Maximization of entropy for an elastic body free of surface traction (Q922022)

In Section 1 of this paper the following variational problem is formulated: find the fields \(\epsilon\), x, v in an appropriate admissible class to minimize \[ (1)\quad \int_{\Omega}-\eta (\epsilon,\nabla x,X)dX\text{ subject to } (2)\quad \int_{\Omega}(\epsilon +\rho v\cdot v)dX=\alpha, \] \[ (3)\quad \int_{\Omega}\rho vdX=0,\quad (4)\quad \int_{\Omega}\rho (x\wedge v)dX=b. \] Here \(x=x(X,t)\) is the deformed position of a mechanically and thermally isolated nonlinear elastic solid at time t, the reference configuration is given by X, and the body at \(t=0\) occupies the bounded domain \(\Omega\). \(\nabla x\) is the deformation gradient, v is the velocity field, \(\epsilon\) is the internal energy, \(\rho\) is the given mass density in the reference configuration, \(\alpha\) is a given constant, b is a given vector. The constitutive function \(\eta =\eta (\epsilon,\nabla x,X)\) for the entropy is known. The variational problem formulated by the Eqs. (1), (2), (3), (4) is treated in a space of functions \(\epsilon\), x, v depending only on X, the constraint \(\dot x(X,t)=v(X,t)\) being dropped. In Section 2 the properties of a class of thermoelastic materials are explored. These properties furnish the background to the author's assumptions to be imposed of \(\eta\). In Section 3 an existence theorem is proved for the minimizer of (1) subject to (2), (3), (4). In Section 4 the behaviour of the minimizer is analysed.