The one-dimensional model for \(d\)-cones revisited (Q2629556)

The author analyzes the behavior of a \(d\)-cone obtained when pushing an elastic sheet into a hollow cylinder. He considers the unit ball \(B\) of \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\) with boundary \(\mathcal{S}^{1}\) and defines the elastic energy \(E_{bending}:W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathbb{R}^{3})\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) through \(E_{bending}(\gamma)=\int_{0}^{2\pi}\left| \gamma^{\prime\prime}+\gamma\right| ^{2}dt\) if \(\left| \gamma\right| =\left| \gamma^{\prime}\right| =1\) almost everywhere and \(E_{bending}(\gamma)=+\infty\) otherwise. He also introduces the constrained functional \(\mathcal{E}_{h}:W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathbb{R}^{3})\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) through \(\mathcal{E}_{h}(\gamma)=E_{bending}(\gamma)\) if \(\gamma\cdot e_{z}\geq h\) and \(\mathcal{E}_{h}(\gamma)=+\infty\) otherwise, where \(h\) represents the height of the cylinder which pushes the elastic sheet and whose radius is \(\sqrt{1-h^{2}}\). The main result of the paper describes the \(\Gamma\)-convergence of \(h^{-2}\mathcal{E}_{h}\) to \(\mathcal{E}_{0}:W^{1,\infty}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathbb{R}^{2})\times W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1})\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) defined through \(\mathcal{E}_{0}(u,v,w)=\int_{0}^{2\pi}\left| w^{\prime\prime}+w\right| ^{2}dt\) if \((u,v,w)\in \mathcal{A}=\{(u,v,w)\in W^{1,\infty}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathbb{R}^{2})\times W^{2,2}\mathcal{S}^{1}):w\geq 1\), \(u=-w^{2}/2\), \(u+v^{\prime}=-w^{\prime2}/2\}\) and \(\mathcal{E}_{0}(\gamma)=+\infty\) otherwise. In the verification of the proof of the two steps of the \(\Gamma\)-convergence, the author associates to \(\gamma_{h}\in W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathbb{R}^{3})\) \(u_{h}(t)=\gamma_{h}(t)\cdot e_{r}(t)-1\), \(v_{h}(t)=\gamma_{h}(t)\cdot e_{\varphi}(t)\), \(w_{h}(t)=\gamma_{h}(t)\cdot e_{z}(t)\), where \((e_{r},e_{\varphi},e_{z})\) are the vectors of the \(t\)-dependent orthonormal frame in cylindrical coordinates. The main part of the proof consists in building a recovery sequence \(\gamma_{h}\in W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1};\mathcal{S}^{2})\) which satisfies \(\left| \gamma_h\right| =\left| \gamma_h^{\prime}\right| =1\) and \(\gamma_h\cdot e_{z}\geq h\). In the last part of his paper, the author studies the minimizers of the limit functional \(\mathcal{E}_{0}\). He introduces the functional \(\overline{\mathcal{E}}_{0}:W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1})\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) defined through \(\overline{\mathcal{E}}_{0}(w)=\int_{0}^{2\pi}\left| w^{\prime\prime}+w\right|^{2}dt\) if \(w\geq 1\) and \(\int_{0}^{2\pi}(w^{2}-w^{\prime2})dt=0\), and \(\overline{\mathcal{E}}_{0}(w)=+\infty\) otherwise, and he uses the representation of every function of \(W^{2,2}(\mathcal{S}^{1})\) in terms of its Fourier series.