Providing a modern and comprehensive coverage of continuum mechanics, this volume includes information on "variational principles"--Significant, as this is the only method by which such material is actually utilized in engineering practice.

This book offers a recipe for constructing the numerical models for representing the complex nonlinear behavior of structures and their components, represented as deformable solid bodies. Its appeal extends to those interested in linear problems of mechanics.

Addresses behaviour of materials under extreme mechanical conditions and of failure in terms of non-linear continuum mechanics and instability theory.

In mechanical engineering and structural analysis there is a significant gap between the material models currently used by engineers for industry applications and those already available in research laboratories. This is especially apparent with the huge progress of computational possibilities and the corresponding dissemination of numerical tools in engineering practice, which essentially deliver linear solutions. Future improvements of design and life assessment methods necessarily involve non-linear solutions for inelastic responses, in plasticity or viscoplasticity, as well as damage and fracture analyses. The dissemination of knowledge can be improved by software developments, data base completion and generalization, but also by information and training. With such a perspective Non-Linear Mechanics of Materials proposes a knowledge actualization, in order to better understand and use recent material constitutive and damage modeling methods in the context of structural analysis or multiscale material microstructure computations.

The aim of the book is the presentation of the fundamental mathematical and physical concepts of continuum mechanics of solids in a unified description so as to bring young researchers rapidly close to their research area. Accordingly, emphasis is given to concepts of permanent interest, and details of minor importance are omitted. The formulation is achieved systematically in absolute tensor notation, which is almost exclusively used in modern literature. This mathematical tool is presented such that study of the book is possible without permanent reference to other works.

Although the problem of stability and bifurcation is well understood in Mechanics, very few treatises have been devoted to stability and bifurcation analysis in dissipative media, in particular with regard to present and fundamental problems in Solid Mechanics such as plasticity, fracture and contact mechanics. Stability and Nonlinear Solid Mechanics addresses this lack of material, and proposes to the reader not only a unified presentation of nonlinear problems in Solid Mechanics, but also a complete and unitary analysis on stability and bifurcation problems arising within this framework. Main themes include: * elasticity and plasticity problems in small and finite deformation * general concepts of stability and bifurcation and basic results * elastic buckling * plastic buckling of structures * standard dissipative systems obeying maximum dissipation. These themes are developed in 20 chapters and illustrated by various analytical and numerical results. The coverage given here extends beyond the limited boundaries of previous works, resulting in a text of lasting interest and value to postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners working in mechanical, civil and aerospace engineering, as well as materials science.

The perfect introduction to the theory and computer programming for the dynamic simulation of nonlinear solid mechanics.