APL 701 Continuum Mechanics

Department of Applied Mechanics

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Arjun Sharma

Problem Set 5
Due Date: September 17, 2019
Refer to chapter 7 in the textbook for the following problems

(1) (5 points) Consider the tetrhedron OABC formed by vectors x1 , x2 and x3 of lengths l1 , l2 and l3 , respec-
tively. The vectors x1 , x2 and x3 are along b e1 , b
e2 and b
e3 axes, respectively (see figure 1 below).
(a) Show that the volume of the tetrahedron OABC is V = l1 l62 l3 which can also be expressed as the triple
product, V = 61 x1 · (x2 × x3 ). If the vector x (along OC 0 ) has the same component l3 along b e3 as x3 , show
0
that the volume of tetrahedron OABC is the same as OABC.
(b) Consider a material volume element in the shape of a tetrahedron. Suppose that the densities of the
material volume element before and after the deformation are ρ0 and ρ, respectively. Show that ρρ0 = det(F )
where F is the deformation gradient tensor.

Figure 1:

(2) (5 points) Derive the conservation law for linear momentum in differential form,

Dvj ∂σij
ρ = + ρbj
Dt ∂xi

Here, vj , bj and σij are the components of velocity vector, volumetric body force per unit mass and the
D
stress tensor, respectively. ρ denotes density and Dt denotes the material derivative.