We identify the restricted class of attainable effective deformations in a model of reinforced composites with parallel, long, and fully rigid fibers embedded in an elastic body. In mathematical terms, we characterize the weak limits of sequences of Sobolev maps whose gradients on the fibers lie in the set of rotations. These limits are determined by an anisotropic constraint in the sense that they locally preserve length in the fiber direction. Our proof of the necessity emerges as a natural generalization and modification of the recently established asymptotic rigidity analysis for composites with layered reinforcements. However, the construction of approximating sequences is more delicate here due to the higher flexibility and connectedness of the soft material component. We overcome these technical challenges by a careful approximation of the identity that is constant on the rigid components, combined with a lifting in fiber bundles for Sobolev functions. The results are illustrated with several examples of attainable effective deformations. If an additional partial second-order regularization is introduced into the material model, only rigid body motions can occur macroscopically.

We identify the restricted class of attainable effective deformations in a model of reinforced composites with parallel, long, and fully rigid fibers embedded in an elastic body. In mathematical terms, we characterize the weak limits of sequences of Sobolev maps whose gradients on the fibers lie in the set of rotations. These limits are determined by an anisotropic constraint in the sense that they locally preserve length in the fiber direction. Our proof of the necessity emerges as a natural generalization and modification of the recently established asymptotic rigidity analysis for composites with layered reinforcements. However, the construction of approximating sequences is more delicate here due to the higher flexibility and connectedness of the soft material component. We overcome these technical challenges by a careful approximation of the identity that is constant on the rigid components, combined with a lifting in fiber bundles for Sobolev functions. The results are illustrated with several examples of attainable effective deformations. If an additional second-order regularization is introduced into the material model, only rigid body motions can occur macroscopically.

We use variational convergence to derive a hierarchy of one-dimensional rod theories, starting out from three-dimensional models in nonlinear elasticity subject to local volume-preservation. The densities of the resulting Γ-limits are determined by minimization problems with a trace constraint that arises from the linearization of the determinant condition of incompressibility. While the proofs of the lower bounds rely on suitable constraint regularization, the upper bounds require a careful, explicit construction of locally volume-preserving recovery sequences. After decoupling the cross-section variables with the help of divergence-free extensions, we apply an inner perturbation argument to enforce the desired non-convex determinant constraint. To illustrate our findings, we discuss the special case of isotropic materials.

In this paper, we investigate a variational polycrystalline model in finite crystal plasticity with one active slip system and rigid elasticity. The task is to determine inner and outer bounds on the domain of the constrained macroscopic elastoplastic energy density, or equivalently, the affine boundary values of a related inhomogeneous differential inclusion problem. A geometry-independent Taylor inner bound, which we calculate directly, follows from considering constant-strain solutions to a relaxed problem in combination with well-known relaxation and convex integration results. On the other hand, we deduce outer bounds from a rank-one compatibility condition between the affine boundary data and the microscopic strain at the boundary grains. While there are examples of polycrystals for which the two above-mentioned bounds coincide, we present an explicit construction to prove that the Taylor bound is non-optimal in general.

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