Hyperelastic deformations of smallest total energy (Q1041144)

The authors investigate the deformations of the set \(\mathbb{X}\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) onto \(\mathbb{Y}\subset \mathbb{R}^n\). The general law of hyperelasticity asserts the existence of an energy integral \(\mathcal{E}_\mathbb{X}[h]=\int_\mathbb{X}E(x,h,Dh)\,dx\) such that the elastic deformation have the smallest energy. The functional \(E\) is assumed to be conformally coerced and polyconvex. Some additional regularity conditions are also imposed. The existence and global inertibility of the minimizers are established. The free Lagrangians play the key role in obtaining an extremal deformation \(h:\mathbb{X}\rightarrow \mathbb{Y}\). The authors have found the free Lagrangians for the total harmonic energy and a pair of annuli in the plane.