Physically Based Invariants for Nonlinear Elastic Orthotropic Solids

Abstract

Hydrostatic loading causes an isotropic elastic solid to be in a state of pure dilatation with no distortion relative to its unstressed reference configuration. Similarly, hydrostatic loading causes a general orthotropic solid to be distorted relative to its unstressed reference configuration. This paper introduces physically based invariants for orthotropic nonlinear elastic solids which are measures of distortions that cause deviatoric Cauchy stress. Specifically, these invariants allow for the modeling of the distortion in a hydrostatic state of stress independently of the form of the strain energy function. Consequently, use of these invariants may lead to simpler forms of the strain energy function which adequately model specific orthotropic solids.