously anisotropic" in all directions. The proof relies on a new result concerning an additional isometric constraint that deformation fields must satisfy on the microscale.
The large deflections of cantilevered beams and plates are modeled and discussed. Traditional nonlinear elastic models (e.g., that of von Karman) employ elastic restoring forces based on the effect of stretching on bending, and these are less applicable to cantilevers. Recent experimental work indicates that elastic cantilevers are subject to nonlinear inertial and stiffness effects. We review a recently established (quasilinear and nonlocal) cantilevered beam model, and consider some natural extensions to two dimensions -- namely, inextensible plates. Our principal configuration is that of a …
In this paper we consider the inverse problem of determining, within an elastic isotropic thick plate modelled by the Reissner-Mindlin theory, the possible presence of an inclusion made of a different elastic material. Under some a priori assumptions on the inclusion, we deduce constructive upper and lower estimates of the area of the inclusion in terms of a scalar quantity related to the work developed in deforming the plate by applying simultaneously a couple field and a transverse force field at the boundary of the plate. The approach allows to consider plates with boundary of Lipschitz cla…
We consider a single disclination in a thin elastic sheet of thickness $h$. We prove ansatz-free lower bounds for the free elastic energy in three different settings: First, for a geometrically fully non-linear plate model, second, for three-dimensional nonlinear elasticity, and third, for the Föppl-von Kármán plate theory. The lower bounds in the first and third result are optimal in the sense that we find upper bounds that are identical to the respective lower bounds in the leading order of $h$.
We consider the elasticity operator with zero Poisson's ratio on an infinite strip and an infinite plate with a horizontal crack. We prove an asymptotic formula for the distance of the embedded eigenvalues to some spectral threshold of the operator as the crack becomes small.
We rigorously derive a Kirchhoff plate theory, via $Γ$-convergence, from a three-di\-men\-sio\-nal model that describes the finite elasticity of an elastically heterogeneous, thin sheet. The heterogeneity in the elastic properties of the material results in a spontaneous strain that depends on both the thickness and the plane variables $x'$. At the same time, the spontaneous strain is $h$-close to the identity, where $h$ is the small parameter quantifying the thickness. The 2D Kirchhoff limiting model is constrained to the set of isometric immersions of the mid-plane of the plate into $\mathbb…
We analyse the behaviour of thin composite plates whose material properties vary periodically in-plane and possess a high degree of contrast between the individual components. Starting from the equations of three-dimensional linear elasticity that describe soft inclusions embedded in a relatively stiff thin-plate matrix, we derive the corresponding asymptotically equivalent two-dimensional plate equations. Our approach is based on recent results concerning decomposition of deformations with bounded scaled symmetrised gradients. Using an operator-theoretic approach, we calculate the limit resol…
We analyse a system of partial differential equations describing the behaviour of an elastic plate with periodic moduli in the two planar directions, in the asymptotic regime when the period and the plate thickness are of the same order of smallness. Assuming that the displacement gradients of the points of the plate are small enough for the equations of linearised elasticity to be a suitable approximation of the material response, such as the case in e.g. acoustic wave propagation, we derive a class of "hybrid", homogenisation dimension-reduction, norm-resolvent estimates for the plate, under…
This paper investigates the optimal distribution of hard and soft material on elastic plates. In the class of isometric deformations stationary points of a Kirchhoff plate functional with incorporated material hardness function are investigated and a compliance cost functional is taken into account. Under symmetry assumptions on the material distribution and the load it is shown that cylindrical solutions are stationary points. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the optimal design of cylindrically deforming, clamped rectangular plates is non trivial, i.e. with a material distribution which i…
The aim of this work is to present theoretical tools to study wave propagation in elastic waveguides and perform multi-frequency scattering inversion to reconstruct small shape defects in a 2D and 3D elastic plate. Given surface multi-frequency wavefield measurements, we use a Born approximation to reconstruct localized defect in the geometry of the plate. To justify this approximation, we introduce a rigorous framework to study the propagation of elastic wavefield generated by arbitrary sources. By studying the decreasing rate of the series of inhomogeneous Lamb mode, we prove the well-posedn…
A thin anisotropic elastic plate clamped along its lateral side and also supported at a small area $θ_{h}$ of one base is considered; the diameter of $θ_{h}$ is of the same order as the plate relative thickness $h\ll1$. In addition to the standard Kirchhoff model with the Sobolev point condition, a three-dimensional boundary layer is investigated in the vicinity of the support $θ_{h}$, which with the help of the derived weighted inequality of Korn's type, will provide an error estimate with the bound $ch^{1/2}|\ln h|$. Ignoring this boundary layer effect reduces the precision order down to $|\…
The Poisson problem consists in finding an immersed surface $Σ\subset\mathbb{R}^m$ minimising Germain's elastic energy (known as Willmore energy in geometry) with prescribed boundary, boundary Gauss map and area which constitutes a non-linear model for the equilibrium state of thin, clamped elastic plates originating from the work of S. Germain and S.D. Poisson or the early XIX century. We present a solution to this problem consisting in the minimisation of the total curvature energy $E(Σ)=\int_Σ|\operatorname{I\!I}_Σ|^2_{g_Σ}\,\mathrm{d}vol_Σ$ ($\operatorname{I\!I}_Σ$ is the second fundamenta…
Based on our previous work, we propose a homogenized model of acoustic waves propagating through periodically perforated elastic plates with metamaterial properties due to embedded arrays of soft elastic inclusions serving for resonators. Such structures enable to suppress the acoustic transmission for selected frequency bands. Homogenization of the vibro-acoustic fluid-structure interaction problem in a 3D complex geometry of the transmission layer leads to effective transmission conditions prescribed on the acoustic meta-surface associated with the mid-plane of the Reissner-Mindlin plate. As…
We consider a two phase elastic thin film with soft inclusions subject to bending dominated deformations. The soft (void) phase may comprise asymptotically small droplets within the elastic matrix. We perform a dimension reduction analysis and obtain a novel `Blake-Zisserman-Kirchhoff' model that combines Kirchhoff's classical plate theory with Blake-Zisserman type surface energy contributions at cracks, folds and the boundary of voids.
