Nonsmooth energy functions govern phenomena which occur frequently in
nature and in all areas of life. They constitute a fascinating subject
in mathematics and permit the rational understanding of yet unsolved or
partially solved questions in mechanics, engineering and economics.
This is the first book to provide a complete and rigorous presentation
of the quasidifferentiability approach to nonconvex, possibly nonsmooth,
energy functions, of the derivation and study of the corresponding
variational expressions in mechanics, engineering and economics, and of
their numerical treatment. The new variational formulations derived are
illustrated by many interesting numerical problems. The techniques
presented will permit the reader to check any solution obtained by other
heuristic techniques for nonconvex, nonsmooth energy problems. A civil,
mechanical or aeronautical engineer can find in the book the only
existing mathematically sound technique for the formulation and study of
nonconvex, nonsmooth energy problems.
Audience: The book will be of interest to pure and applied
mathematicians, physicists, researchers in mechanics, civil, mechanical
and aeronautical engineers, structural analysts and software developers.
It is also suitable for graduate courses in nonlinear mechanics,
nonsmooth analysis, applied optimization, control, calculus of
variations and computational mechanics