by Nasser M. Abbasi1
Undeformed body state
Deformed body state.
Differential area in the deformed state
A point in the undeformed state
Coordinates in the undeformed state
A point in the deformed state, the image of point
Coordinates of a point in the deformed state
Differential area in the undeformed state
Cauchy stress tensor
Determinant of the deformation gradient tensor
Second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor
First Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor
Biot-Lure stress tensor
Symmetrized Biot-Lure stress tensor
Almansi strain tensor
Rate of increase in internal energy
Kirchhoff stress tensor
First Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor
Stretch deforming tensor
Rotation deforming tensor. Orthogonal tensor.
Rigid rotation tensor appplied to deformed body. Orthogonal tensor.
| Stress | Stress measure | Generally Symmetrical ? |
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Transforms Similar to |
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If we refer to
as the current amount of energy stored in a unit volume as
a result of the body undergoing deformation, then the time rate at which this
energy changes will equal the stress tensor
times the
strain rate
. Hence we write
The following table lists the stress tensor
, the strain
rate
and the strain
.
| Stress tensor
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Strain tensor rate
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Strain tensor
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Almansi strain tensor
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Green-Lagrange strain tensor
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Position and deformation measurements is of central importance in Continuum mechanics.
There are two methods employed to accomplish this. The Lagrangian and the Eulerian methods.
In the Lagrangian method, a particle position and speed are measured in reference to a fixed stationary observer based coordinates systems. This is called the referential coordinates system where the observer is located. In other words, we use a coordinate system attached to a stationary observer. Hence in the lagrangian method, the particle movment is always measured from this original global frame of reference.
In Eulerian methods, we attach a frame of reference local to the area of interest where we wish to make the measurement, and we measure the particle movment relative to this local coordinates systems. Hence we measure the position and speed of the the particle as it moves relative to this local frame of reference.
In Continuum mechanics we use the lagrangian method and in Fluid mechanics the Eulerian method is used.
In Continuum mechanics we can attach a local frame of reference to the body itself. Hence this frame of reference will move along with the body as it deforms. We can make measurments relative to this local frame of reference, this convert these measurments back relative to the global frame of reference.
We can find a coordinate transformation that gives back the coordinates of a point on a body relative to the global reference frame, given the coordinates of the same point as measured in the local reference frame. This transformation is given by
Where
is the coordinate vector relative the global frame of
reference,
is the coordinate vector relative the local/body frame
of reference and
is the
matrix (where
for
normal 3D space) that represents pure rotation, and
is an
n-dimensional vector that represents pure translation.
This diagram illustrates these basic differences.
In general, we are usually interested in differential changes when a body deformed. In other words, we are interested in measuring how a differential vector that represents the orientation of one point relative to another changes as the body deformed.
Considering the Lagrangian method from now on. We now shift attention to what
happens when the body starts to deform. We start by choosing the global
reference frame. This is where all measurements are made against. We
distinguish measurements made when the body is underformed from those
measurements made when the body deforms. We use upper case
for the
coordinates of a point on the body when the body is undeformed, and we use a
lower case
for the coordinates of the same point when measured in
reference to this same global coordinate system but after the body has deformed.
In this diagram below we assume we took a snap shot of the system after 5 units of time and we measure the deformation to illustrate the notation used.
Another way to represent the above is to use the same diagram to show both the undeformed and the deformed configuration on it as follows.
We call the undeformed configuration, henceforth will be referred to as the
body
as state
. By state we mean the set of independent variables
needed to fully describe the forces and geometry of the body.
We assume the body, when in the undeformed state
is free of internal
stresses and no traction forces act on it.
External loads are now applied to the body resulting in a change of state. The new state can be a result of only a deformation in the body shape, or due to only a rigid body translation/rotation, or it could be a result of a combination of deformation and rigid body motion.
The deformation will take sometime
to complete. However, in this
discussion we are only interested in the final deformed state, which we call
state
. Hence no functions of time will be involved in this analysis.
We assume that the boundary conditions remain the same in state
and in
state
. This means that if the solid body was in physical contact with some
external non-moving supporting configuration, then after deformation, the body
will remain in physical contact with these supports and at the same points of
contact as before the deformation began. This means the body is free to deform
everywhere, except it is constrained to deform at those specific points it is
in contact with the support. For the rigid body rotation part, we assume the
body along with its support will rotate together.
A very important operator in continuum mechanics is called the deformation
tensor
. (A tensor can be viewed as an operator which
takes a vector and maps it to another vector). This tensor allows us to
determine the deformed differential vector
knowing the undeformed
differential vector
as follows.
This tensor if a field tensor in general. This means the actual value of
changes depending on the location of the body where
is evaluated. So it is a function of the body
coordinates. See [4] for examples how to calculate
for
very simple cases of deformations in 2D. See appendix for derivation of
in the specific case of normal cartesian coordinates.
The effect of applying the deformation gradient tensor
on
a vector
can be considered to have the same result as the effect
of first applying a stretch deforming tensor
(Also called
the deformation tensor) on
, resulting in a vector
, then followed by applying a rotation deforming tensor
on this new vector
to produce the
final vector
Hence we write
and hence
Using polar decomposition we write
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This is called polar decomposition of
, and it always
possible to find such decomposition. In addition, this decomposition is unique
for each
.
An oriented area in the undeformed state is
(Where
is a unit normal to
). This area becomes
after the application of the stretch tensor
. It
is clear that rotation will not have an effect on the area
itself, but it
will rotate the unit vector
which is normal to
to
become the unit vector
. This is illustrated in the diagram below.
Now that we have given a brief description of the geometry and the important
tensor
we are ready to start the discussion of the main
topic of this paper.
Before outlining the different stress measures, we describe and illustrate the different entities involved.
Given the undeformed state
, we consider a point
in
and then follow
its location in the deformed state
(Lagrangian description). Consider a
differential area
at
at the surface of
. Consider a unit vector
normal to this area. After deformation, this differential area
will be deformed to a new differential area
in the deformed state
.
Let
be the unit vector normal to
.
Let
be the differential force vector that represents the
resultant of the total internal forces acting on
in the deformed state
.
The following diagram illustrates the above.
The Cauchy stress measure
is is a measure of
hence it is called the true measure of stress. From the above definition we see that
Cauchy stress tensor is in general (in absence of body couples) a symmetric tensor.
From the above diagram we see that this stress
can be
regarded as
.
It is derived as follows.
Start by moving the vector
(the result of internal forces in the
deformed state) which acts on the deformed area
in parallel transport to
the image of
in the undeformed state, which will be the differential area
Hence we obtain in the undeformed state
| (1) |
Now given that
Which is a relationship derived from geometrical consideration [2]. Then from the above equation we obtain
But since
, then
using the above equation, we can write
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(2) |
compare (1) to (2)
Hence we determine that
First Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor in general is unsymmetrical.
From the above diagram we see that this stress
can be regarded as
.
This stress measure
is similar to the first Piola-Kirchhoff
stress measure, except that instead of parallel transporting the force
from the deformed state to the undeformed state, we first create
a force vector
derived from
and then
parallel transport this new vector. Everything else remains the same. The
purpose of this is that the second piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor will now be a
symmetric tensor while the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor was unsymmetric
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(1) |
Hence in the undeformed state (after we parallel transport
to
) we have the relationship
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(2) |
And in the deformed state we have the relation
| (3) |
As before, we now proceed to find an expression for
in terms of the Cauchy stress tensor
.
Given that
Substitute the above in eq (3) we obtain
But from (1)
,
hence the above equation becomes
Hence
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(4) |
Compare (4) with (2)
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Hence the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is
The second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is in general symmetric.
Kirchhoff stress tensor
is a scalar multiple of the
true stress tensor
. The scale factor is the
determinant of
, the deformation gradient tensor.
Hence
is symmetric when
is
symmetric which is in general the case.
The
stress tensor is a result of internal forces
generated due to the application of the stretch tensor only. Hence this stress
acts on the area deformed due to stretch only. Hence this stress represents
.
Assume these are called
, then by this definition we have
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(1) |
While in the final deformed state we have as before the following relation
| (2) |
What the above means is that we can consider the stretched state as a partial
deformed state, and the final deformed state as the result of applying the
rotation tensor on the stretched state. In the final deformed state the result
of the internal forces is
while in the stretched state (which we
designate all the variables in that state with a star *) the internal forces
are termed
Hence we can write
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(3) |
eq (3) can be written as
, then
substitute this into (1) we get
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(4) |
Now substitute for
in the above equation the expression for
in eq (2) we obtain
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(5) |
But
hence the above equation becomes
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Hence
This stress measure exists in the undeformed state as a result of parallel
translation of the
forces generated in the stretched
state back to the undeformed state and applying this force into the image of
the stretched area in the undeformed state. Hence this stress can be
considered as
Hence in a sense, it is one step more involved than the
stress tensor described earlier. The following diagram illustrates
the above.
From the above diagram we can now write an expression for the Biot-Lure stress tensor
And now we proceed to find an expression for
.
Since
, then the above
equation becomes
But
, hence the above equation becomes
But
hence the above equation becomes
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Hence by comparison we see that
The stress tensor
is unsymmetric when
is symmetric which is in the general is the case.
This stress tensor is introduced to create a symmetric stress tensor from the Biot-Lure stress tensor as follows
No physical interpretation of this stress tensor can be made similar to the Biot-Lure stress tensor.
This stress tensor is defined in the rotated state without any stretch being applied before hand. The forces that act on the rotated area has been parallel transported from the forces that was generated in the final deformed state. Hence this stress can be considered as
The following diagram illustrates this. Notice that since rotation has been
applied before stretch, then the polar decomposition of
is now written as
Where
is the rotation tensor (which was called
when it is applied after stretch), and
is the stretch tensor.
From the above diagram we see that
But
, the above equation becomes
But
hence the above equation becomes
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Hence
is unsymmetric when
is symmetric.
This stress tensor is introduced to create a symmetric stress tensor from the
stress tensor as follows
No physical interpretation of this stress tensor can be made similar to the
stress tensor.
We now consider what happens to the geometrical deforming tensors
and
when the body when in
its final deformed state, is then subjected to a pure rigid body rotation
.
Next we consider what happens to the various stress tensors we derived above
under the same
.
The polar decomposition of
is given by
We need to determine the effect of applying pure rigid body rotation
on
and
.
In each of the following derivations we have the following setting in place:
We have a body that is originally in the undeformed state
. Loads are
applied and the body. The body will undergo deformation governed by the
deformation gradient tensor
resulting in the body being
in the final deformed state state
with a stress tensor
at point
. If we consider the body under the effect of
first (stretch), then the new state will be called
, then after applying the effect of
(point to
point rotation tensor), then the state will be called
(which is the final
deformation state).
If however we apply
first (rotation), then the new state
will also be called
and then when we apply the stretch
the state will becomes
(which is the final
deformation state).
Now, from state
, which is the final deformation state, we apply a pure
rigid body rotation tensor
to the whole body (with its
fixed supports if any), hence there will be no changes in the body shape, and
we let the new state be called
.
We can also consider the change of state from state
all the way to state
to be the result of a new deformation gradient tensor which we call called
. The polar decomposition of
can also be written as
or as

We seek to compare
to
,
to
and
to
to see the effect of the rigid body rotation on these tensors.
From the above diagram we see that
We know that
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(1) |
Similarly,
But
, hence the
above becomes
But from linear algebra we can write
hence the
above becomes
But
since
is orthogonal, hence the above becomes
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(2) |
Now compare (1) and (2) we see they are the same. Hence
This means that
.
Since
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(1) |
and
by polar
decomposition on
, hence the above can be written as
Apply polar decomposition on
to obtain
hence the above becomes
But we found earlier that
hence
the above becomes
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(2) |
Now we utilize the second form of polar decomposition on
and write
Substitute (2) into the above equation, it becomes
Substitute (1) into the above we obtain
Since
is invertible (check), we can write
the above as
But
(Since
is
an orthogonal matrix, check). Hence the above becomes
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(3) |
But from polar decomposition we know that
, hence
, but
since it is an orthogonal
matrix, hence
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(4) |
Substitute (4) in (3) we obtain
This above is how
transforms due to rigid rotation
.
Now that we have obtained the transformation of
and
we proceed to find how each one of the stress tensors
derived earlier transforms due to
.
We now calculate the stress
(Cauchy stress in
state
) at the point
. Since this is a rigid body
rotation, then the area
will not change, only the unit normal vector
will change to
The tensor
maps the vector
to the vector
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(1) |
| (2) |
Exchange the order of
and
, hence use
the transpose of
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(3) |
However since the tensor
maps the oriented area
to the oriented area
then we write
Or in other words
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(4) |
Substitute (4) into (3)
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(5) |
However, the stress
in state
is given by
, hence the above equation becomes
In other words
This implies
By comparing the above transformation result with the deformation tensors transformation, we see that the
Earlier we have shown that
This implies
However, we have found earlier that
then the above becomes
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(1) |
Now we need to find an expression for
.
We know that
, hence
, hence
but since
is orthogonal,
then
, hence
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However, since
then the above simplifies to
Hence
Now, by examining how the geometrical tensors transform, we saw before that
hence
.
Earlier we have shown that
Hence
We need to find an expression for
. We know that
, hence
, hence
but since
is orthogonal,
then
, hence
. So the above equation becomes
hence
then
hence the above equation becomes
But we found earlier that
hence the above equation becomes
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So
But this is the same as
hence
Now since we found earlier that
hence we conclude that
Since
is a scalar multiple of
and we have found that
is a conjugate pair with
hence we conclude that
The transformation of the second
stress tensor
is shown below.
Earlier we have shown that
then the above becomes
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(1) |
and
also by polar decomposition we can write
hence
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, the
above becomes
then the above becomes
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(2) |
And hence
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(3) |
Substitute (2) and (3) into (1) we obtain
Since
and
are orthogonal,
then the above reduces to
But
hence we conclude that
The transformation of the Biot-Lure stress tensor
is shown below.
Earlier we have shown that
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(1) |
Hence
But
hence the above becomes
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(2) |
Since
then
but
is orthogonal, hence
,
hence
hence eq (2) can be written as
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(3) |
Now we seek to resolve
.
We know that
and also by polar decomposition
hence we can write
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(4) |
Substitute (4) into (3) we obtain
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But since
then the above becomes
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But we found earlier that
hence the above becomes
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But from eq (1) we see that
, we conclude that
The transformation of the Juamann stress tensor
is shown below.
Earlier we have shown that
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(1) |
From (1) we see that
But since we found that
then the above becomes
Hence
Hence since
, we conclude that
We found earlier that
Hence
But
and
then the above becomes
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Hence
Hence
Since
and
is
conjugate pair with
then
In formulating the constitutive relation for a material we seek a formula that relates the stress measure to the strain measure. Hence, using a specific stress measure, we need to use the correct strain measure.
Hence the problem at hand is the following: Given a stress tensor, one of the many stress tensors we discussed earlier, how can we determine the correct strain tensor to use with it?
To make the discussion general, we designate the stress tensor by
and its conjugate pair, the strain tensor, by
.
Hence
could be any of the stress measures discussed
earlier, such as the Cauchy stress tensor
, the second
piola-kirchhoff stress tensor
, etc..., we will now
determine the strain tensor to use. We call
the conjugate pair tensors.
To guide us in finding
for each specific
we will be guided by physics.
If we refer to
as the current amount of energy stored in a unit volume as
a result of the body undergoing deformation, then the time rate at which this
energy changes will be equal to the stress times the strain rate. Hence we write
Where
is the trace matrix operator. This is the rule by which we will
use to determine
.
On a stress-strain diagram we draw the following.
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For each stress/strain conjugate pair, we now derive the terms
In the deformed state, the stress tensor is the true stress tensor, which is
the cauchy stress
, and the strain rate in this state
is known to be [2]
where
is the velocity gradient tensor. It is shown in [2]
that
Hence in the deformed state we can write
In other words, the conjugate strain for the cauchy stress tensor is given by
such that
should come out to be the Almansi strain tensor, which
is
(check)
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Pre dot multiply
by
and post dot
multiply it with
which will make no change in the value,
hence we obtain
Using the properties of
we can write the above as
We have determined earlier that
hence
hence the above equation becomes
But
hence the above becomes
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Hence
we see that if
then
Hence
The advantage in using the second Piola Kirchhoff stress tensor instead of the Cauchy or the first Piola Kirchhoff stress tensor, is that with the second Piola Kirchhoff stress tensor, calculations are performed the reference configuration (undeformed state) where the state measurements are known instead of using the deformed configuration where state measurements are not known.
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But
hence the above becomes
Using the property of
we can rewrite
as
hence applying this property to the above expression we obtain
Now applying the property that
to the above results in
we found earlier that
hence replace this into the above we obtain
Hence we see that
hence
Since
is just a scaled version of
where
and we found that the strain tensor associated with
is
hence the strain tensor associated with
is
Hence
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But
hence the above becomes
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(1) |
But
, use this to replace the first
in
equation (1) above.
Also
, use this to replace the second
in
equation (1) above.
Hence eq (1) becomes
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Switch the order of terms selected above by transposing them we get
Take
as common factor we get
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(2) |
But
Hence (2) becomes
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(3) |
But
since
Hence (3) becomes
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(4) |
But
Hence (4) becomes
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(5) |
But
From symmetry of
Hence
Hence (5) becomes
From property of
we can rewrite the above as
But as we said above,
hence the above becomes
Using property of
we can move
to the left of
to get
But
hence the above becomes
But we found earlier that
Hence
Hence
Hence we see that
then
Since we found that
then the conjugate pair for
is
But
is symmetrical, hence
conjugate pair for
is
i.e.
The same as strain tensor associated with the Biot-Lure stress.
TODO for future work.
In what follows we derive the expression for the deformation gradient tensor
. This tensor transform one vector into another vector.
For simplicity we will assume that the deformed and the undeformed states are
described using the same coordinates system. In addition, we assume that this
coordinates system is the normal Cartesian system with basis vectors
Later these expression will be written in the more general
case where the coordinate systems are different and uses curvilinear
coordinate. Other than using different notation, the derivation is the same in
both cases.
Consider a point
in the undeformed state. This point will have coordinates
. When the body undergoes deformation,
this point will be displaced to a new location. We call the image of this
point in the deformed state as point
. We refer to the coordinates of the
the point
as
.
The coordinates
are function of the coordinates
. These
functions constitute the mapping between the undeformed shape and the deformed
shape. These functions can be written in general as follows
Hence by knowing the functions
we can locate the position of any point
in the deformed state if we know its position in the undeformed state. It is
more customary to write the function
using the name of the coordinate
itself. For example we can write
instead of
as we did above.
However this can be a little confusing since it uses the letter
as
function when on the RHS and a variable on the LHS. Hence we selected to use
a new name for the mapping function.
From the above we can determine the expression for a differential change in each of the 3 coordinates using the differentiation chain rule as follows
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(1) |
Consider now a differential vector element
in the deformed
state. Hence this vector can be written as
| (2) |
Combining equations (1) and (2) we obtain
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The above equation can be written in matrix form as follows
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(3) |
Hence we see that the components of
can be obtained from the
components
by pre-multiplying the components of
by
the above
matrix. Hence this matrix acts as a transformation rule
which maps one vector to another, it is a second order tensor, which is called
the deformation gradient tensor
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(4) |
This relation can be written also in dyadic form as follows

To carry the multiplication on the RHS in the above equation, we follow the normal dot product convention, using the following rules.
Hence if we perform the multiplication we obtain

Now we simplify the dot multiplication using the above mentioned rules to obtain

Simplifying we obtain

Collect similar terms on the RHS we obtain

comparing the components of the vector on the LHS with those component of the vector on the RHS we obtain equation (1) as expected.
In addition to the matrix form and the dyadic form, we can express the
transformation from
to
using indices notation as follows
A matrix
is orthogonal if
where
is the identity matrix.
If a matrix/tensor
is orthogonal then
. In component form,