Theory of elastic dielectrics revisited (Q866908)

The author develops a variational principle for electromagnetic elastic bodies. The considered system involves two entities: the dielectric material and the device producing the static electric field bound to act on the dielectric. After clearly defining the thermodynamical parameters of the system, minimization of the total energy leads to various field equations and jump conditions governing the behavior of the system. The formalism includes the use of magnetic vector potential. The expressions obtained for different quantities of interest, for example for stresses in the body, are compared to those existing in the literature, and some new relations, pertinent to the present model, are pointed out.