Estimates and asymptotics for the stress concentration between closely spaced stiff \(C^{1, \gamma }\) inclusions in linear elasticity (Q2020104)

The authors study elastic composite materials which contain two adjacent stiff inclusions. The emphasis is on the corresponding stress concentration phenomenon and on the relationship between the degree of stress enhancement and the distance between the inclusions. Gradient blow-up estimates are derived for the Lame system of linear elasticity with partially degenerated coefficients. The inclusions are assumed to be of \(C^{1,\gamma}\). The strategy is to employ \(W^{1,p}\) estimates for elliptic systems with right-hand side in divergence form and to make use of Campanato's approach in order to deduce optimal gradient estimates. By the upper and lower bound estimates the authors also deduce an asymptotic formula of the gradient near the origin (which proves to be the blow-up location).