Abstract

Mechanical models have been invented, designed and realized to experimentally confirm unexpected behaviours theoretically predicted in elasticity: - instabilities and bifurcations occurring in structures under ‘tensile dead load’ and the influence of the constraint’s curvature; - the presence of an ‘Eshelby-like’ or ‘configurational’ force in structures with movable constraints. Furthermore, ‘classical’ features in elasticity have been substantied by testing small-scale models and observing: - linearity in the mechanical response of a truss-structure, confirming the usual assumption of linear elasticity when small displacements are considered; - stress singular fields near stiff quadrilateral inclusions embedded in a ‘soft’ elastic plate, validating the model of rigid inclusion. All the experiments have been performed at the Laboratory for Physical Modeling of Structures and Photoelasticity of the Department of Civil,Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento.