Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 42: Topical Session: Fundamentals of Fracture - Continuous Models

MM 42.1: Topical Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 16:30–17:00, H4

Configurational Mechanics: A Continuum Approach to Model Fracture and Defects — •Paul Steinmann — Chair of Applied Mechanics, University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Configurational mechanics is a branch of continuum modelling that allows to model fracture and defects (such as single and distributed dislocations, interfaces, vacancies, etc) based on concepts from continuum field theories. The key notion is hereby the configurational force that is dual (in terms of the dissipation power) to the motion of these kind of defects relative to the ambient material. This is clearly opposite to the common notion of forces that may be considered as being energetically dual to the motion of material relative to the ambient space. The talk will highlight especially the roots of concepts from fracture mechanics in continuum modelling. Configurational mechanics then allows to include straightforwardly various modelling options such as coupled problems or lenght scale dependent models. Especially at the micro and nano scale the material response in general and the fracture behavior in particular become decisively dependent on the ratio of lengths characterizing the dimension of a specimen and the dimension of the materials micro structure. These effects may be captured by gradient and/or surface enhanced continuum models, both having direct consequences within configurational mechanics.