Description
Scitus Academics Continuum Mechanics - Progress In Fundamentals And Engineering Applications by Edvin Falk
Materials, such as solids, liquids and gases, are composed of molecules separated by "empty" space. On a microscopic scale, materials have cracks and discontinuities. However, certain physical phenomena can be modeled assuming the materials exist as a continuum, meaning the matter in the body is continuously distributed and fills the entire region of space it occupies. A continuum is a body that can be continually sub-divided into infinitesimal elements with properties being those of the bulk material. Continuum mechanics, a branch of mechanics, deals with the analysis of the kinematics and the mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuous mass rather than as discrete particles. Continuum mechanics compacts with physical properties of solids and fluids which are independent of any particular coordinate system in which they are observed. These physical properties are then represented by tensors, which are mathematical objects that have the required property of being independent of coordinate system. These tensors can be expressed in coordinate systems for computational convenience. The continuum mechanics clearly brings out the general principles that are common to both solid and fluid mechanics. This subject also discusses necessity for assumption of solid and fluid i.e., in the form of constitutive equations. Further, the frame work of continuum mechanics is useful for understanding elasticity, plasticity, viscoelastcity and viscoplasticity. This book entitled Continuum Mechanics - Progress in Fundamentals and Engineering Applications summaries the advances of continuum mechanics in a number of defined areas. The book gives an emphasis on the application aspect.