The optimal control of flexible structures is an active area of research. The main body of work in this area is concerned with the control of time-dependent displacements and stresses, and assumes linear elastic conditions, namely linear elastic material behavior and small defor- tion. See, e. g., 1]- 3], the collections of papers 4, 5], and references therein. On the other hand, in the present paper we consider the static optimal control of a structure made of a nonlinear elastic material and und- going large deformation. An important application is the suppression of static or...

The question whether a structure or a machine component can carry the applied loads, and with which margin of safety, or whether it will become unserviceable due to collapse or excessive inelastic deformations, has always been a major concern for civil and mechanical engineers. The development of methods to answer this technologically crucial question without analysing the evolution of the system under varying loads, has a long tradition that can be traced back even to the times of emerging mechanical sciences in the early 17th century. However, the scientific foundations of the theories...

A systematic treatment, based on Green's functions and integral equations, is given to the analytical and numerical methods and results for a great number of 3-D contact problems for elastic bodies. Semi-bounded elastic bodies (layer, cylinder, space with cylindrical or spherical cavity, 3-D wedge, special cases of which are half- and quarter-spaces, cone) and finite elastic bodies (circular plate, finite cylinder, spherical layer, spherical lens, sphere) are considered. Methods introduced in the book can also be applied in fracture mechanics, hydrodynamics, electrostatics,...

New technologies demand new materials. Polymer composites, with their wide range of possible fillers and polymers, open the way to an enormous range of materials with differing chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. The ultimate goal of polymer composite research is to formulate procedures that will lead to the design of composites with preset, i.e. specified, properties.
Based on many years' experience in the field, the authors prepare the way towards just such a design procedure. The key element is the analysis and classification of the state of the filler-polymer interfaces...

This book is the frrst to focus on mechanical aspects of fibrous and layered composite material with curved structure. By mechanical aspects we mean statics, vibration, stability loss, elastic and fracture problems. By curved structures we mean that the reinforcing layers or fibres are not straight: they have some initial curvature, bending or distortion. This curvature may occur as a result of design, or as a consequence of some technological process. During the last two decades, we and our students have investigated problems relating to curved composites intensively. These investigations...

The aim of this book is to provide an account of the state of the art in Com- putational Kinematics. We understand here under this term, that branch of kinematics research involving intensive computations not only of the numer- ical type, but also of a symbolic nature. Research in kinematics over the last decade has been remarkably ori- ented towards the computational aspects of kinematics problems. In fact, this work has been prompted by the need to answer fundamental question- s such as the number of solutions, whether real or complex, that a given problem can admit. Problems of this kind...

I became interested in Random Vibration during the preparation of my PhD dissertation, which was concerned with the seismic response of nuclear reactor cores. I was initiated into this field through the cla.ssical books by Y.K.Lin, S.H.Crandall and a few others. After the completion of my PhD, in 1981, my supervisor M.Gera.din encouraged me to prepare a course in Random Vibration for fourth and fifth year students in Aeronautics, at the University of Liege. There was at the time very little material available in French on that subject. A first draft was produced during 1983 and 1984 and...

Everyone involved with the mechanics of composite materials and structures must have come across the works of Dr. N.J. Pagano in their research. His research papers are among the most referenced of all existing literature in the field of mechanics of composite materials. This monograph makes available, in one volume, all Dr. Pagano's major technical papers.
Most of the papers included in this volume have been published in the open literature, but there are a few exceptions -- a few key, unpublished reports have been included for continuity. The topics are: some basic studies of...

In Mechanics of Poroelastic Media the classical theory of poroelasticity developed by Biot is developed and extended to the study of problems in geomechanics, biomechanics, environmental mechanics and materials science. The contributions are grouped into sections covering constitutive modelling, analytical aspects, numerical modelling, and applications to problems. The applications of the classical theory of poroelasticity to a wider class of problems will be of particular interest. The text is a standard reference for researchers interested in developing mathematical models of ...

This volume records the Symposium on 'Anisotropy, Inhomogeneity and Nonlinearity in Solid Mechanics', held at the University of Nottingham from 30th August to 3rd September 1994, sponsored by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and held in conjunction with the In- ternational Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics. The advent of composite materials, together with their widespread use in recent years, has provided a powerful stimulus for advances in several somewhat ne- glected areas of solid mechanics. Exploitation of fibre-reinforced solids and...