The Reuss elastic approximation assumes uniform stress. The local strain is the derivative of the convex conjugate ; its mean is . Under invertible differentiable duality, this mean determines . For positive linear elasticity, . Uniform stress is generally not accompanied by a compatible local displacement field, so this approximation is distinguished from an exact heterogeneous solution.
Second moment of area 2026-10-06
The second moment of area of a cross-section about an axis is , where is the perpendicular distance from that axis. Its dimensions are length to the fourth power. For a circular section of radius , polar integration gives . A slender rod with Young's modulus has filament bending modulus : the axial strain caused by curvature is , and integrating the linear elasticity energy density over the section gives per unit length.
Spectral strain measure 2026-10-14
For a right stretch tensor , define . A standard normalized choice has , , and strictly increasing; requiring gives a nonsingular stretch-to-strain parameterization. This strain vanishes exactly for a rigid rotation, is independent of superposed spatial rotations, and agrees to first order with the infinitesimal symmetric displacement gradient. Indeed gives , and Taylor expansion of proves the last statement.
Twofold elastic symmetry 2026-10-14
A rotation through about the third coordinate axis preserves the strain components and reverses . A symmetry-invariant elastic stiffness tensor cannot couple the two parity spaces. Its independent symmetric blocks therefore contain coefficients. A twofold axis alone does not impose invariance under every rotation about that axis.
The Voigt elastic approximation assumes uniform strain. Differentiating its averaged strain energy density gives the averaged local stress. For linear elasticity the predicted elastic stiffness tensor is . The uniform strain is an admissible affine displacement trial field, so this gives an upper elastic energy bound for convex local energy.
A stress measure is work-conjugate to a strain measure when their contraction gives the mechanical power per specified volume for every admissible deformation rate. The reference-volume power is , with Kirchhoff stress tensor and rate-of-strain tensor . A strain constraint can leave the conjugate stress undetermined by a reaction component that does no admissible work; uniqueness should therefore not be assumed on a restricted set of rates.
Young's modulus 2026-10-05
Young's modulus is the ratio of axial stress to axial strain in uniaxial linear elasticity. For an isotropic plate, the bending rigidity is , with thickness and Poisson's ratio .