On the constitution of polar fiber-reinforced materials

Abstract

This article presents important constitutive refinements and simplifications in the theory of polar elasticity of materials reinforced by a single family of fibers resistant in bending. One of these simplifications is achieved by paying attention to forms of the strain energy which are symmetric with respect to the symmetric and the antisymmetric parts of the fiber gradient tensor. This leads to the identification of a restricted version of the theory that is predominantly influenced by the fiber-splay mode of deformation. The lack of ellipticity of the governing equations of polar elasticity and the anticipation of existence of weak discontinuity surfaces even in the small deformation regime are also investigated. The manner in which potential activation of such surfaces is related with the action of either the fiber-bending or the fiber-splay deformation mode, as well as with their conjoined combination and coupling with their fiber-twist counterpart, is examined. The proposed constitutive equations can be simplified via the use of a new set of fourteen independent spectral invariants of the deformation. This set serves as an irreducible functional basis of relevant invariants or as an irreducible integrity basis of polynomial invariants. For instance, its use here enables identification of fourteen classical invariants that emerge as mutually independent from the known set of thirty-three in total classical invariants. In the special case of polynomial invariants, this result paves the way for identification of a corresponding minimal integrity basis.

Keywords:

• Cosserat elasticity
• fiber-reinforced materials
• fibers resistant in bending
• polar elasticity
• polar hyperelasticity
• spectral invariants
• weak discontinuity surfaces