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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.

Buckling problems of thin elastic shells have become relevant again because of the discrepancies between the standards in many countries on how to estimate loads causing buckling of shallow shells and the results of the experiments on thinwalled aviation structures made of high-strength alloys. The main contradiction is as follows: the ultimate internal stresses at shell buckling (collapsing) turn out to be lower than the ones predicted by the adopted design theory used in the USA and European standards. The current regulations are based on the static theory of shallow shells that was put forward in the 1930s: within the nonlinear theory of elasticity for thin-walled structures there are stable solutions that significantly differ from the forms of equilibrium typical to small initial loads. The minimum load (the lowest critical load) when there is an alternative form of equilibrium was used as a maximum permissible one. In the 1970s it was recognized that this approach is unacceptable for complex loadings. Such cases were not practically relevant in the past while now they occur with thinner structures used under complex conditions. Therefore, the initial theory on bearing capacity assessments needs to be revised. The recent mathematical results that proved asymptotic proximity of the estimates based on two analyses (the three-dimensional dynamic theory of elasticity and the dynamic theory of shallow convex shells) could be used as a theory basis. This paper starts with the setting of the dynamic theory of shallow shells that comes down to one resolving integrodifferential equation (once the special Green function is constructed). It is shown that the obtained nonlinear equation allows for separation of variables and has numerous time-period solutions that meet the Duffing equation with “a soft spring”. This equation has been thoroughly studied; its numerical analysis enables finding an amplitude and an oscillation period depending on the properties of the Green function. If the shell is oscillated with the trial time-harmonic load, the movement of the surface points could be measured at the maximum amplitude. The study proposes an experimental set-up where resonance oscillations are generated with the trial load normal to the surface. The experimental measurements of the shell movements, the amplitude and the oscillation period make it possible to estimate the safety factor of the structure bearing capacity with non-destructive methods under operating conditions.

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.

Within the framework of the actual problem of comet-asteroid danger, the physical processes causing the destruction and fragmentation of meteor bodies in the Earth’s atmosphere are numerically investigated. Based on the developed physicalmathematical models that determines the movements of space objects of natural origin in the atmosphere and their interaction with it, the fall of three, one of the largest and by some parameters unusual bolides in the history of meteoritics, are considered: Tunguska, Vitim and Chelyabinsk. Their singularity lies in the absence of any material meteorite remains and craters in the area of the alleged crash site for the first two bodies and the non-detection, as it is assumed, of the main mother body for the third body (due to the too small amount of mass of the fallen fragments compared to the estimated mass). The effect of aerodynamic loads and heat flows on these bodies are studied, which leads to intensive surface mass loss and possible mechanical destruction. The velocities of the studied celestial bodies and the change in their masses are determined from the modernized system of equations of the theory of meteoric physics. An important factor that is taken into account here is the variability of the meteorite mass entrainment parameter under the action of heat fluxes (radiation and convective) along the flight path. The process of fragmentation of meteoroids in this paper is considered within the framework of a progressive crushing model based on the statistical theory of strength, taking into account the influence of the scale factor on the ultimate strength of objects. The phenomena and effects arising at various kinematic and physical parameters of each of these bodies are revealed. In particular, the change in the ballistics of their flight in the denser layers of the atmosphere, consisting in the transition from the fall mode to the ascent mode. At the same time, the following scenarios of the event can be realized: 1) the return of the body back to outer space at its residual velocity greater than the second cosmic one; 2) the transition of the body to the orbit of the Earth satellite at a residual velocity greater than the first cosmic one; 3) at lower values of the residual velocity of the body, its return after some time to the fall mode and falling out at a considerable distance from the intended crash site. It is the implementation of one of these three scenarios of the event that explains, for example, the absence of material traces, including craters, in the case of the Tunguska bolide in the vicinity of the forest collapse. Assumptions about the possibility of such scenarios have been made earlier by other authors, and in this paper their implementation is confirmed by the results of numerical calculations.