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At a perfectly bonded elastic interface without an interfacial force, displacement and traction are continuous:Tangential derivatives of the common displacement trace are also continuous. Thus the jump of a piecewise constant displacement gradient tensor annihilates every tangential vector, and has the form $\alpha \otimes n$. Taking its symmetric part shows that the strain jump is $B\alpha$, whereThe adjoint formula follows from $\tau :B\alpha =(\tau n)\cdot \alpha$ for symmetric stress tensors. Tangential-tangential strain components are therefore common to all layers. Conversely, such gradient jumps can be realized by continuous piecewise affine displacement in the layered geometry.

Take positive elastic stiffness tensors with their usual minor and major symmetries, and a positive comparison elastic stiffness tensor $C^0$. A fictitious layer can have the same tangential displacement derivatives and the same traction as the physical layers. Hence ${\epsilon }^r={\epsilon }^0+B{\alpha }^r$. The common traction condition giveswhere $K^r=B^T{C}^{r}B$ is the positive acoustic tensor, with components $K_{ik}^r=C_{ijkl}^r{n}_j{n}_l$. Solving for ${\alpha }^r$ givesExpanding the two occurrences of $B$ gives exactly the symmetrization over $(ij)$ and $(kl)$ in the directional elastic strain Green operator specified in the paper.

For any two layers, the inverse identity for their acoustic tensors proves the required resolvent relation without interchanging noncommuting tensors:With $D_r=C^r-C^0$, this identity also gives ${\tilde{\Gamma }}^0{D}_r{\tilde{\Gamma }}^r={\tilde{\Gamma }}^0-{\tilde{\Gamma }}^r$. ThereforeThese finite-dimensional operators are inverses. Define $A_r=[I+{\tilde{\Gamma }}^0(C^r-C^0){]}^{-1}$. Then ${\epsilon }^r=A_r{\epsilon }^0$, and averaging strains and stresses givesEliminating the fictitious strain yieldsAll products have the displayed order; the elastic stiffness tensors need not commute.

It remains to justify the inverse and comparison independence. Consider two compatible equilibrated layer solutions with the same mean strain. Their difference has zero common tangential-tangential strain, so $\delta {\epsilon }^r=B{\beta }^r$, with ${\sum }_r{c}_r{\beta }^r=0$ because $B$ is injective and the mean difference is zero. Their traction difference is one common vector $g$. ThereforePositive elastic energy forces every $\delta {\epsilon }^r$ to vanish. In particular, if $⟨A⟩{\epsilon }^0=0$, all physical layer strains vanish. Their common tangential components then force ${\epsilon }^0=B{\beta }^0$, and their zero traction gives $K^0{\beta }^0=0$. Hence ${\epsilon }^0=0$, proving that $⟨A⟩$ is invertible. Finally, every positive choice of $C^0$ constructs the unique layer solution for the same $E$. Its averaged stress is unique, so the displayed effective stiffness is independent of the fictitious comparison material. This is the exact layered constitutive response, rather than a claim that piecewise constant fields meet arbitrary finite-body boundary data.

A perfectly bonded elastic interface has continuous displacement field and continuous traction, with the same chosen normal on both sides. For piecewise affine displacement fields, the difference of their gradients annihilates every tangential vector, and hence has the form $a\otimes n$. Their infinitesimal strain tensors differ by $\mathrm{sym}(a\otimes n)$.