Monday, July 22
3:15-5:15 PM
MS54
Numerical Methods in Nonlinear Elasticity: Dynamics and Applications
Deformable continuum bodies exhibiting elastic response have applications in many diverse areas of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. For example, in the study of biomolecules and polymers, elastic-body models may offer a simplified means of calculating structural or dynamical properties. In this minisymposium, the speakers will discuss a variety of issues and open problems that pertain to the approximation of fully nonlinear elastic continuum models and their potential use in applications. Some of the topics they will address include development of efficient finite element approximations for elastic bodies, the construction of practical time-stepping schemes for nonlinear elastodynamics that are faithful to geometric properties such as integral invariants or symplectic structure, and the study of elastic properties of tethered membranes via molecular dynamics techniques.
Molecular dynamics methods and nonlinear elastodynamics are two exciting areas of applied and computational mathematics research. Despite a great deal of interest in these subjects, and clear connections between the two, there have been few efforts to bridge the gap. By involving both molecular modelers and computational mathematicians we will be able to give a comprehensive overview of current approaches to these problems, and perhaps to help chart some future directions for joint interdisciplinary projects.
Organizer: Benedict J. Leimkuhler,
University of Kansas
- Mathematical and Computational Problems Arising in Models of Biological Molecules and Membranes
- Michael Holst, California Institute of Technology
- Energy and Momentum Conserving Algorithms for General Models in Nonlinear Elasticity
- Oscar Gonzalez, University of Maryland
- Efficient Symplectic-Reversible Simulation of Rigid and Elastic Systems
- Eric Barth, Courant Institute, New York University; and Benedict J. Leimkuhler, Organizer
- The Structure and Elastic Behavior of Tethered Networks
- Daniel Kroll, University of Minnesota
MMD, 5/20/96