Spectral decomposition of the compliance fourth-rank tensor for orthotropic materials (Q1574199)

The authors present at first a critical overview concerning the literature on the decomposition of compliance tensor in anisotropic, especially in orthotropic elasticity theory. Then they summarize the results on the spectral decomposition showing that the elastic properties of an orthotropic medium can be completely characterized by 9 parameters, namely 6 eigenvalues of compliance tensor and 3 eigenangles. In addition, the relations between these parameters and the elastic moduli are established, and bounds on Poisson ratio are given. The discussion includes also transversely isotropic and isotropic media. Especially, the authors show that an orthotropic body, under a specific coupling of its elastic constants, may exhibit elastic characteristics similar to those of an isotropic body. Illustrative figures complement the presentation.