The structural symmetry within the context of nonlocal elasticity

The paper deals with symmetric structures made of nonlocal elastic materials. In particular, it refers to a nonlocal elastic strain integral constitutive model. In this context, in contrast to what happens in local elasticity, the solution obtained by analysing a standard symmetric portion of the structure leads to incorrect results. This drawback is due to the loss of nonlocal effects induced on the selected symmetric portion by the removed portion. To recover the mechanical equivalence with the original (entire) structure an enlarged symmetric model has to be considered together with the application of appropriate boundary conditions, hereafter discussed with the aid of a numerical example.