Material isotropy

Material isotropy makes the elastic response independent of a rotation of reference material directions: $\sigma (FR)=\sigma (F)$ for proper rotations $R$. Combined with material frame indifference, it yields coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress.

For a smooth objective isotropic hyperelastic material, the strict Baker-Ericksen inequalities require larger distinct principal stretches to have larger principal stresses. For $W=\Phi (v_1,v_2,v_3)$ and $J=v_1{v}_2{v}_3$, ${\sigma }_i=J^{-1}{v}_i{\Phi }_i$. The strict convention implies every stress-free state has equal stretches: if $v_i\ne v_j$ but both stresses are zero, the displayed product would vanish. Thus a natural state of a hyperelastic material has $F=vQ$, $v>0$, $Q\in SO(3)$. A weak non-strict inequality alone does not imply this rigidity.

The symmetry group of a hyperelastic material consists of invertible reference transformations $H$ preserving its strain energy density: $W(FH)=W(F)$ for every admissible deformation gradient $F$. A convention restricting reference transformations to determinant one restricts $H$ to the special linear group. Material isotropy requires all proper rotations in this group. This right action differs from the left action in material frame indifference.

The polar decomposition in continuum mechanics and material isotropy remove the reference rotation from an elastic Cauchy stress tensor. Half-turns around principal stretch axes leave the diagonal left stretch tensor fixed, so material frame indifference forces the stress's off-diagonal entries to vanish in those axes. Rotations within repeated-stretch eigenspaces also force isotropic stress there. Consequently stress and the left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor are coaxial symmetric tensors.

For an objective material isotropy law, permutation of the principal stretches permutes the labelled principal stresses. This follows by conjugating the left stretch tensor with signed permutation rotation matrices. Each principal stress is symmetric in the other two stretches, but need not be symmetric in all three. The law $\sigma =V^2$ provides the example ${\sigma }_i={\lambda }_i^2$. In an invariant representation $\sigma ={\beta }_{0}I+{\beta }_{1}V+{\beta }_2{V}^2$, the scalar coefficients are symmetric functions of the unordered stretches.

For simple shear, $B=\left(\begin{array}{cc}1+{\gamma }^2& \gamma \\ \gamma & 1\end{array}\right)$. The off-diagonal entry of $\sigma B-B\sigma$ is $\gamma ({\sigma }_{11}-{\sigma }_{22})-{\gamma }^2{\sigma }_{12}$. Coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress therefore proves the identity for $\gamma \ne 0$. At $\gamma =0$, material isotropy makes the stress isotropic, proving the same identity.