Surface interaction potentials in elasticity (Q750198)

The first third of this paper is a review of differential geometry of surfaces in three-dimensions and some tensor analysis. The second part describes static or equilibrium states of elastic bodies bounded by surfaces. The interplay between the elastic constitutive equation of the material in the three-dimensional body within the two-dimensional surface and the elastic nature of the surface itself is studied. Examples of elastic surfaces whose response is governed by an elastic potential defined for the surface are given and these are generalized to an elastic potential for the surface via a variational equation. Conditions are stated under which a given surface potential will induce or match a body potential for the material enclosed by the surface; two characterizations (simple, regular) are proved for such potentials.