On the Strong Ellipticity of the Anisotropic Linearly Elastic Materials

Abstract

In this paper we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for strong ellipticity in several classes of anisotropic linearly elastic materials. Our results cover all classes in the rhombic system (nine elasticities), four classes of the tetragonal system (six elasticities) and all classes in the cubic system (three elasticities). As a special case we recover necessary and sufficient conditions for strong ellipticity in transversely isotropic materials. The central result shows that for the rhombic system strong ellipticity restricts some appropriate combinations of elasticities to take values inside a domain whose boundary is the third order algebraic surface defined by x ²+y ²+z ²−2xyz−1=0 situated in the cube $\left\vert x\right\vert <1$, $\left\vert y\right\vert <1$, $\left\vert z\right\vert <1$. For more symmetric situations, the general analysis restricts combinations of elasticities to range inside either a plane domain (for four classes in the tetragonal system) or in an one-dimensional interval (for the hexagonal systems, transverse isotropy and cubic system). The proof involves only the basic statement of the strong ellipticity condition.