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XXI International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Warsaw, Poland, August 15-21, 2004

Acceleration Wavefronts in Random Media

Martin Ostoja - Starzewski (1), Jerzy Trebicki (2)
1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2. Institute of Fundamental Technological Research Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland


In contradsitinction to deterministic continuum mechanics, we consider wavefronts whose thickness is smaller than the Representative Volume Element (RVE) size. As a result, the wavefront is an object more appropriately analyzed as a Statistical Volume Element rather than an RVE., and therefore to be treated via a stochastic, rather than a deterministic, dynamical system. There are two entirely new aspects considered in the present study. One is the coupling of fields of material spatial randomness to the wavefront amplitude: as the amplitude grows, the wavefront gets thinner tending to a shock, and thus the material heterogeneity shows up as an ever `stronger' random field. The second new facet is the explicit consideration of randomness and various cross- correlations of the instantaneous modulus, the dissipation coefficient, the instantaneous second-order tangent modulus, and the reference state mass density.



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