Continuum mechanics, just as the name implies, deals with the mechanics problems of all continua, whose physical (or mechanical) properties are assumed to vary continuously in the spaces they occupy. Continuum mechanics may be seen as the symbol of modern mechanics, which differs greatly from current physics, the two often being mixed up by people and even scientists. In this short paper, I will first try to give an illustration on the differences between (modern) mechanics and physics, in my personal view, and then focus on some important current research activities in continuum mechanics, attempting to identify its path to the near future. We can see that continuum mechanics, while having a dominating impact on engineering design in the 20th century, also plays a pivotal role in modern science, and is much closer to physics, chemistry, biology, etc. than ever before.

In this study, a series of undrained tests were conducted on both intact and reconstituted clay using an automatic hollow cylinder apparatus. Monotonic shearing tests with fixed principal stress directions were carried out, pure and cyclic principal stress rotation tests were also performed. The non-coaxiality, defined as the non-coincidence of the principal plastic strain increment direction and the corresponding principal stress direction, of clayey soil was studied experimentally. The effects of the intermediate principal stress, shear stress level, and inherent anisotropy were highlighted. Clear non-coaxiality was observed during pure principal stress rotation, in both intact and reconstituted clay. The influence of the intermediate principal stress parameter, shear stress level, and inherent anisotropy on the non-coaxial behavior of the clayey soil was found to be insignificant when compared with the sand. The non-coaxial behavior of the clayey soil depended more on the stress paths. Under undrained conditions, the contribution of elastic strain to the direction of the total principal strain increment cannot be ignored.

The determination of initial equilibrium shapes is a common problem in research work and engineering applications related to membrane structures. Using a general structural analysis framework of the finite particle method (FPM), this paper presents the first application of the FPM and a recently-developed membrane model to the shape analysis of light weight membranes. The FPM is rooted in vector mechanics and physical viewpoints. It discretizes the analyzed domain into a group of particles linked by elements, and the motion of the free particles is directly described by Newton’s second law while the constrained ones follow the prescribed paths. An efficient physical modeling procedure of handling geometric nonlinearity has been developed to evaluate the particle interaction forces. To achieve the equilibrium shape as fast as possible, an integral-form, explicit time integration scheme has been proposed for solving the equation of motion. The equilibrium shape can be obtained naturally without nonlinear iterative correction and global stiffness matrix integration. Two classical curved surfaces of tension membranes produced under the uniform-stress condition are presented to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

Conventional consolidation tests on reconstituted specimens of numerous natural soft clays show a decreasing of creep index C_αe with increasing soil density. Based on all selected and conducted experimental results, a modified creep index C_αe^* defined in double logarithmic plane lge-lgt, was plotted for various clays, from which C_αe^* can be assumed as a constant for different soil densities. Then, the modified creep index was applied to a newly developed elastic viscoplastic model. In this way, the modified creep index C_αe^* can naturally take into account the nonlinear C_αe revealing the influence of soil density in the soil assemblies without additional parameters. Finally, the enhanced model was incorporated into the finite element code ABAQUS and used to simulate a consolidation test and a test embankment. The improvement of simulations by the modified creep index was highlighted by comparing simulations using the conventional creep index C_αe.

To evaluate the strength attenuation law of soft rock in the western mining area of China, we established an evolution model for the strength parameters of soft mudstone at the post-peak stage by employing a tri-linear strain softening model. In the model, a stiffness degradation coefficient ω and a softening modulus coefficient α were introduced to take into account the stiffness degradation, and the subsequent yield surfaces at post-peak stage were all assumed to meet the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion. Furthermore, attenuation laws of stiffness and strength parameters of soft mudstone were analyzed according to an engineering case. Finally, the model’s accuracy was verified by comparison of results from numerical calculation and tri-axial compression tests. Results showed that the attenuation of the friction angle was dominated mainly by the instantaneous stress states and damage features, while the attenuation law of cohesion was also related to the plastic behavior. The degradation rates of strength parameters decreased with increasing confining pressure and the friction angle tended towards its initial value. Residual strengths were also enhanced with increasing confining pressure. The results indicate that the evolution model can accurately describe the strain softening behavior of soft rock.

For a single-motor parallel hybrid electric vehicle, during mode transitions (especially the transition from electric drive mode to engine/parallel drive mode, which requires the clutch engagement), the drivability of the vehicle will be significantly affected by a clutch torque induced disturbance, driveline oscillations and jerks which can occur without adequate controls. To improve vehicle drivability during mode transitions for a single-motor parallel hybrid electric vehicle, two controllers are proposed. The first controller is the engine-side controller for engine cranking/starting and speed synchronization. The second controller is the motor-side controller for achieving a smooth mode transition with reduced driveline oscillations and jerks under the clutch torque induced disturbance and system uncertainties. The controllers are all composed of a feed-forward control and a robust feedback control. The robust controllers are designed by using the mu synthesis method. In the design process, control- oriented system models that take account of various parameter uncertainties and un-modeled dynamics are used. The results of the simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithms.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the position of the resultant force in involute spline coupling teeth due to the contact pressure distribution for both ideal and misaligned conditions. In general, spline coupling teeth are in contact all along the involute profile and the load is far from uniform along the contact line. Theoretical models available in publications consider the resultant contact force as it is applied at the pitch diameter, and this study aims to evaluate the error introduced within the confines of a common approximation environment. This analysis is carried out through using finite element method (FEM) models, considering spline couplings in both ideal and misaligned conditions. Results show that the differences between the load application diameter and pitch diameter are not very obvious in both ideal and misaligned conditions; however, this approximation becomes more important for the calculation of the tooth stiffness.