Variational methods for elastic crystals (Q1087355)

The stability properties of the solutions of the dead loading traction boundary value problem for thermoelastic crystals are analyzed by the different methods of the calculus of variations. The deformations with discontinuous gradients are investigated in detail. It is proved that, if a deformation is stable then the body forces and surface tractions must vanish identically. For the relative minimizers of the total energy is obtained a balance law similar to the balance of angular momenta, where the deformation is replaced by its gradient. It is shown that the N-phase relative minimizer with zero total work is a solution of a first-order linear system of partial differential equations with coefficients depending exclusively on the body force. The author gives an example of such choice of body forces with zero traction on the boundary when the solution cannot be relative minimizers unless the total work is strictly positive.