On the response and symmetry of elastic and hyperelastic membrane points (Q761078)

A membrane is a 2-dimensional differentiable manifold \({\mathcal M}\) that can be embedded into the physical (Euclidean) space by smooth mappings called configurations of \({\mathcal M}\). The image of a typical configuration is a smooth surface. In the paper the authors present constitutive equations for elastic and hyperelastic membrane points. The central topic for the theory are conditions of material frame-indifference and material symmetry. The paper contains also the particular representations for the stress response functions and for the stored energy functions. There are many features which are present in the 2-dimensional model, but absent in the 3-dimensional (continuum) models. Three of these features are pointed out by the authors in the introduction. The most interesting discussion brings the investigation of the symmetry group of the response function and the symmetry group of the stored energy function of any hyperelastic membrane point. The authors show that the intersection of these two groups is always contained in the unimodular group, however each of them may be not. General results obtained are illustrated explicitely by examples of hyperelastic membrane points having specific types of symmetries.