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This paper covers deployable systems assembled from trapezium plates. When the plate package is unwrapped, a net shell with six loop cells is formed. It is proved that additional degrees of freedom appear in case of certain correlation between the sizes of the six loop faces. When thin plates were used, the continuum approximation of the deployed net could be interpreted as a shell with a wide variety of local curvatures. Kinematics of the continuum model is analyzed by the method of Cartan moving hedron. Mechanical behavior of continuum nets is studied when cylindrical hinges between the plates are completed of shape memory plastic materials. The paper researches into shell transformations from one stable form to the other. Various practical applications of the continuum nets are demonstrated.

The paper demonstrates a fractal system of thin plates connected with hinges. The system can be studied using the methods of mechanics of solids with internal degrees of freedom. The structure is deployable — initially it is close to a small diameter one-dimensional manifold that occupies significant volume after deployment. The geometry of solids is studied using the method of the moving hedron. The relations enabling to define the geometry of the introduced manifolds are derived based on the Cartan structure equations. The proof substantially makes use of the fact that the fractal consists of thin plates that are not long compared to the sizes of the system. The mechanics is described for the solids with rigid plastic hinges between the plates, when the hinges are made of shape memory material. Based on the ultimate load theorems, estimates are performed to specify internal pressure that is required to deploy the package into a three-dimensional structure, and heat input needed to return the system into its initial state.

Under increasing loading and at a constant temperature shape memory solids become deformed in an ideal elastic plastic way as other metals, and the maximum elastic strains are much less than the ultimate plastic ones. The shape is restored at the elevated temperature and low stress level. Phenomenologically, the «reverse» deformation is equivalent to the change in shape under active loading up to sign. Plastic deformation plays a leading role in a non-elastic process; thus, the mechanical behavior should be analyzed within the ideal rigid-plastic model with two loading surfaces. In this model two physical states of the material correspond to the loading surfaces: plastic flow under high stresses and melting at a relatively low temperature. The second section poses a problem of deformation of rigid-plastic bodies at the constant temperature in two forms: as a principle of virtual velocities with the von Mises yield condition and as a requirement of the minimum dissipative functionаl. The equivalence of the accepted definitions and the existence of the generalized solutions is proved for both principles. The third section studies the rigid-plastic model of the solid at the variable temperature with two loading surfaces. For the assumed model two optimal principles are defined that link the external loads and the displacement velocities of the solid points both under active loading and in the process of shape restoration under heating. The existence of generalized velocities is proved for the wide variety of 3D domains. The connection between the variational principles and the variable temperature is ensured by inclusion of the first and second principles of thermodynamics in the calculation model. It is essential that only the phenomenological description of the phenomenon is used in the proving process. The austenite-tomartensite transformations of alloys, which are often the key elements in explanations of the mechanical behavior of shape memory materials, are not used here. The fourth section includes the definition of the shape memory materials as solids with two loading surfaces and proves the existence of solutions within the accepted restrictions. The adequacy of the model and the experiments on deformation of shape memory materials is demonstrated. In the conclusion mathematical problems that could be interesting for future research are defined.

The quasistatic deformation problem for shape memory alloys is reviewed within the phenomenological mechanics of solids without microphysics analysis. The phenomenological approach is based on comparison of two material deformation diagrams. The first diagram corresponds to the active proportional loading when the alloy behaves as an ideal elastoplastic material; the residual strain is observed after unloading. The second diagram is relevant to the case when the deformed sample is heated to a certain temperature for each alloy. The initial shape is restored: the reverse distortion matches deformations on the first diagram, except for the sign. Because the first step of distortion can be described with the variational principle, for which the existence of the generalized solutions is proved under arbitrary loading, it becomes clear how to explain the reverse distortion within the slightly modified theory of plasticity. The simply connected surface of loading needs to be replaced with the doubly connected one, and the variational principle needs to be updated with two laws of thermodynamics and the principle of orthogonality for thermodynamic forces and streams. In this case it is not difficult to prove the existence of solutions either. The successful application of the theory of plasticity under the constant temperature causes the need to obtain a similar result for a more general case of variable external forces and temperatures. The paper studies the ideal elastoplastic von Mises model at linear strain rates. Taking into account hardening and arbitrary loading surface does not cause any additional difficulties.

The extended variational principle of the Reissner type is defined. Together with the laws of thermal plasticity it enables to prove the existence of the generalized solutions for three-dimensional bodies made of shape memory materials. The main issue to resolve is a challenge to choose a functional space for the rates and deformations of the continuum points. The space of bounded deformation, which is the main instrument of the mathematical theory of plasticity, serves this purpose in the paper. The proving process shows that the choice of the functional spaces used in the paper is not the only one. The study of other possible problem settings for the extended variational principle and search for regularity of generalized solutions seem an interesting challenge for future research.

This paper studies solids with internal degrees of freedom using the method of Cartan moving hedron. Strain compatibility conditions are derived in the form of structure equations for manifolds. Constitutive relations are reviewed and ultimate load theorems are proved for rigid plastic solids with internal degrees of freedom. It is demonstrated how the above theorems can be applied in behavior analysis of rigid plastic continual shells of shape memory materials. The ultimate loads are estimated for rotating shells under external forces and in case of shape recovery from heating.