Nonlocal mesomechanics of elastic-plastic transition

A unified description of the behavior of condensed media over a wide range of external impact durations and strain rates has been developed using a nonlocal theory of nonequilibrium transport processes, based on rigorous results of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The constructed nonlocal momentum transfer model encompasses the elastic-plastic transition induced by a short impact on a solid material, quasi-static loading, and the transition to hydrodynamic flow of a liquid medium. The first moments of the spatiotemporal correlation functions in the integral expression for the momentum flux determine the sizes of the mesoscopic carriers of plastic deformation in high-rate processes. During the thermodynamic evolution of the medium's structure, an internal control loop emerges that reduces irreversible losses in the system and predicts its most probable future behavior.