Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-solid-mechanics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2011/2/c/solution
Past exam of the solid mechanics course of the University of Oxford 2011 2 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
For , and . Differentiating the spherically symmetric deformation givesFor an orientation-preserving spherically symmetric deformation with positive radius, and . The radial direction and its perpendicular plane are eigenspaces of this positive symmetric matrix, soAt a positive diagonal matrix , every diagonal rotation with two minus signs commutes with . The supplied equivariance relation therefore forces to be a diagonal matrix: each off-diagonal entry changes sign under one such rotation while stays fixed. Varying a positive diagonal entry shows that the diagonal entries of are . Permutation symmetry of implies when .
Choose a rotation whose first column is . Applying equivariance to now giveswith the derivatives evaluated at . Thus the stress has one radial and one repeated tangential principal value, independently of the choice of tangent basis.
New to topics? Read the docs here!