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Title:
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Nonlocal and Generalized Continuum Modeling of Solids
In honor of Prof. Kaspar J. Willam's 65th birthday

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Organizers:
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Stein Sture
University of Colorado at Boulder
Email: stein.sture@colorado.edu
Phone number: 303-492-3034
Fax number: 303-492-7317

Richard Regueiro
Civil Engineering Dept
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309, USA
regueiro@colorado.edu 

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Minisymposium description:
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Nonlocal theories involve an internal length scale and have been shown to be useful, 
for example, in removing the singularity of local stress field calculations at crack 
tips and in regularizing strain-softening plasticity or damage models.  Generalized 
continuum theories include micropolar, micromorphic, strain-gradient elasticity, 
plasticity, and damage theories, to name a few. These developments attempt to account 
for in a continuum framework, deformations at the micro-structure level at small 
length scales.  These developments are suited for applications at the mesoscale as 
well as in a hierarchical multiscale modeling framework.  In view of the inherent 
complexity of nonlocal and generalized continuum models in comparison to classical 
continua concepts, standard computational implementation tools are usually not adequate.  

In this Mini-Symposium the following topics are of interest:
 
 * Continuum and computational frameworks for generalized continua and their physical 
   interpretation.
 * Multiscale aspects of generalized continuum materials modeling. 
 * Computational treatment of rotational and/or other additional degrees of freedom.
 * Inelastic formulations for generalized continua and their numerical treatment.
 * Computational methods for higher gradient formulations and their relation to 
   Cosserat and micromorphic continua.
 * Smooth interpolations for higher gradients.
 * Duality and complementarity in generalized continua.
 * Dislocation dynamics and generalized crystal plasticity modelling. 
 * Generalized continua for particulate materials.