Matrix representations for 3D strain-gradient elasticity

Abstract

The theory of first strain gradient elasticity (SGE) is widely used to model size and non-local effects observed in materials and structures. For a material whose microstructure is centrosymmetric, SGE is characterized by a sixth-order elastic tensor in addition to the classical fourth-order elastic tensor. Even though the matrix form of the sixth-order elastic tensor is well-known in the isotropic case, its complete matrix representations seem to remain unavailable in the anisotropic cases. In the present paper, the explicit matrix representations of the sixth-order elastic tensor are derived and given for all the 3D anisotropic cases in a compact and well-structured way. These matrix representations are necessary to the development and application of SGE for anisotropic materials.