Mechanics of Materials with Periodic Truss or Frame Micro-Structures

This paper describes the mechanics of materials with periodic skeletal micro-structures in infinite domains. The principal technical results consist of certain Korn-type inequalities that provide upper and lower bounds for the linear elastic strain energy in the material. Using these inequalities, existence and uniqueness results for the equations of linear elastic equilibrium are derived, and some asymptotic properties of the solutions are described. Particular attention is paid to the question of when a lattice structure can accurately be modeled as a pin-jointed truss, and when a rigid-node frame model must be employed. A practical technique for how to distinguish between the two types of material is given, and the distinct differences in their mechanical behavior are described.