Assignment title: Information
Simple shear is not so simple
Michel Destradeab, Jerry G. Murphyc, Giuseppe Saccomandid,
aSchool of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics,
National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland;
b School of Electrical, Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering,
University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland;
cDepartment of Mechanical Engineering,
Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland;
dDipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale,
Universit`a degli Studi di Perugia, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Abstract
For homogeneous, isotropic, nonlinearly elastic materials, the form of the homogeneous deformation consistent with the application of a Cauchy shear stress is
derived here for both compressible and incompressible materials. It is shown that
this deformation is not simple shear, in contrast to the situation in linear elasticity. Instead, it consists of a triaxial stretch superposed on a classical simple shear
deformation, for which the amount of shear cannot be greater than 1. In other
words, the faces of a cubic block cannot be slanted by an angle greater than 45◦
by the application of a pure shear stress alone. The results are illustrated for those
materials for which the strain energy function does not depend on the principal
second invariant of strain. For the case of a block deformed into a parallelepiped,
the tractions on the inclined faces necessary to maintain the derived deformation
are calculated.
Keywords: shear stress; simple shear; triaxial stretch.
1
arXiv:1302.2411v1 [cond-mat.soft] 11 Feb 20131 Introduction
Batra [1] showed that in the framework of isotropic nonlinear elasticity a simple tensile
load produces a simple extension deformation if the empirical inequalities hold. Here we
consider the related problem: if we apply a shear stress to a nonlinearly elastic block,
what deformation is produced? To formulate this question mathematically, we start by
letting x(X) denote the current position of a particle which was located at X in the reference configuration. Denote the unit vectors associated with a fixed Cartesian coordinate
system in the reference configuration by (E1; E2; E3) and in the current configuration
by (e1; e2; e3). Consider now a rectangular block of a non-linearly elastic material, with
edges aligned with E1, E2, and E3. Batra [1] was interested in obtaining deformations
x(X) associated with a Cauchy stress tensor of the form
σ = T(e1 ⊗ e1); (1.1)
where T is a constant, whereas here the concern is determining the deformations associated with a Cauchy stress of the form
σ = S(e1 ⊗ e2 + e2 ⊗ e1); (1.2)
where S is a constant (in order to ensure that the equations of equilibrium are satisfied).
We call (1.2) a uniform shear stress [2, 3], although it is also denoted \pure shear" in the
literature, e.g. [4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
The problem being considered is therefore the stress formulation of the problem of
shear (the \most illuminating homogeneous static deformation" according to Truesdell
[9]). The approach adopted here is the inverse of the classical strain formulation of
the same problem, first proposed by Rivlin [10]. In that approach, the relative parallel
motion of two opposite faces of a block is considered. Motivated by linear elasticity and
his own physical insight, Rivlin proposed that the resulting deformation of the block can
be described by
x = X + KY; y = Y; z = Z; (1.3)
where (X; Y; Z) and (x; y; z) are the Cartesian coordinates of a typical particle before
and after deformation, respectively, and K is the amount of shear. Using his now classical constitutive theory, Rivlin was able to calculate the stress distribution necessary
to support this deformation. This strain formulation of the simple shear problem has
since received much attention in the literature with excellent summaries to be found, for
example, in Atkin and Fox [6] and Ogden [11].
Note that in the linear theory, these two formulations are equivalent since an infinitesimal shear stress of the form (1.2) leads to an infinitesimal deformation of the form
(1.3) and vice versa. As noted by Rivlin [10], this equivalence does not carry over to the
framework of finite elasticity. We address this problem here.
We recall that the dead-load traction boundary condition in finite elasticity is the
prescription of the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress vector on the boundary of the undeformed
body. Here we focus on the application of a Cauchy shear stress, because it gives a one-toone mapping between a pair and a stress vector on a boundary.
By contrast, the assignment of a Piola-Kirchhoff traction leads to a many-to-one mapping
and has thus an ambiguous physical meaning [12].
22 Invertibility of the stress-strain relation
Let B denote the left Cauchy-Green strain tensor. A homogeneous, isotropic, hyperelastic
material possesses a strain-energy density which may be written as W = W(I1; I2; I3),
where I1; I2; I3 are the three principal invariants of B, given by
I1 = tr B; I2 = 1 2 I1 2 − tr(B2) ; I3 = det B: (2.1)
The general representation formula for the Cauchy stress tensor σ is then
σ = β0I + β1B + β−1B−1; (2.2)
where
β0 = 2
I1=2
3 I2@W @I2 + I3@W @I3 ; β1 = I3 12 =2 @W @I1 ; β−1 = −2I3 1=2@W @I2 : (2.3)
It is assumed that the so-called empirical inequalities hold,
β0 ≤ 0; β1 > 0; β−1 ≤ 0: (2.4)
If W is independent of I2, then β−1 = 0 and it follows from (2.2) that
B = −β0
β1I + β 11σ: (2.5)
Assume now that β−1 < 0. Then Johnson and Hoger [13] have shown that
B = 0I + 1σ + 2σ2; (2.6)
where
0 =
1 ∆
β0 2 − 2β−1β1 + I2β1 2 + I3β β 0− β1 1 2 + I1β− 2 1 + I I2 3β0β−1 ;
1 = −
1 ∆
2β0 + I3ββ − 1 21 + I I2 3β−1 ;
2 =
1 ∆
;
∆ = I1β1 2 − I3 β1 3
β−1 +
1 I3
β− 2 1 − I2
I3
β1β−1: (2.7)
These coefficients are all positive by virtue of the empirical inequalities (2.4),
0 > 0; 1 > 0; 2 > 0: (2.8)
For incompressible materials, only isochoric deformations are admissible and I3 = 1
at all times. Then W = W(I1; I2) only, and the representation formula is given by
σ = −pI + β1B + β−1B−1; (2.9)
3where p is the indeterminate Lagrange multiplier introduced by the constraint of incompressibility and
β1 = 2@W
@I1 ; β−1 = −2@W @I2 : (2.10)
The empirical inequalities in this case have the form
β1 > 0; β−1 ≤ 0: (2.11)
The inverse form of this relation is given by (2.5), (2.6) with β0 replaced by −p.
This invertibility of the classical stress-strain relation for both compressible and incompressible materials plays a central role in what follows.
3 Determination of the strain
The proof that a uni-axial tension load produces an equi-biaxial contraction in isotropic
finite elasticity is due to Batra [1]. An alternative proof is given here, based on the
invertibility relations of the last section. First note that a stress distribution of the form
(1.1), i.e.
σ =
24
T 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
35
; (3.1)
leads to the equi-axial deformation
B = 2 4B0 0 0 11 B0 0 33 B0 333 5 ; (3.2)
as expected, where, if β−1 < 0,
B11 = 0 + 1T + 2T 2; B33 = 0; (3.3)
and, if β−1 = 0,
B11 = (T − β0) =β1; B33 = −β0=β1: (3.4)
In both cases, B11 − B33 is of the same sign as T, owing to (2.8) and (2.11), which
shows that universally, a uni-axial tension (compression) leads to a lateral contraction
(expansion).
Following the same line of reasoning, we see that a Cauchy shear stress distribution
of the form (1.2), i.e.
σ =
24
0 S 0
S 0 0
0 0 0
35
; (3.5)
leads to a left Cauchy-Green strain tensor of the form
B = 2 4B B0 0 11 12 B B12 11 B0 0 333 5 ; (3.6)
4where
B11 = 0 + 2S2; B12 = 1S; B33 = 0: (3.7)
if β−1 < 0 and, if β−1 = 0,
B11 = B33 = −β0=β1; B12 = S=β1: (3.8)
This is not compatible with the left Cauchy-Green strain tensor associated with the
simple shear deformation (1.3) which has the form
B = 2 41 + K 0 0 1 K2 K 1 0 03 5 : (3.9)
The strain (3.7) combines triaxial stretch with simple shear, a type of deformation
which has been investigated previously by Payne and Scott [14], Varga [15], Wineman
and Gandhi [16], Rajagopal and Wineman [17], and Destrade and Ogden [18]. To make
this connection clear, we first note that B11 > 0, B11 2 − B12 2 > 0, B33 > 0, because the
strain tensor is positive definite. It follows that (3.6) can be written as
B =
264
λ2
2 λ2 2p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 0
λ2
2p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 λ2 2 0
0 0 λ2
3
375
; (3.10)
where λ1 = p(B11 2 − B12 2 )=B11, λ2 = pB11, and λ3 = pB33. (Here, and henceforth, we
assumed that S > 0. In the case S < 0, a minus sign must be inserted in front of the
square root.) A simple check shows that B = F F T where the deformation gradient F
can be decomposed as
F =
264
1 p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
375
24
λ1 0 0
0 λ2 0
0 0 λ3
35
; (3.11)
corresponding to a triaxial extension with principal stretch ratios λ1, λ2 > λ1, λ3, followed
by a simple shear with amount of shear p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2. Here we notice a surprising universal
result: any isotropic, hyperelastic material cannot be shared by an amount of shear
greater than 1, independently of the magnitude of the shear stress; this limit corresponds
to a maximum shear angle of tan−1(1) = 45◦.
The corresponding deformation is given by
x = λ1X + λ2q1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 Y; y = λ2Y; z = λ3Z; (3.12)
for compressible materials. The corresponding incompressible form is given by
x = λ1X + λ2q1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 Y; y = λ2Y; z = λ− 1 1λ− 2 1Z: (3.13)
The principal stretches of the deformation (3.12), µ1; µ2 and µ3 (say) can be computed
from the general expressions found in [17, 18]. Here they are connected to the λ’s through
λ2
1 =
µ2 1 + µ2 2
2µ1µ2
; λ2 2 = µ1µ2; µ3 = λ3: (3.14)
5For infinitesimal strains, µi = 1 + i, say, and the amount of shear K = p1 − λ2 1λ2 2
becomes K ’ (1 + 2)1=2. At the lowest order in K (order 1), we find that λ1 ’ 1,
λ2 ’ 1, λ2K ’ K, λ3 ’ 1 and thus, that the deformations (3.12) and (3.13) coincide
with the small strain simple shear deformation (1.3).
Finally, we note that since we have an expression for the deformation gradient F in
(3.11), it is a simple matter to compute the components of the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress
tensor P = (det F ) T F −1T corresponding to the shear stress (1.2). We find that
P = 2 4λ2λ 0 0 0 0 3S −λ2λ3p λ11λ− 3Sλ2 1λ− 2 2 S 0 03 5 : (3.15)
4 Special materials
A wide class of isotropic materials is modeled by a strain-energy density W which does
not depend on I2, the second principal invariant of strain. This leads to β−1 = 0 and the
stress-strain inversion is given by (2.5).
It follows that B33 = B11 in (3.6) and, further, that λ2 = λ3 in (3.11). In other words,
for materials such that @W=@I2 = 0, a shear stress (1.2) produces a simple tension in
the shear direction (with tensile extension λ1 and lateral contraction λ2), followed by a
simple shear of amount p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2, yielding a deformation of the form
x = λ1X + λ2q1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2 Y; y = λ2Y; z = λ2Z: (4.1)
This is a two-parameter deformation, entirely determined by λ1 and λ2. These quantities
are related to the shear stress and the material response functions as follows,
λ1 = sS2 β0 − β1β0 2; λ2 = s−β β0 1; (4.2)
where λ2 is real by the empirical inequalities.
In the incompressible case (the so-called generalized neo-Hookean materials), W =
W(I1) only, where I1 is the first principal invariant. Then we have a one-parameter
deformation,
x = λ1X + s1 − λ1λ3 1 Y; y = λ− 1 1=2Y; z = λ− 1 1=2Z; (4.3)
with
F =
264
1 p1 − λ3 1 0
0 1 0
0 0 1
375
24
λ1 0 0
0 λ−1=2
1 0
0 0 λ−1=2
1
35
; (4.4)
and
λ1 = sp2 2pW − S 0 2: (4.5)
6Here, p is the Lagrange multiplier introduced by the constraint of incompressibility. Note
that the strain-stress relation is now
B = p
2W 0
I + 1
2W 0
σ: (4.6)
This yields, in particular, that p = 2W 0B33, which is positive by the empirical inequalities
and the positive definitiveness of B.
Notice also from (4.3) that, in order for the deformation to be well-defined, 0 < λ1 < 1.
Therefore for all generalized neo-Hookean materials, a shear stress leads to a simple
shear combined with a uni-axial compression in the direction of shear (and thus, a biaxial expansion in the transverse plane). In other words, the gliding plane Y =const. is
\lifted" by the application of the shear stress (1.2), as can be seen in Fig. 1 (and the
plane of shear Z = const. is pushed \outwards".
Figure 1: Cross-section of a unit block made of any generalized neo-Hookean material,
subjected to an increasing shear stress of the form S(e1 ⊗ e2 + e2 ⊗ e1), where the ei are
aligned with the coordinate axes. The resulting deformation is a simple shear combined
with a uni-axial compression in the direction of shear (here, successively of 0%, 20%, and
40% along e1). The face initially at X = 0 cannot be inclined beyond the diagonal dotted
line at 45◦.
5 Normal tractions
Somewhat counterintuitively in view of the assumed stress distribution (1.2), if one deforms a cuboid (with faces at X = ±A, Y = ±B, Z = ±C, say) into a parallelepiped,
as is usual when visualising simple shear, normal as well as shear tractions have to be
applied to the inclined faces in order to maintain the homogenous deformation (3.12).
7It follows easily from (3.12) that the unit normal, n, in the current configuration to
the face originally at X = A is given by
n = (n1; n2;0) = p2 −1λ2 1λ− 2 2 1; −q1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2;0 : (5.1)
Let s denote the tangent vector defined by
s = (−n2; n1;0) : (5.2)
The normal and shear tractions on the inclined face, originally at X = A in the undeformed configuration, that are therefore necessary to maintain the deformation (3.12) are
given respectively by
n = n · σn = 2Sn1n2 = −2S
p1 − λ2 1λ− 2 2
2 − λ2
1λ− 2 2 ;
s = s · σn = S n2 1 − n2 2 = S λ2 1λ− 2 2
2 − λ2
1λ− 2 2: (5.3)
It follows immediately from these that
− 2S < n ≤ 0; 0 ≤ s < S; (5.4)
and so the necessary normal traction on the slanted face is always compressive.
For generalised neo-Hookean materials, λ2 = λ− 1 1=2, and these tractions therefore
simplify to the following:
n ^ ≡ n=S = −2
p1 − λ3 1
2 − λ3
1
; s ^ ≡ s=S = λ3 1
2 − λ3
1
: (5.5)
These forms are independent of the specific form of the strain-energy function and are
plotted in Figure 2. Note, in particular, the rapid decay of the normal traction once
loading begins. This suggests that a normal compressive traction of the same order as
the shear stress has to applied to maintain homogeneity of the deformation once shear
loading begins. Application of the shear traction is not as important.
There are two important geometrical idealisations where these tractions on the inclined faces can be ignored. The first idealisation is that of a thin block, for which
B A. Here applying a constant shear stress to the faces Y = ±B generates the
deformation (3.12). The second important idealisation is that of a half-space, with the
semi-infinite dimension in the Y direction. Application of a constant shear stress then
at Y = 0 (and the generation of an equilibriating shear stress at infinity) again yields
(3.12).
Finally we conclude by recalling that Lurie [4] shows that for the shear stress (1.2),
the two in-plane principal stresses are aligned with the diagonals X ± Y = const. and
have both magnitude S=2.
8‐1
‐0.8
‐0.6
‐0.4
‐0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
normalised
trac.on
stretch
normal
shear
Figure 2: Plots of the normal and shear components of the traction on slanted face versus
λ1.
6 Concluding Remarks
Although all textbooks on nonlinear elasticity explain that a simple shear cannot be
produced by shear forces alone, very few allude to what deformation is produced by a
pure shear stress. In fact, we found only three such mentions, two correct: \In an isotropic
non-linear elastic medium the state of pure shear is not accompanied by pure shear strain"
[4] and \Pure shear is a significantly more complicated deformation compared with simple
shear" [5] and one incorrect: \A state of uniform shear stress leads to a uniform (or simple)
shear deformation" [3]. In this note we derived the homogeneous deformation consistent
with the application of a shear stress.
We wish to emphasize that this is not a purely academic problem. Indeed, in a
laboratory it is the applied force that is easily controlled, not the deformation. The
displacement in simple shear may be controlled only in special devices and in special
situations. As Beatty [19] put it: \In practice, [..] it is not likely that a global simple
shear deformation may be produced in any real material". Similarly, Brown explains in
his handbook Physical Testing of Rubber [20] that \With single and double sandwich
construction, there is a tendency for the supporting plates to move out of parallel under
load", a phenomenon which clearly corrupts the concept of simple shear. As a remedy, the
British Standard ISO 1827:2007 [21] advocates the use of quadruple shear test devices.
In those tests, however, the distance between the plates is allowed to vary freely, and
again, the simple shear deformation is modified.
Therefore, the determination of the deformation field corresponding to a simple shearing stress field, in the framework of isotropic nonlinear elasticity, should be useful in the
designing experimental protocols for real materials. We have shown that a pure shearing
stress field produces a deformation field which is not the classical simple shear deformation, but a simple shear deformation superimposed upon a triaxial stretch, and that
9the corresponding angle of shear cannot be greater than 45◦. For the special case of incompressible generalized neo-Hookean materials, a one-parameter isochoric deformation
is obtained. For general isotropic materials the corresponding deformation field is more
complex and even more complex for anisotropic materials (see, for example, [22, 23]).
Acknowledgements
The motivation for this paper originates from discussions at a conference held in honour
of K.R. Rajagopal in November 2010, and we are most grateful to Texas A&M University
for its generous support. MD also acknowledge support from the NUI Galway Millenium
Fund to attend that conference.
We thank Alain Goriely, Michael Hayes, Cornelius Horgan, and the referees for their
positive comments on an earlier version of the paper. In particular, we are most grateful
to Alain Goriely for bringing to our attention a little-known (or at least, little-cited)
paper by Moon and Truesdell [24], which has a large overlap with this one. Specifically,
the result about a maximum amount of shear in shear stress can be found there, and we
cannot thus claim novelty here; our paper confirms and complements the work of Moon
and Truesdell, especially in the light of subsequent developments such as the triaxial
strech and shear decomposition [16, 17].
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