Book Description

Presently, there is a strong need for better understanding of the limits of the multi-scale and multi-physics methodology in terms of its practical value for modeling the behavior of a given engineering structure, regarding the solution cost, result interpretation and model reliability. The issues concerning the formulation of a multi-physics problem, capturing the different scales in the solution and providing error estimates and bounds on the computed solution should all be examined. Another key issue in that sense concerns our ability to bring these advances in multi-scale and multi-physics nonlinear analysis to bear upon the solution of practically unlimited new capabilities of achieving the optimal design of structures under extreme conditions. In other words, the necessity for introducing a refined modeling approach is not only created by available computational tools, but more importantly to provide a better insight into any potential weakness of a structural system on hand and thus achieve a more economical design. requirements of the market economies, where in a number of very competitive industrial sectors the need for economic design leads naturally towards the criteria based on ultimate limit state of a particular structural system on hand. This book allows exchange of the ideas on advanced computational models and techniques applicable to interdisciplinary, coupled and interaction problems, which are governing the complex behavior of engineering structures.