Cauchy's stress theory in a modern light

Abstract

The 180 year old stress theory by Cauchy is found to be insufficient to serve as a basis for a modern understanding of material behaviour. Six reasons are discussed in detail: (1) Cauchy's theory, following Euler, considers forces interacting with planes. This is in contrast to Newton's mechanics which considers forces interacting with radius vectors. (2) Bonds in solids have never been taken into account. (3) Cauchy's stress theory does not meet the minimum conditions for vector spaces because it does not have a metric. It is not a field theory, and not in the Euclidean space. (4) Cauchy's theory contains a hidden boundary condition that makes it less than general. (5) The current theory of stress is found to be at variance with the theory of potentials. (6) The theory is conceptually incompatible with thermodynamics for physical and geometrical reasons.