The extension of Beltrami's ellipsoid to anisotropic bodies (Q1804519)

This paper uses the very powerful tool of spectral decomposition for the compliance, stiffness, and failure tensors in elementary fourth-rank tensors that reflect the symmetry of an orthotropic body (a transversely isotropic body represented by a fiber-reinforced composite). The characteristic values of a fourth-rank tensor may be calculated using a Cartesian frame defined by three idempotent tensors of the fourth-rank tensor. Based on these decompositions, energy-orthogonal stress states are established, the variation in form of the strain Beltrami ellipsoid for general orthotropic material is studied, and its difference from the corresponding ellipsoid for isotropic material is analysed.