A peridynamic formulation for nonlocal bone remodelling.

Bone remodelling is a complex biomechanical process, which has been studied widely based on the restrictions of local continuum theory. To provide a nonlocal bone remodelling framework, we propose, for the first time, a peridynamic formulation on the macroscale. We illustrate our implementation with a common benchmark test as well as two load cases of the proximal femur. On the one hand, results of our peridynamic model with diminishing nonlocality measure converge to the results of a local finite element model. On the other hand, increasing the neighbourhood size shows to what extent the additional degree of freedom, the nonlocality, can influence the density evolution.

Surface electrostatics: theory and computations.

The objective of this work is to study the electrostatic response of materials accounting for boundary surfaces with their own (electrostatic) constitutive behaviour. The electric response of materials with (electrostatic) energetic boundary surfaces (surfaces that possess material properties and constitutive structures different from those of the bulk) is formulated in a consistent manner using a variational framework. The forces and moments that appear due to bulk and surface electric fields are also expressed in a consistent manner. The theory is accompanied by numerical examples on porous materials using the finite-element method, where the influence of the surface electric permittivity on the electric displacement, the polarization stress and the Maxwell stress is examined.

A novel strategy to identify the critical conditions for growth-induced instabilities.

Geometric instabilities in living structures can be critical for healthy biological function, and abnormal buckling, folding, or wrinkling patterns are often important indicators of disease. Mathematical models typically attribute these instabilities to differential growth, and characterize them using the concept of fictitious configurations. This kinematic approach toward growth-induced instabilities is based on the multiplicative decomposition of the total deformation gradient into a reversible elastic part and an irreversible growth part. While this generic concept is generally accepted and well established today, the critical conditions for the formation of growth-induced instabilities remain elusive and poorly understood. Here we propose a novel strategy for the stability analysis of growing structures motivated by the idea of replacing growth by prestress. Conceptually speaking, we kinematically map the stress-free grown configuration onto a prestressed initial configuration. This allows us to adopt a classical infinitesimal stability analysis to identify critical material parameter ranges beyond which growth-induced instabilities may occur. We illustrate the proposed concept by a series of numerical examples using the finite element method. Understanding the critical conditions for growth-induced instabilities may have immediate applications in plastic and reconstructive surgery, asthma, obstructive sleep apnoea, and brain development.