2015, Mielke, Alexander

In a first part we consider evolutionary systems given as generalized gradient systems and discuss various variational principles that can be used to construct solutions for a given system or to derive the limit dynamics for multiscale problems. These multiscale limits are formulated in the theory of evolutionary Gamma-convergence. On the one hand we consider the a family of viscous gradient system with quadratic dissipation potentials and a wiggly energy landscape that converge to a rate-independent system. On the other hand we show how the concept of Balanced-Viscosity solution arise as in the vanishing-viscosity limit. As applications we discuss, first, the evolution of laminate microstructures in finite-strain elastoplasticity and, second, a two-phase model for shape-memory materials, where H-measures are used to construct the mutual recovery sequences needed in the existence theory.

2014, Mielke, Alexander, Rossi, Riccarda, Savaré, Giuseppe

Several mechanical systems are modeled by the static momentum balance for the displacement u coupled with a rate-independent flow rule for some internal variable z. We consider a class of abstract systems of ODEs which have the same structure, albeit in a finite-dimensional setting, and regularize both the static equation and the rate-independent flow rule by adding viscous dissipation terms with coefficients α and , where 0<<1 and α>0 is a fixed parameter. Therefore for α different from 1 the variables u and z have different relaxation rates. We address the vanishing-viscosity analysis as tends to 0 in the viscous system. We prove that, up to a subsequence, (reparameterized) viscous solutions converge to a parameterized curve yielding a Balanced Viscosity solution to the original rate-independent system and providing an accurate description of the system behavior at jumps. We also give a reformulation of the notion of Balanced Viscosity solution in terms of a system of subdifferential inclusions, showing that the viscosity in u and the one in z are involved in the jump dynamics in different ways, according to whether α >1, α=1, or 0<α<1.