The incompressible limit in nonlinear elasticity (Q1106676)

The incompressible limit in nonlinear elasticity is shown to fall under the theory of singular limits of quasilinear symmetric hyperbolic systems developed by \textit{S. Klainerman} and \textit{A. Majda} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 34, 481-524 (1981; Zbl 0476.76068)]. Specifically, initial-value problems for a family of hyperelastic materials with stored energy functions \[ W(\frac{\partial x}{\partial X})=W_{\infty}(\frac{\partial x}{\partial X})+\lambda^ 2w(\det \frac{\partial x}{\partial X}) \] are considered, where X and x are reference and deformed coordinates, respectively. Under the assumption that the elasticity tensor \[ A^{ij}_{kl}\equiv \frac{\partial^ 2W_{\infty}}{\partial (\partial x^ i/\partial X^ k)\partial (\partial x^ j/\partial X^ l)} \] is positive definite near the identity matrix and that \(w''(1)>0\), the following results are proven for appropriate initial data: i) existence of solutions of the corresponding evolution equations on a time interval independent of \(\lambda\) as \(\lambda\) \(\to \infty\), and ii) convergence as \(\lambda\) \(\to \infty\) of the solutions to a solution of the incompressible elastodynamics equations.