Mechanics of material and immaterial interfaces: theoretical and numerical points of view

What do two ice cubes, a cracked wall and a car accident have in common?

Mechanics is made of material but also immaterial movements. This is the case of the propagation of a crack or a solidification front. These movements are carried out without mass. Mechanics is therefore important even for physical phenomena for which there is no movement of matter.

The challenges posed by the modeling of immaterial surfaces are numerous from a numerical point of view. To be successful, it is important to consider theoretical and numerical modelling together.

In this talk, I will detail our contributions in Centrale Nantes on the theoretical and numerical modeling of some immaterial surfaces. Different topics will be reviewed such as cracking of quasi-fragile materials, contact and friction between solids, visco-plastic flows (threshold effect) or plastic instabilities (Lüders band and Portevin Le Chatelier effect). These subjects do not all have the same level of maturity in the achievements. They denote in appearance a great variety. We will explain the links that unite these subjects.

Speaker : Nicolas Moës, Ecole Centrale de Nantes