Quasiconvexity at the boundary, positivity of the second variation and elastic stability (Q801707)

In this paper the relations connecting positivity of the second variation and elastic stability are studied in penetrating way. A crucial result shows that for nonlinear elasticity in n\(>1\) space dimensions positivity of the second variation does not imply a strong local minimum even under suitable convexity assumptions on the stored-energy function. A new necessary condition for a minimum, called by the author ''quasiconvexity at the boundary'', and valid for mixed problems of the calculus of variations is also given. This represents a contribution interesting in itself. In the last part of this paper it is shown that for nonlinear elasticity any proper local minimum of the energy in \(W^{1,1}\) lies in a potential well and thus is Lyapunov stable when the total energy is nonincreasing.