Anisotropic elasticity (Q1635534)

This book derives from as the class notes of the course `Anisotropic structures: theory and design' that the author held at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. It is addressed to graduate students of the courses in theoretical mechanics and engineering, as well as to doctoral students and researchers in structural mechanics. The book contains six chapters, namely, Chapter 1: Basic concepts on anisotropy; Chapter 2: General anisotropic elasticity; Chapter 3: Plane anisotropic elasticity; Chapter 4: The polar formalism; Chapter 5: Anisotropic laminates; Chapter 6: Design problems and methods of anisotropic structures. At the end of each chapter, some examples are given and also quite a good number of references. The book makes use of modern mathematical tools; matrix and tensorial algebra are widely used throughout the text, and the reader is considered to be familiar with standard tensor algebra. The scope of the topic is very wide and, as the author admits, the treatment is necessarily incomplete. The book is, in any case, a welcome addition to the field of anisotropic elasticity. The reviewer would like to suggest the following: 1.\ to include a list of symbols at the beginning of each chapter; 2.\ to number the references; 3.\ to provide an author index; 4.\ to provide a subject index. It should be easier for a reader to directly go to the page of his/her interest and also to know which paper is cited where. A sound knowledge of tensor algebra and matrix theory are prerequisites for reading.