A set of constitutive equations is required to close to system of balance laws. These are relations between appropriate kinematic quantities and stress measures that can be assigned a physical meaning.
Deformation gradient as the strain measure[edit | edit source]
In thermoelasticity we assume that the fundamental kinematic quantity is the deformation gradient (
) which is given by

A thermoelastic material is one in which the internal energy (
) is a function only of
and the specific entropy (
), that is

For a thermoelastic material, we can show that the entropy inequality can be written as
|
At this stage, we make the following constitutive assumptions:
1) Like the internal energy, we assume that
and
are also functions only of
and
, i.e.,

2) The heat flux
satisfies the thermal conductivity inequality and if
is independent of
and
, we have

i.e., the thermal conductivity
is positive semidefinite.
Therefore, the entropy inequality may be written as

Since
and
are arbitrary, the entropy inequality will be satisfied if and only if

Therefore,
|
Given the above relations, the energy equation may expressed in terms of the specific entropy as
|
Effect of a rigid body rotation of the internal energy[edit | edit source]
If a thermoelastic body is subjected to a rigid body rotation
, then its internal energy should not change. After a rotation, the new deformation gradient (
) is given by

Since the internal energy does not change, we must have

Now, from the polar decomposition theorem,
where
is the orthogonal rotation tensor (i.e.,
) and
is the symmetric right stretch tensor. Therefore,

We can choose any rotation
. In particular, if we choose
, we have

Therefore,

This means that the internal energy depends only on the stretch
and not on the orientation of the body.
Other strain and stress measures[edit | edit source]
The internal energy depends on
only through the stretch
. A strain measure that reflects this fact and also vanishes in the reference configuration is the Green strain

|
Recall that the Cauchy stress is given by

We can show that the Cauchy stress can be expressed in terms of the Green strain as

|
Also, recall that the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is defined as

Alternatively, we may use the nominal stress tensor

From the conservation of mass, we have
. Hence,

|
The first P-K stress and the nominal stress are unsymmetric. Also recall that we can define a symmetric stress measure with respect to the reference configuration called the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor (
):

|
In terms of the derivatives of the internal energy, we have

Therefore,

and

That is,

|
The stress power per unit volume is given by
. In terms of the stress measures in the reference configuration, we have

Using the identity
, we have
![{\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {\sigma }}:{\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {v} =\left[\left(\rho ~{\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\frac {\partial {\bar {e}}}{\partial {\boldsymbol {E}}}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}\right)\cdot {\boldsymbol {F}}^{-T}\right]:{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}=\rho ~\left({\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\frac {\partial {\bar {e}}}{\partial {\boldsymbol {E}}}}\right):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}={\cfrac {\rho }{\rho _{0}}}~{\boldsymbol {P}}:{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}={\cfrac {\rho }{\rho _{0}}}~{\boldsymbol {N}}^{T}:{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}~.}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/c1ee3e6b79185734244823169274459b25475d98)
We can alternatively express the stress power in terms of
and
. Taking the material time derivative of
we have

Therefore,
![{\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {S}}:{\dot {\boldsymbol {E}}}={\frac {1}{2}}[{\boldsymbol {S}}:({\dot {{\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {F}})+{\boldsymbol {S}}:({\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}\cdot {\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}})]~.}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/f1b9f7cfb6b7379f796ee7056c975524e72b6850)
Using the identities
and
and using the
symmetry of
, we have
![{\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {S}}:{\dot {\boldsymbol {E}}}={\frac {1}{2}}[({\boldsymbol {S}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}^{T}+({\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {S}}):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}]={\frac {1}{2}}[({\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {S}}^{T}):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}+({\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {S}}):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}]=({\boldsymbol {F}}\cdot {\boldsymbol {S}}):{\dot {\boldsymbol {F}}}~.}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/792287f25bc6609e8446e2e7de3bbc2d43f49717)
Now,
. Therefore,
.
Hence, the stress power can be expressed as

|
If we split the velocity gradient into symmetric and skew parts using

where
is the rate of deformation tensor and
is the spin tensor,
we have

Since
is symmetric and
is skew, we have
.
Therefore,
. Hence, we may also
express the stress power as

|
Helmholtz and Gibbs free energy[edit | edit source]
Recall that

Therefore,

Also recall that

Now, the internal energy
is a function only of the Green strain and the specific entropy. Let us assume, that the above relations can be uniquely inverted locally at a material point so that we have

Then the specific internal energy, the specific entropy, and the stress can also be expressed as functions of
and
, or
and
, i.e.,

We can show that

and

We define the Helmholtz free energy as

|
We define the Gibbs free energy as

|
The functions
and
are unique. Using
these definitions it can be shown that

and

The specific heat at constant strain (or constant volume) is defined as

|
The specific heat at constant stress (or constant pressure) is
defined as

|
We can show that

and

Also the equation for the balance of energy can be expressed in terms
of the specific heats as

|
where

The quantity
is called the coefficient of thermal stress and the quantity
is called the coefficient of thermal expansion.
The difference between
and
can be expressed as

However, it is more common to express the above relation in terms of the elastic modulus tensor as

|
where the fourth-order tensor of elastic moduli is defined as

For isotropic materials with a constant coefficient of thermal expansion that follow the St. Venant-Kirchhoff material model, we can show that
![{\displaystyle C_{p}-C_{v}={\cfrac {1}{\rho _{0}}}\left[\alpha ~{\text{tr}}{\boldsymbol {S}}+9~\alpha ^{2}~K~T\right]~.}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/93472149c43f1aeedd38d361ea6462c4a65dc22f)
- T. W. Wright. The Physics and Mathematics of Adiabatic Shear Bands. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2002.
- R. C. Batra. Elements of Continuum Mechanics. AIAA, Reston, VA., 2006.
- G. A. Maugin. The Thermomechanics of Nonlinear Irreversible Behaviors: An Introduction. World Scientific, Singapore, 1999.