On the formulation of mechanical balance laws for structured continua (Q1185479)

Let each material point of a body be a superposition of gross (macro) and fine (micro) structures. The presence of a scale \(\varepsilon\) for the fine structure appears when the body is ``observed'' through a microscope of magnification \(1+\varepsilon\). Hence a material point of the fine structure, that occupies \(x\) in the gross structure, is seen -- under microscope -- at \(x+\varepsilon d(x)\), where \(d(\cdot)\) is a field of directors. The authors introduce two systems of forces: for the gross and fine structures. Defining a total power expanded on a control volume of the body together with an actual power, the invariance of the latter under observer changes leads to four balance laws of macroforce, microforce, macromomentum and micromomentum. Such balance laws were already known in the literature due to papers of \textit{J. L. Ericksen} [Trans. Soc. Rheology 5, 23--34 (1961; \url{doi:doi.org/10.1122/1.548883})] and \textit{R. A. Toupin} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 17, 85--112 (1964; Zbl 0131.22001)]. Next, the second law in terms of a global dissipation inequality postulated in the last section, and its localization performed in the standard manner allow the authors to deduce constitutive relations for oriented hyperelastic materials and nondissipative liquid crystals.