A new proof that the number of linear elastic symmetries in two dimensions is four (Q2169082)

This paper presents an elementary proof, to show that there are exactly four symmetry classes of the elasticity tensor in two dimensions, oblique, rectangular, square, and isotropic. The proof is based on constraints imposed by reflections and rotations on the elasticity tensor This paper explores the symmetry classes of the two-dimensional elasticity tensor. And its aim is to present a new proof that the quantity of material symmetry classes in two-dimensional linear elasticity is exactly four. The focus of the present work is the use of elementary methods in order to facilitate the understanding of this subject. This paper is organized in four sections, section one is an introduction, section two is a review of classical theory of linear elasticity. In section three a discussion of symmetry classes presents the main result. Section four talks about conclusion remarks. In section two a review of stress and strain tensors, Hookes law and the relation between them is given in detail. Beside that, the relation between strain tensor and the displacement field is presented as well as the equation of motion. Section three discusses material symmetry classes in two-dimensional classical linear elasticity in full detail. The authors give a discussion of orthogonal transformations and reflections or rotations with diagrams and figures together with proven lemmas concerning those concepts. At the end the paper gives an appendix consisting of four parts, the first part is about the equations of motion in two-dimensional classical linear elasticity, and the second one about linearization of the components of the elasticity tensor under reflections and rotations. The third part discusses orthogonal transformations in two dimensions. The last part of the appendix concerns invariance of the elasticity tensor with respect to a specific reflection transformation. The paper ends with an acknowledgement and a declaration. Finally, a list of 14 references is included.