Advanced Solid Mechanics

Assignment - 1: Mathematical Preliminaries

1. Give reasons for the following: (a) ii = 3, (b) ij ij = 3, (c) ij ai =

aj , (d) ij ajk = aik , (e) ij akj = aki , (f) ij aij = aii , (g) ij jk ik = 3,
(h) ik jm ij = km (i) kki = 0, (j) ij ijk = 0, (k) ijk ijk = 6, where
ij denotes the Kronecker delta and ijk the permutation symbol
2. Show that aij = aji when ijk ajk = 0. ijk is the permutation symbol
3. Expand aij bij
4. Expand Dij xi xj . If possible simplify the expression Dij xi xj when (a)
Dij = Dji (b) Dij = Dji
5. Express the expression ci = Aij bj bi as ci = Bij bj and thus obtain Bij
6. Consider two vectors a = e1 + 4e2 + 6e3 and b = 2e1 + 4e2 , where {ei }
are orthonormal Cartesian basis vectors. For these vectors compute,
(a) Norm of a
(b) The angle between vectors a and b
(c) The area of the parallelogram bounded by the vectors a and b
(d) b a
(e) The component of vector a in the direction z = e1 + e2 .
7. Show that y = mx where y and x are vectors and m is a scalar is
a linear transformation. Find the second order tensor that maps the
given vector x on to y.
8. Show that y = mx + c where y, x and c are vectors and m is a scalar
is not a linear transformation.
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9. Establish the following ijk Tjk ei = (T23 T32 )e1 + (T31 T13 )e2 + (T12
T21 )e3 and use this to show that ij ijk ek = o. Here {ei } denotes
the orthonormal Cartesian basis, ij the Kronecker delta and ijk the
permutation symbol
10. Show that if tensor A is positive definite then det(A) > 0
11. Using Cayley-Hamilton theorem, deduce that
I3 = {[tr(A)]3 3tr(A)tr(A2 ) + 2tr(A3 )}/6
for an arbitrary tensor A.
12. Let A be an arbitrary tensor. Show that At A and AAt are positive
semi-definite symmetric tensors. If A is invertible, prove that these
tensors - At A and AAt - are positive definite.
13. Let u, v, w, x be arbitrary vectors and A an arbitrary tensor. Show
that
(a) (u v)(w x) = (v w)(u x)
(b) A(u v) = (Au) v
(c) (u v)A = u (At v)
14. Let Q be a proper orthogonal tensor. If {p, q, r} form an orthonormal
basis then a general representation for Q is: Q = p p + (q q + r
r) cos() + (r q q r) sin(). Now, show that
(a) I1 = I2 = 1 + 2 cos()
(b) I3 = 1
(c) Q has only one real eigen value if 6= 0,
15. Let A be an invertible tensor which depends upon a real parameter, t.
exists, prove that
Assuming that dA
dt


d(det(A))
dA 1
= det(A)tr
A
dt
dt
16. Let (A) = det(A) and A be an invertible tensor. Then, show that

= I3 A1
A
2

17. Let , u and T be differentiable scalar, vector and tensor fields. Using
index notation verify the following for Cartesian coordinate system:
(a) grad(u) = u grad() + grad(u)
 
(b) div u = 1 div(u) 12 u grad()
(c) div(T) = Tt grad() + div(T)
(d) curl(grad()) = o
(e) grad(u u) = 2grad(u)t u
(f) div(Tt u) = T grad(u) + u div(T)
18. If A is an invertible tensor, then it can be decomposed uniquely as A
= RU = VR where R is an orthogonal tensor, and U, V are positive
definite symmetric tensors. Then, show that AAt = V2 and At A =
U2 . Using these results prove that the eigenvalues of At A and AAt are
the same and that their eigenvectors are related as: pi = Rqi , where
pi are the eigenvectors of AAt and qi are the eigenvectors of At A.
19. The matrix components of a tensor A when represented using Cartesian
coordinate basis are

1 1 1
A = 1 1 1 .
1 1 1
For this tensor find the following:
(a) The spherical and deviatoric parts of A
(b) The eigenvalues of A
(c) The eigenvectors of A
20. Let a new right-handed Cartesian coordinate system be represented by
2 = sin()e1 +
the set {
ei } of basis vectors with transformation law e
3 = e3 . The origin of the new coordinate system coincides
cos()e2 , e
with the old origin.
1 in terms of the old set {ei } of basis vectors
(a) Find e
(b) Find the orthogonal matrix [Q]ij that expresses the directional
cosine of the new basis with respect to the old one
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(c) Express the vector u = 6e1 3e2 + e3 in terms of the new set
{
ei } of basis vectors
(d) Express the position vector, r of an arbitrary point using both
{ei } and {
ei } basis and establish the relationship between the
components of r represented using {ei } basis and {
ei } basis.
21. For the following components of a second order tensor:

10 4 6
T = 4 6 8 ,
6 8 14
relative to a Cartesian orthonormal basis, {ei }, determine
(a) The principal invariants
(b) The principal values, p1 , p2 , p3
(c) The orientation of the principal directions with respect to the
Cartesian basis, {e}
(d) The orientation of the orthonormal basis, {
ei } with respect to the
basis, {ei }, so that the stress tensor has a matrix representation
of the form, T = diag[p1 , p2 , p3 ] when expressed with respect to
the {
ei } basis
(e) The transformation matrix, [Q]ij which transforms the set of orthonormal basis {ei } to {
ei }.
(f) The components
ei }
of the same tensor T with
respect to a basis {
2 = (e1 + 3e2 )/2, e
3 = e3 .
1 = ( 3e1 + e2 )/2, e
when e
22. Let a tensor A be given by: A = [1 e1 e1 ] + [e1 e2 + e2 e1 ],
where and are scalars and e1 and e2 are orthogonal unit vectors.
(a) Show that the eigenvalues (i ) of A are
r
r

2
1 = , 2 = +
+ 2 , 3 =
+ 2,
2
4
2
4
(b) Derive and show that the associated normalized eigenvectors ni
are given by:
n1 = e3 ,

e1 + (2 /)e2
n2 = p
,
1 + 22 / 2
4

e1 + (3 /)e2
n3 = p
.
1 + 23 / 2

23. Show that uv is the axial vector for vuuv. Using this establish
the identity a (b c) = (b c c b)a, a, b, c V. Use could
be made of the identity [(u v) u] v = (u v) (u v).
24. Let R be a regular region and T a tensor field which is continuous in
R and continuously differentiable in the interior of R. Show that,
Z
Z
t
x T nda = (x div(T) )dv,
R

where x is the position of a representative point of R and is the axial

vector of T Tt . (Hint: Make use of the identity obtained in problem
23.)
25. Let (r, , ) denote the spherical coordinates of a typical point related
to the Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) through x = r cos() cos(), y
= r cos() sin(), z = r sin(). Then express the spherical coordinate
basis in terms of the Cartesian basis and show that
1
1

er +
e +
e ,
r
r
r cos()
vr 1 vr v

v
1
vr

r
r
r
r cos()
r
v
v
v 1 v

v
1

tan()
grad(v) = r r + rr
,
r cos()
r
v
v
v
1 v
1
vr
+ r r tan()
r
r
r cos()

grad() =

div(T) =

Tr
Trr
1
+ 1r Tr + r cos()
+ 1r [2Trr T T ]

T
Tr
1 T
1
1
+ r + r cos() + r [2Tr + Tr + (T T ) tan()] ,
r

Tr 1 T

T
1
+ r + r cos()
+ 1r [2Tr + Tr + (T + T ) tan()]
r

where is a scalar field, v is a vector field represented in spherical

coordinates and T is a tensor field also represented using spherical
coordinate basis vectors.