Material Substructures in Complex Bodies

Book excerpt: Stringent industrial requirements of sophisticated performances and of circumstantial control for micro-devices or nanotechnology manufactures, and other types of machinery at multiple scales, can be satisfied often only by resort to or allowance for complex materials. The adjective 'complex' beckons to the fact that the substructure influences gross mechanical behaviour in a prominent way and interactions due to substructural changes are represented directly. The description of the mechanical behaviour of complex bodies proposes a wide class of challenging problems from macroscopic-to-nano-world. The collection of chapters composing this book aims to explore some aspects of these problems, proposing also new matter of discussion together with specific solutions. Contributors are Carlo Cercignani, Gianfranco Capriz, Pierre Degond, Antonio Fasano, Harley T. Johnson, Sukky Jun, Krishna Kannan, Wing Kam Liu, Alberto Mancini, Paolo Maria Mariano, Ingo Müller, Kumbakonan R. Rajagopal, Jan Jerzy Slawianowski. The book can be a useful tool for Scholars and PhD students addressing their research activity toward basic mathematical and physical problems accruing from the mechanics of materials.