The mathematics of thin structures

Abstract

This article offers various mathematical contributions to the behavior of thin films. The common thread is to view thin film behavior as the variational limit of a three-dimensional domain with a related behavior when the thickness of that domain vanishes. After a short review in Section 1 of the various regimes that can arise when such an asymptotic process is performed in the classical elastic case, giving rise to various well-known models in plate theory (membrane, bending, Von Karmann, etc…), the other sections address various extensions of those initial results. Section 2 adds brittleness and delamination and investigates the brittle membrane regime. Sections 4 and 5 focus on micromagnetics, rather than elasticity, this once again in the membrane regime and discuss magnetic skyrmions and domain walls, respectively. Finally, Section 3 revisits the classical setting in a non-Euclidean setting induced by the presence of a pre-strain in the model.