n

Chapter 5

Analytical techniques and solutions for linear elastic solids

ons to generalized plane problems for anisotropic linear elastic solids

h as wood, laminated composites, and single crystal metals are stiffer when loaded along some material directions than others. Such mate opic, and cannot be modeled using the procedures described in the preceding sections. In this chapter, we describe briefly the most widely g elastic deformation and stress in two dimensional anisotropic solids. As you might expect, these calculations are difficult, and while the in a surprisingly compact form, the resulting expressions can usually only be evaluated using a computer. In many practical situations it utions for anisotropic materials using direct numerical computations (e.g. using the finite element method, discussed in Chapters 7 and 8). utions are useful: for example, the finite element method cannot easily be applied to problems involving cracks, dislocations, or point fo singularities; in addition exact calculations can show how the solutions vary parametrically with elastic constants and material orientation.

ning Equations of elasticity for anisotropic solids

ne elasticity problem is illustrated in the picture. The solid is two dimensional: in this case we are concerned direction, and every cross section is loaded plane. The material is an anisotropic, linear elastic solid, whose (or an equivalent matrix) as discussed in Chapter 3.

rain solutions, which means that the solid is very long in the

nd only in the

n be characterized by the elasticity tensor

calculations, we shall assume that (i) The solid is free of body forces; (ii) thermal strains can be neglected. conditions the general equations of elasticity listed in Section 5.1.2 reduce to

usual boundary conditions. In subsequent discussions, it will be convenient to write the equilibrium equations in matrix form as

necessary for strict plane strain deformation of anisotropic solids. For Plane strain deformations the displacement field h

. Under these conditions the equilibrium equations

can be chosen to satisfy two, but not all three, of the three equations. The elastic constants must satisfy

. Consequently, the third equation can only be satisfied by sett

eformations therefore only exist in a material with elastic constants and orientation satisfying

mmon class of crystals

cubic materials

satisfies these conditions for appropriate orientations.

plane strain deformations. A generalized plane strain displacement field can exist in any general anisotropic crystal. In this case the form

cement is independent of position along the length of the cylindrical solid, but points may move out of their original plane when the solid is

epresentation for fields in anisotropic solids

ution is a compact, complex variable, representation for generalized plane strain solutions to elastically anisotropic solids. To write the solu e several new quantities:

define three new 3x3 matrices of elastic constants, as follows

ntroduce three complex valued eigenvalues

(i=13) and eigenvectors

which satisfy

eigenvalues can be computed by solving the equation

e Q, R and T are 3x3 matrices, this is a sextic equation for p, with 6 roots. It is possible to show that for a material with physically adm

ants p is always complex, so the 6 roots are pairs of complex conjugates , We define

. Each pair of complex roots has a correspo

plex valued eigenvectors vector.

to be the roots with positive imaginary part, and

to be the c

alculate the stresses, it is helpful to introduce three further vectors

defined as

often convenient to collect the eigenvectors

and

and the eigenvalues

into matrices

also that, as always, while the eigenvalues

are uniquely defined for a particular set of elastic constants, the eigenvectors

equently the vectors ) are not unique, since they may be multiplied by any arbitrary complex number and will remain eigen ul to normalize the eigenvectors so that the matrices A and B satisfy

e I is the identity matrix.

resentation of displacements: The displacement at a point in the solid is

are the three pairs of complex roots of the characteristic equation; and

are the corresponding eigenvalues,

are analytic functions, which are analogous to the complex potentials

or isotropic solids.

resentation of stresses: The stresses can be expressed in terms of a vector valued stress function ined as

(you can think of this as a generalize

can be calculated from the three components of

as

matrix representation for displacement and stresses: The solution for the displacement field and stress function can be expressed in the fo

resentation for stresses and displacements: The solutions given above are the most general form of the generalized plane strain so uations of linear elasticity. However, not all the solutions of this form are of practical interest, since the displacements and stresses must be ost solutions can be expressed in a much simpler the form as

denotes the real part of z,

stration that the Stroh representation satisfies the governing equations

ctive is to show that a displacement field of the form and eigenvectors

, with defined in the preceding section, satisfy the governing equations

any one of the eigenvalues

that

, where

is the Kronecker delta. Therefore, it follows that

tituting this result into the governing equation shows that

can be re-written as

matrix form as

e are the matrices defined in Section 5.5.2. The eigenvalue/eigenvector pairs (p, h shows that the governing equation is indeed satisfied.

) satisfy this equation by d

ective is to show that stresses can be computed from the formulas given in Section 5.5.2. To see this,

that the stresses can be obtained from the constitutive equation

all that for each of the six characteristic solutions we may obtain displacements as , so that

e Q, R and T are the matrices defined in the preceding section.

implify this result, define

note that the governing equations require that

mbining the results of (2) and (3) shows that stresses can be computed from

lly, recall that the stress function

has components

, and

. Consequently, the stresses are related to the stress function by as required.

igenvalues and anisotropy matrices for cubic materials

envalues p for a general anisotropic material involve the solution to a sextic equation, an explicit general solution cannot be found. Eve hich have a single symmetry plane) give solutions that are so cumbersome that many symbolic manipulation programs cannot handle them.

erials is manageable, as long as one of the coordinate axes is parallel to the matrix reduces to

direction. If the cube axes coincide with the coordina

ristic equation therefore has the form

the eigenvalues are purely imaginary. The special case

corresponds to an isotropic material.

A and B can be expressed as

rate Materials

me materials for which the general procedure outlined in the preceding sections breaks down. We can illustrate this by attempting to a

erial. In this case we find that

, and there only two independent eigenvectors a as

eigenvalue . In addition, if you attempt to substitute material constants representing an isotropic material into the formulas for A an section you will find that the terms in the matrices are infinite.

significance of this degeneracy is not known. Although isotropic materials are degenerate, isotropy does not appear to be a necessary as fully anisotropic materials may exhibit the same degeneracy for appropriate values of their stiffnesses.

. Shin and Y. Y. Earmme, Int J. Solids Structures 40, (6) 1411-1431 (2003) have found a way to re-write the complex variable formulation o a form that is identical in structure to the Stroh formulation. This approach is very useful, because it enables us to solve problems involvi opic and anisotropic materials, but it does not provide any fundamental insight into the cause of degeneracy, nor does it provide a gener

ctical situations the problems associated with degeneracy can be avoided by re-writing the solution in terms of special tensors (to be de computed directly from the elastic constants, without needing to determine A and B.

mental Elasticity Matrix

and corresponding eigenvector matrix known as the fundamental elasticity matrix, defined as

can be shown to be the right eigenvectors and eigenvalue

trices or of N.

are the elasticity matrices defined in Section 5.5.2. Similarly,

can be sho

ote that the expressions relating vectors a and b

sed as

sitive definite and symmetric its inverse can always be computed. Therefore we may write

envalue equation, and multiplying out the matrices gives the required result.

dentity may be proved in exactly the same way. Note that

the required answer.

nerate materials N has six distinct eigenvectors. A matrix of this kind is called simple. For some materials N has repeated eigenvalues, but vectors. A matrix of this kind is called semi-simple. For degenerate materials N does not have six distinct eigenvectors. A matrix of this k ple.

onal properties of Stroh matrices A and B

ion that and are right and left eigenvectors of N has an important con es are distinct (i.e. the material is not degenerate), the left and right eigenvectors of a matrix are orthogonal. This implies that

he vectors can always be normalized so that

e, we see that the matrices A and B must satisfy

wo matrices are inverses of each other, and therefore we also have that

give the following relations between A and B

t-Lothe tensors and the Impedance Tensor.

n we define four important tensors that can be calculated from the Stroh matrices A and B. Specifically, we introduce:

Barnett-Lothe tensors

Impedance Tensor with properties ( )

g relations between the Barnett-Lothe tensors and the impedance tensor are also useful

ns can be expressed in terms of S, H and L directly, rather than in terms of A and B. In addition, Barnett and Lothe devised a procedure f ithout needing to calculate A and B (See Sect. 5.5.11). Consequently, these tensors can be calculated even for degenerate materials.

le, for cubic materials, with coordinate axes aligned with coordinate directions,

properties of matrices in anisotropic elasticity

elow various useful algebraic relations between the various matrices that were introduced in the preceding sections.

, a matrix

satisfying

is Hermitian. A matrix satisfying

is skew

is skew Hermitian. To see this, note that the orthogonality relations for A and B require that

is Hermitian. This follows trivially from the preceding expression. and are both Hermitian. To see this, note and use the preceding result.
are Hermitian. To show the first expression, note that

matrices

and recall that L is re

ar technique shows the second.

are both orthogonal matrices. To see this for the first matrix, note that

, where we have used the orthogonality properties of B. A similar procedure shows t

t.

Barnett-Lothe tensors are real (i.e. they have zero imaginary part). To see this, note that the orthogonality of A and B (see sect. 5.5.7) impli

efore

and

are pure imaginary, while the real part of

impedance tensor can be expressed in terms of the Barnett Lothe tensors as

ee the first result, note that and use the definitio he second result follows in the same way. Note that H, L and S are all real, so this gives a decomposition of M and its inverse into real a . In addition, since we can compute the Barnett-Lothe tensors for degenerate materials, M can also be determined without needing to com citly.

. To see M and its inverse are Hermitian, note that the imaginary part of a Hermitian matrix is skew symmetric, and use the preceding res , where .

l that the fundamental elasticity tensor satisfies

second row of this equation is

Change formulas for matrices used in anisotropic elasticity

tensors and matrices defined in the preceding sections are all functions of the elastic constants for the material. Since the nts depend on the orientation of the material with respect to the coordinate axes, the matrices are functions of the direction of e system.

and denote the components of in

be two Cartesian bases, as indicated in the figure. , i.e.

be the components of the elasticity tensor in ants defined in Section 5.5.2.

, and let matrices Q, R and T be matrices of

denote any one of the three Stroh eigenvalues and the matrices of Stroh eigenvectors, computed for the coordinate ; denote the Barnett-Lothe tensors and impedance tensor in the , , etc denote the various matrices and tensors in the

basis

larly, let s.

efine rotation matrices

as follows

g alternative expressions for

are also useful

nge formulas can then be expressed as

These results can be derived as follow: that the displacements transform as vectors, so that . Consequently,

h shows that

anddirectly gives the basis change formula for A.

ind the expression for p, we note that

efore, we may write and

with

quired.

basis change formulas for Q, R and T follow directly from the definitions of these matrices.

basis change formula for B is a bit more cumbersome. By definition

tituting for

gives

inally recalling that btain the required result.

basis change formulas for the Barnett-Lothe tensors and impedance tensor follow trivially from their definitions. The basis change formula er assertion that these quantities are tensors.

tt-Lothe integrals

ange formulas in the preceding section lead to a remarkable direct procedure for computing the Barnett-Lothe tensors, without needing to ca ficance of this result is that, while A and B break down for degenerate materials, S, H, and L are well-behaved. Consequently, if a so terms of these tensors, it can be computed for any combination of material parameters.

we shall show that S, H, and L can be computed by integrating the sub-matrices of the fundamental elasticity matrix over orientation spac

To see this, we show first that

can be diagonalized as

was defined earlier. From the preceding section, we note that

expressed as

can arrange this into an Eigenvalue problem by writing

hat [a,b] are eigenvectors of the rotated elasticity matrix. Following standard procedure, we obtain the diagonalization stated.

mine

more closely. Recall that

ves

he integral is determined by Im(p) because the branch cut for axis). Thus,

is taken to lie alo

representation for a state of uniform stress

ate of stress (with generalized plane strain deformation) provides a very simple example of the Stroh representation. The solution can be and corresponding strain we may write

ent forms. Note that for a uniform state of stress

ese vectors the Stroh representation is given by

form

To see this, recall that a and b form eigenvectors of the fundamental elasticity matrix N as

can write (for each pair of eigenvectors/values)

efining

uired result.

oad and Dislocation in an Infinite Anisotropic Solid

ustrates the problem to be solved. We consider an infinite, anisotropic, linear elastic solid, whose elastic properties cterized using the Stroh matrices A and B.

ntains a straight dislocation, with line direction .

, perpendicular to the plane of the figure. The dislocation has

or

ime, the solid is subjected to a line of force (with line direction extending out of the plane of the figure). The force per unit length acting on .

ment and stress function can be expressed in terms of the Stroh matrices as

, where diag denotes a diagonal matrix, a

can also be expressed as

We must show that the solution satisfies the following conditions: displacement field for a dislocation with burgers vector b must satisfy

(this corresponds to taking a counterclockwise Burgers circuit around the dislocation, as described in Section 5.3.4)

resultant force exerted by the stresses acting on any contour surrounding the point force must balance the external force F. For exam lar contour with radius r centered at the origin, we see that

can create the required solution using properties of log(z). We try a solution of the form

e , whence

and q is a vector to be determine

we may write

. This, in turn, implies . Therefore

alling the orthogonality properties of A and B

an solve for q

oad and dislocation below the surface of an anisotropic half-space

hows an anisotropic, linear elastic half-space. The elastic properties of the solid are characterized by the Stroh matrices efined in Section 5.5.2. The solid contains a dislocation with Burgers vector b and is also subjected to a linear load with length F at a point , while the surface of the solid is traction free.

can be computed from the simplified Stroh representation

m in the expression for f will be recognized as the solution for a dislocation and point force in an infinite solid; the second term corrects this s of the free surface.

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