Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 76 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use both material isotropy and material frame indifference. The polar decomposition in continuum mechanics writes , where is the left stretch tensor. Isotropy removes the reference rotation: . Choose an orthonormal eigenbasis of . A half-turn about any principal axis leaves fixed but reverses appropriate off-diagonal entries of . Frame indifference therefore makes those entries zero. If a principal stretch is repeated, rotations in its eigenspace additionally force the stress to be isotropic there. Thus the principal stresses share the stretch axes: this proves coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress with and with .
For simple shear, the left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor isIts principal axes make an angle with the coordinate axes satisfying when . If the two principal stresses are , rotating their diagonal matrix back givesConsequently the universal simple-shear normal-stress identity isEquivalently, it follows immediately from the off-diagonal entry of . At , the undeformed material has isotropic stress, so the identity holds there too. No particular elastic constitutive equation has been used.
Principal stress and stretch axes of an isotropic elastic material under simple shear
. Details. 