Mechanics of random materials. Stochastics, scale effects and computation

Publication date 24 August 2003

This paper is an introduction to three aspects of mechanics of materials with random and multiscale microstructures, namely: stochastic tools, scale effects in constitutive response, and computational methods. In the first part devoted to basic probability tools, taking into account the methods of probability theory and random stochastic processes, a level is stated sufficient to describe non-deterministic spatial material fluctuations. The random processes are present as objects parametrized by space coordinates, rather than by time. The author considers a homogeneity of a random process of two kinds: a strict-sense stationary process, and wide-sense stationary one. The presentation covers scalar and vector processes and fields, all illustrated by measurements of mechanical properties of paper. This introduces basic concepts, in particular, of ergodicity, and sets a base for the analysis of random continua. The second part is devoted to continuum mechanics of random media, and focuses on the problem of representative volume element (RVE) in the sense of Hill, stating the material statistics and pronouncing the indepenence of effective constitutive response with respect to boundary conditions. The problem is reduced to the coupled size and boundary condition dependence of constitutive response of microstructures described by random fields. Three different types of boundary conditions on the mesoscale are considered, namely: uniform displacement, uniform traction, and uniform displacement-traction boundary conditions. The first two ones bound on mesoscale the effective (i.e. macroscopic) response. The mesoscale domain involved is called a statistical volume element (SVE). The author constructs a hierarchy of mesoscale bounds for different elastic microstructures through qualitative results obtained by using variational principles and quantitative results via computation mechanics. Analogous approach is used for inelastic microstructures. The second part is finished by a short review of two topics in wave propagation in random media: spectral finite elements and wavefront propagation. Again, it is introduced an SVE in place of an RVE. The third part is devoted to the computational mechanics methods for random media. It is shown how the mesoscale bounds can be used as input for finite element methods, thus leading to micromechanics-based stochastic finite elements. Finally, the author provides a brief introduction into spring network models, used for rapid computation of mesoscale bound statistics, based on Monte Carlo-type generation of random microstructures. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0984.00031].

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