Introduction To Relativistic Continuum Mechanics

This mathematically-oriented introduction takes the point of view that students should become familiar, at an early stage, with the physics of relativistic continua and thermodynamics within the framework of special relativity. Therefore, in addition to standard textbook topics such as relativistic kinematics and vacuum electrodynamics, the reader will be thoroughly introduced to relativistic continuum and fluid mechanics. There is emphasis on the 3+1 splitting technique.

Continuum mechanics studies the response of materials to different loading conditions. The concept of tensors is introduced through the idea of linear transformation, and the interrelation of direct notation, indicial notation, and matrix operations is also presented. A wide range of idealized materials are considered through simple static and dynamic problems.

This book provides a brief introduction to rational continuum mechanics in a form suitable for students of engineering, mathematics and science. The presentation is tightly focused on the simplest case of the classical mechanics of nonpolar materials, leaving aside the effects of internal structure, temperature and electromagnetism, and excluding other mathematical models, such as statistical mechanics, relativistic mechanics and quantum mechanics. Within the limitations of the simplest mechanical theory, the author had provided a text that is largely self-contained. Though the book is primarily an introduction to continuum mechanics, the lure and attraction inherent in the subject may also recommend the book as a vehicle by which the student can obtain a broader appreciation of certain important methods and results from classical and modern analysis.

The book provides a rigorous axiomatic approach to continuum mechanics under large deformation. In addition to the classical nonlinear continuum mechanics – kinematics, fundamental laws, the theory of functions having jump discontinuities across singular surfaces, etc. - the book presents the theory of co-rotational derivatives, dynamic deformation compatibility equations, and the principles of material indifference and symmetry, all in systematized form. The focus of the book is a new approach to the formulation of the constitutive equations for elastic and inelastic continua under large deformation. This new approach is based on using energetic and quasi-energetic couples of stress and deformation tensors. This approach leads to a unified treatment of large, anisotropic elastic, viscoelastic, and plastic deformations. The author analyses classical problems, including some involving nonlinear wave propagation, using different models for continua under large deformation, and shows how different models lead to different results. The analysis is accompanied by experimental data and detailed numerical results for rubber, the ground, alloys, etc. The book will be an invaluable text for graduate students and researchers in solid mechanics, mechanical engineering, applied mathematics, physics and crystallography, as also for scientists developing advanced materials.