Thermomechanics of Crystalline Solids

Abstract

Chapter 4 addresses fundamental thermomechanical relationships necessary for describing physical behavior of crystalline materials. Meant by the term thermomechanics are the balance principles from continuum mechanics and thermodynamics that dictate the response of the solid when subjected to mechanical forces, temperature variations, or other physical stimuli. Accordingly, the state of the material, for example equilibrium positions of atoms within a crystal and local vibrations of atoms about these positions, may change reversibly or irreversibly during a thermomechanical process. Complementary to the geometrically nonlinear description of kinematics in Chapter 3, the content of Chapter 4 focuses on descriptions of solid bodies subjected to finite deformations. Reductions of the nonlinear theory to the case of geometric linearity are included in many instances.