Linear elastic material behavior

You are probably familiar with the behavior of a linear elastic material from introductory materials courses.

3.2.1 Isotropic, linear elastic material behavior

If you conduct a uniaxial tensile test on almost any material, and keep the stress levels sufficiently low, you will
observe the following behavior:
The specimen deforms reversibly: If you remove the loads, the solid returns to its original shape.

The strain in the specimen depends only on the stress applied to it it doesnt depend on the rate of loading, or the
history of loading.
For most materials, the stress is a linear function of strain, as shown in the picture above. Because the strains are
small, this is true whatever stress measure is adopted (Cauchy stress or nominal stress), and is true whatever strain
measure is adopted (Lagrange strain or infinitesimal strain).
For most, but not all, materials, the material has no characteristic orientation. Thus, if you cut a tensile specimen out
of a block of material, as shown in the figure, the the stress strain curve will be independent of the orientation of
the specimen relative to the block of material. Such materials are said to be isotropic.
If you heat a specimen of the material, increasing its temperature uniformly, it will generally change its shape
slightly. If the material is isotropic (no preferred material orientation) and homogeneous, then the specimen will
simply increase in size, without shape change.

3.2.2 Stress strain relations for isotropic, linear elastic materials. Youngs Modulus, Poissons ratio and the
Thermal Expansion Coefficient.

Before writing down stress strain relations, we need to decide what strain and stress measures we want to use.
Because the model only works for small shape changes

Deformation is characterized using the infinitesimal strain tensor

 (c) A.F. Bower, 2008
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