The coupling of the Stefan equation for the heat flow with the Gibbs–Thomson law relating the melting temperature to the mean curvature of the phase interface is considered. Solutions, global in time, are constructed which satisfy the natural a priori estimates. Mathematically the main difficulty is to prove a certain regularity in time for the temperature and the indicator function of the phase separately. A capacity type estimate is used to give an L1 bound for fractional time derivatives.

The goal of this note is to explain the process of computing the lowest energy level achieved by an elastic crystal subject to homogeneous boundary deformation. This analysis follows mainly the lines of Chipot and Kinderlehrer or Fonesca but we expect that it will lead to some new results for some other energy functional having different invariance properties. The mathematical interest of the result also lies in the fact that the lowest energy level computed this way coincides with the relaxed energy functional (see Fonesca). This relaxed energy is determined by a known thermodynamic quantity, Ericksen' subenergy. Within this review we will also analyse some of the mathematical and physical aspects of these highly oscillatory problems.

This note deals with a new model of elastic–perfectly plastic materials in which the yield stress is regarded as a threshold above which plastic flow occurs rather than a constraint which cannot be violated. This modelling change allows us to treat a number of signalling and impact problems not solvable within the classic framework of elastic–perfectly plastic materials.

Phosphorus diffusion in silicon shows a number of anomalous effects, and we apply asymptotic methods to a model problem which includes most of these. Both constant surface concentration problems and the diffusion of implanted dopant are considered. An unusual feature of the model is the non-local dependence of the tail diffusivity on the peak concentration.

We prove that in the Stefan problem with planar, cylindrical or spherical symmetry, with vanishing heat capacity and constant boundary temperature, no mushy region can appear, even in the presence of constant volumetric heat sources, if the initial data are consistent with the presence of just two pure phases. If the boundary temperature is not constant, a mushy region may or may not appear; we find some general conditions ensuring one case or the other and we give a specific example illustrating the appearance of a mushy region.