The nature and the human creations are full of complex phenomena, which sometimes can be observed but rarely follow our hypotheses. The best we can do is to build a parametric model and try to adjust (identify) the unknown parameters based on the available observations. The authors discuss problems relevant to materials and structures like inverse analysis in structures, crack, material parameter and damage identification, modal analysis and thermographic methods. The solution methods vary from classical optimization to neural networks and genetic algorithms. Since all the authors are...

Inverse and crack identification problems are of paramount importance for health monitoring and quality control purposes arising in critical applications in civil, aeronautical, nuclear, and general mechanical engineering. Mathematical modeling and the numerical study of these problems require high competence in computational mechanics and applied optimization. This is the first monograph which provides the reader with all the necessary information. Delicate computational mechanics modeling, including nonsmooth unilateral contact effects, is done using boundary element techniques, which have...

Nonsmoothness and nonconvexity arise in numerous applications of mechan ics and modeling due to the need for studying more and more complicated phe nomena and real life applications. Mathematicians have started to provide the necessary tools and theoretical results underpinning these applications. Ap plied mathematicians and engineers have begun to realize the benefits of this new area and are adopting, increasingly, these new tools in their work. New computational tools facilitate numerical applications and enable the theory to be tested, and the resulting feedback poses new theoretical...

Inverse and crack identification problems are of paramount importance for health monitoring and quality control purposes arising in critical applications in civil, aeronautical, nuclear, and general mechanical engineering. Mathematical modeling and the numerical study of these problems require high competence in computational mechanics and applied optimization. This is the first monograph which provides the reader with all the necessary information. Delicate computational mechanics modeling, including nonsmooth unilateral contact effects, is done using boundary element techniques, which have...

Nonconvexity and nonsmoothness arise in a large class of engineering applica- tions. In many cases of practical importance the possibilities offered by opti- mization with its algorithms and heuristics can substantially improve the per- formance and the range of applicability of classical computational mechanics algorithms. For a class of problems this approach is the only one that really works. The present book presents in a comprehensive way the application of opti- mization algorithms and heuristics in smooth and nonsmooth mechanics. The necessity of this approach is presented to the...

Nonsmooth energy functions govern phenomena which occur frequently in nature and in all areas of life. They constitute a fascinating subject in mathematics and permit the rational understanding of yet unsolved or partially solved questions in mechanics, engineering and economics.
This is the first book to provide a complete and rigorous presentation of the quasidifferentiability approach to nonconvex, possibly nonsmooth, energy functions, of the derivation and study of the corresponding variational expressions in mechanics, engineering and economics, and of their numerical treatment....