The concept of objectivity in science means that qualitative and quantitative descriptions of physical phenomena remain unchanged independently of the point of view from which they are observed. All physical processes (e.g. material properties) must be invariant under changes of observers.

Euclidean tranformation

edit

Physical processes can be described by an observer denoted by  . In Euclidean three-dimensional space and time, an observer can measure relative positions of points in space and intervals of time.

Consider an event in Euclidean space characterized by the pairs   and   where   is a position vector and   is a scalar representing time. This pair is mapped to another one denoted by the   superscript. This mapping is done with the orthogonal time-dependent second order tensor   in a way such that the distance between the pairs is kept the same. Therefore one can write:

 


By introducing a vector   and a real number   denoting the time shift, the relationship between   and   can be expressed

 


The one-to-one mapping connection of the pair   with its corresponding pair   is referred to as an Euclidean transformation.

Displacement

edit

A physical quantity like displacement should be invariant relative to a change of observer. Consider one event recorded by two observers; for  , point   moves to position   whereas for  , the same point   moves to  . For  , the displacement is  . On the other hand, for  , one can write:

 

Any spatial vector field   that transforms such that:

 

is said to be objective, since  .

Velocity

edit

Because   is a rotation matrix,   where   is the identity matrix. Using this relation, the inverse of the Euclidean transformation can be written as:

 

The velocity can be obtained by differentiating the above expression:

 

By reorganizing the terms in the above equation, one can obtain:

 

where

 

is a skew tensor representing the spin of the reference frame of observer   relative to the reference frame of observer   (Holzapfel 2000). To simplify the mathematical notation, the arguments of functions will no longer be written.

From the above expression, one can conclude that velocity is not objective because of the presence of the extra terms   and  . Nevertheless, the velocity field can be made objective by constraining the change of observer to:

 

A time-independant rigid transformation such as:

 

respects this condition.

Acceleration

edit

The material time derivative of the spatial velocity   returns the spatial acceleration  . By differentiating the transformation law for the spatial velocity, one can obtain:

 

which can be rewritten as follow:

 

Just like the spatial velocity, the acceleration is not an objective quantity for a general change of observer (Holzapfel 2000). As for the spatial velocity, the acceleration can also be made objective by constraining the change of observer. One possibility would be to use the time-independent rigid transformation introduced above.

Objectivity for higher-order tensor fields

edit

A tensor field of order   and denoted   is objective if, during a general change of observer, the transformation is given by:

 

Example for a second order tensor

edit

Introducing a second order tensor  , one can find with the above definition of objectivity that:

 

Example for a scalar field

edit

The general condition of objectivity for a tensor of order   can be applied to a scalar field   for which  . The transformation would give:

 

Physically, this means that a scalar field is independent of the observer. Temperature is an example of scalar field and it is easy to understand that the temperature at a given point in a room and at a given time would have the same value for any observer.

Euclidean transformation of others kinematic quantities

edit

Deformation gradient

edit

The deformation gradient at point   and at its associated point   is a second order tensor given by:

 

where   represents the material coordinates. Using the chain rule, one can write:

 

From the above equation, one can conclude that the deformation gradient   is objective even though it transforms like a vector and not like a second order tensor. This is because one index of the tensor describes the material coordinates   which are independent of the observer (Holzapfel 2000).

Cauchy stress tensor

edit

The Cauchy traction vector   is related to the Cauchy stress tensor   at a given point   by the outward normal to the surface   such that:  . The Cauchy traction vector for another observer can be written simply  , where   and   are both objective vectors. Knowing that, one can write:

 

This demonstrates that the Cauchy stress tensor is objective.

Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensors

edit

The first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor   is defined as:

 

where  . It is also interesting to know that since   is a rotation matrix:

 

Using identities developed previously, one can write:

 

This proves that the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is objective. Similarly to the deformation gradient, this second order tensor transforms like a vector.

The second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor   is also objective and transforms like a scalar field. This can be easily demonstrated:

 

The three stress tensors studied here,  ,   and  , were all found to be objective therefore they are all suitable to describe the material response and develop constitutive laws because they are independent of the observer.

Objectivity rates

edit

It was shown above that even if a displacement field is objective, the velocity field is not. An objective vector   and an objective tensor   usually do not conserve their objectivity through time differentiation as demonstrated below:

 

Objectivity rates are modified material derivatives that allows to have an objective time differentiation. Before presenting some examples of ojectivity rates, certain other quantities need to be introduced. First, the spatial velocity gradient   is defined as:

 

where   is a symmetric tensor and   is a skew tensor called the spin tensor. For a given  ,   and   are uniquely defined. The Euclidean transformation for the spatial velocity gradient can be written as:

 

Substituting   in the above equation, one can obtain the two following relations:

 

Substituting the above result in the previously obtained equation for the rate of an objective vector one can write:

 

where the co-rotational rate of the objective vector field   is defined as:

 

and represents an objective quantity. Similarly, using the above equations, one can obtain the co-rotational rate of the objective second-order tensor field  :

 

This co-rotational rate second order tensor is defined as:

 

This objective rate is know as the Jaumann-Zaremba rate and it is often used in plasticity theory. Many different objective rates can be developed and the reader is referred to Holzapfel 2000 for more details.

Invariance of material response

edit

The principal of material invariance basically means that the material properties are independent of the observer. In this section it will be shown how this principle adds constraints to constitutive laws.

Cauchy-elastic materials

edit

A Cauchy-elastic material is one for which the stress field at a given time depends only on the current state of deformation (Holzapfel 2000). In other words, the material is independent of the deformation path and consequently, also independent of time.

Neglecting the effect of temperature and assuming the body to be homogeneous, a constitutive equation for the Cauchy stress tensor can be formulated based on the deformation gradient:

 

This constitutive equation for another arbitrary observer can be written  . Knowing that the Cauchy stress tensor   and the deformation gradient   are objective quantities, one can write:

 

The above is a condition that the constitutive law   has to respect to make sure that the response of the material will be independent of the observer. Similar conditions can be derived for constitutive laws relating the deformation gradient to the first or second Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensors.

Isotropic Cauchy-elastic materials

edit

Here, it will be assumed that the Cauchy stress tensor   is a function of the left Cauchy-Green tensor  . The constitutive equation may be written:

 

In order to find the restriction on   that will ensure that the principle of material frame-indifference, one can write:

 

A constitutive equation that respects the above condition is said to be isotropic (Holzapfel 2000). Physically, this characteristic means that the material has no preferential direction. Wood and most fibre-reinforced composites are generally stronger in the direction of their fibres therefore they are not isotropic materials (they are qualified as anisotropic).

See also

edit

References

edit
  • Cirak, F. (2007). Lecture Notes 5R14: Nonlinear Solid Mechanics. Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.
  • Gurtin, M.E. (1981). An Introduction to Continuum Mechanics. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0123097507.
  • Holzapfel, G.A. (2000). Nonlinear Solid Mechanics: A Continuum Approach for Engineering. Wiley. ISBN 978-0471823193.