Tensors in Newtonian Physics and the Foundations of Classical Continuum Mechanics

Abstract

In the Newtonian approach to mechanics, the concepts of objective tensors of various ranks and types are introduced. The tough classification of objective tensors is given, including tensors of material and spatial types. The diagrams are constructed for non-degenerate (“analogous”) relations between tensors of one and the same (any) rank, and of various types of objectivity. Mappings expressing dependence between objective tensor processes of various ranks and types are considered. The fundamental concept of frame-independence of such mappings is introduced as being inherent to constitutive relations of various physical and mechanical properties in the Newtonian approach. The criteria are established for such frame-independence. The mathematical restrictions imposed on the frame-independent mappings by the objectivity types of connected tensors are simultaneously revealed. The absence of such restrictions is established exclusively for mappings and equations linking tensors of material types. Using this, a generalizing concept of objective differentiation of tensor processes in time, and a new concept of objective integration, are introduced. The axiomatic construction of the generalized theory of stress and strain tensors in continuum mechanics is given, which leads to the emergence of continuum classes and families of new tensor measures. The axioms are proposed and a variant of the general theory of constitutive relations of mechanical properties of continuous media is constructed, generalizing the known approaches by Ilyushin and Noll, taking into account the possible presence of internal kinematic constraints and internal body-forces in the body. The concepts of the process image and the properties of the five-dimensional Ilyushin’s isotropy are generalized on the range of finite strains.