Introduction to the Variational Formulation in Mechanics

Preface

This book was written intermittently over the period between 1980 and 2016 with an aim to provide students attending the courses organized by the authors, particularly for the graduate students at the National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), with the foundational material of Mechanics using a variational tapestry. It is the result of the knowledge acquired and divulged by E.O.T and R.A.F. since the LNCC was established, which was initiated with the creation of the Laboratory of Computing (LAC) of the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (CBPF) in 1977, through the foundation of the Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LCC) in 1980, its conversion into the category of a national laboratory (LNCC) in 1982 and the definitive move to the city of Petrópolis in 1998.

Part of the material presented here was used in various courses of theoretical and applied mechanics organized by E.O.T. and R.A.F. These course were

• 1st Course on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: Theory of Shells and their Applications in Engineering (Module I – Basic Principles, July 5 to 30, 1982; Module II – Mechanical Models, January 3 to February 11, 1983; and Module III – Instability of Shells, July 4 to 30, 1983).
• 2nd Course on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: Fundamentals of the Finite Element Method and its Applications in Engineering (Module I – Fundamentals of the Finite Element Method, July 2 to 27, 1984; Module II – Applications of the Finite Element Method in Solid Mechanics, ...