The idea for this book was developed in the seminar on problems of con tinuum mechanics, which has been active for more than twelve years at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague. This seminar has been pursuing recent directions in the development of mathe matical applications in physics; especially in continuum mechanics, and in technology. It has regularly been attended by upper division and graduate students, faculty, and scientists and researchers from various institutions from Prague and elsewhere. These seminar participants decided to publish in a self-contained monograph the results of their individual and collective efforts in developing applications for the theory of variational inequalities, which is currently a rapidly growing branch of modern analysis. The theory of variational inequalities is a relatively young mathematical discipline. Apparently, one of the main bases for its development was the paper by G. Fichera (1964) on the solution of the Signorini problem in the theory of elasticity. Later, J. L. Lions and G. Stampacchia (1967) laid the foundations of the theory itself. Time-dependent inequalities have primarily been treated in works of J. L. Lions and H. Bnlzis. The diverse applications of the variational in equalities theory are the topics of the well-known monograph by G. Du vaut and J. L. Lions, Les iniquations en micanique et en physique (1972)."

This book deals with the impact of uncertainty in input data on the outputs of mathematical models. Uncertain inputs as scalars, tensors, functions, or domain boundaries are considered. In practical terms, material parameters or constitutive laws, for instance, are uncertain, and quantities as local temperature, local mechanical stress, or local displacement are monitored. The goal of the worst scenario method is to extremize the quantity over the set of uncertain input data.
A general mathematical scheme of the worst scenario method, including approximation by finite element methods, is presented, and then applied to various state problems modeled by differential equations or variational inequalities: nonlinear heat flow, Timoshenko beam vibration and buckling, plate buckling, contact problems in elasticity and thermoelasticity with and without friction, and various models of plastic deformation, to list some of the topics. Dozens of examples, figures, and tables are included.
Although the book concentrates on the mathematical aspects of the subject, a substantial part is written in an accessible style and is devoted to various facets of uncertainty in modeling and to the state of the art techniques proposed to deal with uncertain input data.
A chapter on sensitivity analysis and on functional and convex analysis is included for the reader's convenience.
-Rigorous theory is established for the treatment of uncertainty in modeling
- Uncertainty is considered in complex models based on partial differential equations or variational inequalities
- Applications to nonlinear and linear problems with uncertain data are presented in detail: quasilinear steady heat flow, buckling of beams and plates, vibration of beams, frictional contact of bodies, several models of plastic deformation, and more
-Although emphasis is put on theoretical analysis and approximation techniques, numerical examples are also present
-Main ideas and approaches used today to handle uncertainties in modeling are described in an accessible form
-Fairly self-contained book