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Tensors(especially2ndOrderOnes)

Theexampleofasecondordertensorwearelikelytoseeisthestressorthestraintensor.So,muchofthisdiscussionwillbeillustrated
usingthestresstensor.

Disclaimer:Tensorsareprobablynewtomostofus,andtheyarearealittlechallengingtogettoknow.Thereasontensorsarediscussedin
thecourseistoempowerourunderstandingoftheequations/laws.MostadvancedcoursesinFluidsorMechanicsareliberalintheiruseof
tensors.Obtainingtheequationsinrectangularcoordinatesystemcanbesimpleifalittleintuitioncanbebroughttothediscussion.
Translationoftheequationstovector(andtensor)formmakestheequationthesamefortheothercoordinatesystems.Knowing
tensorsmakesthisprocesseasier

Sincewewilldealwiththeequationsmostlyinexpandedforminaparticularcoordinatesystemintheremaining
sectionsofthecourse,thetensorformisintroducedsothatyoucanunderstandcontemporaryliteratureandthesoftware
modelsinthearea.WecantaketherelationsIwriteontheboardforgranted.Thissectionhasalittlemoredetailforthose
drivenbycuriosity.

Thestresstensorwasestablishedinindicalnotationpreviouslyas

Whilethisisorganizedasa3x3matrix,notall3x3matricesaresecondordertensors.
Inthefollowingweareinterestedinseveraldifferentproductsbetweentensorsandvectors.

Westartwiththeunittensor

Inmatrixterminology,thisistheidentitymatrix.Inthecompositionabove,thesecondmatrixindicatestheunittensoris
composedofthecolumnofthethreeunitvectors .Inremainingdiscussionwewillnotplacetheaccentoverthe

unitvectorsorthedoublebaroverthetensors(forconvenienceonly).Alsotheunitvectorsarewrittenascolumnvectors(or
rowvectorsasappropriate)

DyadicProductbetweentwovectors
Foralongtimeweonlyconsideredthattwovectorscouldonlybemultipliedasadotproducttoyieldascalar,oravector
producttoyieldavector.Havingbeenintroducedtoatensor,thethirdwaytomultiplythetwovectorsistoobtainatensor
adyadicproduct.
DefiningtwovectorsU,V(alsoshownascolumnvectors)

Thedyadicproductiswrittenas:

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UV=

NoteUVisatensorrepresentation.Onewaytoremembertheproductistonoticethatthefirstvectorprovidesthesamerow
elementsandthesecondvectorthesamecolumnelements.
Inasimilarfashiontheunitdyadscanbedefinedas:

Theunitdyadsallowustoformallyexpressatensorintermsofitscomponents:forexample

Tensoraddition:

ScalarMultiplyingaTensor

ScalarProductortheDoubleDotProduct
Thismultiplicationbetweentwotensorsresultsinascalar

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Anotherexample:

Thesumofthediagonalelementsofthetensoris

TensorProduct(thesingledotproduct)oftwoTensors
Thisoperationmultipliestwotensorsandtheresultisatensor

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VectorProduct(orDotProduct)ofaTensorwithavector
Thisisadotproductbetweenatensorandavectorandresultsinavector

Notethisislikeamatrixmultiplication,exceptthattheelementsarecomponentsofthevector

UsefulIdentities

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DifferentialOperations

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