Mechanics Of Materials And Interfaces

The disturbed state concept (DSC) is a unified, constitutive modelling approach for engineering materials that allows for elastic, plastic, and creep strains, microcracking and fracturing, stiffening or healing, all within a single, hierarchical framework. Its capabilities go well beyond other available material models yet lead to significant simpl

The growing occurrence of heterogeneous materials such as composites or coated substrates in structural parts makes it necessary for designers and scientists to deal with the specific features of the mechanical behavior of solid interfaces. This book introduces basic concepts on mechanical problems related to the presence of solid/solid interfaces and their practical applications. The various topics discussed here are the mechanical characterization of interfaces, the initiation and growth of cracks along interfaces, the origin and control of interface adhesion, focusing in particular on thin films on substrate systems. It is designed and structured to provide a solid background in the mechanics of heterogeneous materials to help students in materials science, as well as scientists and engineers.

The category of problems which examines the mechanical behaviour of contact regions constitutes an important branch of applied mechanics with extensive engineering applications. The results of such research can be applied to the study of mechanics of composite materials, tribology, soil-foundation interaction, mechanics of rock interfaces, modelling of damage phenomena and micro-mechanics. In classical studies, the modelling of interface responses has focussed on purely idealized forms of interface phenomena which range from frictionless contact to bonded contact, with Coulomb friction or finite friction occupying an intermediate position. Current research has attempted to improve such modelling by endowing the interface with its own characteristic constitutive responses. This research indicates the significant manner in which non linear, frictional, dilatant, hardening and softening interface constitutive responses can influence the global and local interface responses of engineering interest. The technical sessions held in New Mexico (sponsored by the Elasticity Committee of the Engineering Mechanics Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers) brought together new advances in the theoretical formulation, analysis and the application of material interface modelling to problems of engineering interest. This book contains the papers presented plus invited contributions from leading researchers.

This book highlights some recent advances in interfacial research in the fields of fluid mechanics and materials science at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is an extension of the presentations made during the conference “Interfaces for the 21st Century,” held on August 16-18, 1999, in Monterey, California. It includes papers by sixteen renowned experts in the field of interfacial mechanics, abstracts contributed by research scientists, and a summary of a panel discussion on future research directions. The book covers experimental and theoretical approaches, with the unifying philosophy being the investigation of new techniques for modeling the dynamics of interfaces. A number of new and exciting solution methods and experimental studies, as well as the physical problems that initiated them, are presented.

The subject of geomaterial interfaces recognizes the important influences of the interface behaviour on the performance of interfaces involving cementaceous materials such as concrete and steel, ice-structure interfaces, concrete-rock interfaces and interfaces encountered in soil reinforcement. During the past two decades, the subject of geomaterial interfaces has attracted the concerted attention of scientists and engineers both in geomechanics and applied mechanics. These efforts have been largely due to the observation that the conventional idealizations of the behaviour of interfaces between materials by frictionless contact, bonded contact, Coulomb friction or finite friction tend to omit many interesting and important influences of special relevance to geomaterials. The significant manner in which non-linear effects, dilatancy, contact degradation, hardening and softening, etc., can influence the behaviour of the interface is borne out by experimental evidence. As a result, in many instances, the response of the interface can be the governing criterion in the performance of a geomechanics problem. The primary objective of this volume is to provide a documentation of recent advances in the area of geomaterial interfaces. The volume consists of subject groupings which cover ice-structure, soil-structure and steel-concrete interfaces, mechanics of rock and concrete joints and interfaces in discrete systems.

Understanding the characteristics of material contact and lubrication at tribological interfaces is of great importance to engineering researchers and machine designers. Traditionally, contact and lubrication are separately studied due to technical difficulties, although they often coexist in reality and they are actually on the same physical ground. Fast research advancements in recent years have enabled the development and application of unified models and numerical approaches to simulate contact and lubrication, merging their studies into the domain of Interfacial Mechanics. This book provides updated information based on recent research progresses in related areas, which includes new concepts, theories, methods, and results for contact and lubrication problems involving elastic or inelastic materials, homogeneous or inhomogeneous contacting bodies, using stochastic or deterministic models for dealing with rough surfaces. It also contains unified models and numerical methods for mixed lubrication studies, analyses of interfacial frictional and thermal behaviors, as well as theories for studying the effects of multiple fields on interfacial characteristics. The book intends to reflect the recent trends of research by focusing on numerical simulation and problem solving techniques for practical interfaces of engineered surfaces and materials. This book is written primarily for graduate and senior undergraduate students, engineers, and researchers in the fields of tribology, lubrication, surface engineering, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering.