$\Gamma$-convergence and stochastic homogenisation of singularly-perturbed elliptic functionals

Abstract

We study the limit behaviour of singularly-perturbed elliptic functionals of the form \[ \mathcal F_k(u,v)=\int_A v^2\,f_k(x,\nabla u)dx+\frac{1}{\varepsilon_k}\int_A g_k(x,v,\varepsilon_k\nabla v)dx\,, \] where $u$ is a vector-valued Sobolev function, $v\in [0,1]$ a phase-field variable, and ${\epsilon }_k>0$ a singular-perturbation parameter, i.e., ${\epsilon }_k\to 0$, as $k\to +\infty$. Under mild assumptions on the integrands $f_k$ and $g_k$, we show that if $f_k$ grows superlinearly in the gradient-variable, then the functionals ${\mathcal{F}}_k$ $\Gamma$-converge (up to subsequences) to a brittle energy-functional, i.e., to a free-discontinuity functional whose surface integrand does not depend on the jump-amplitude of $u$. This result is achieved by providing explicit asymptotic formulas for the bulk and surface integrands which show, in particular, that volume and surface term in ${\mathcal{F}}_k$ decouple in the limit. The abstract $\Gamma$-convergence analysis is complemented by a stochastic homogenisation result for stationary random integrands.