Solutions of some simple boundary value problems within the context of a new class of elastic materials

Some simple boundary value problems are studied, for a new class of elastic materials, wherein deformations are expressed as non-linear functions of the stresses. Problems involving ‘homogeneous’ stress distributions and one-dimensional stress distributions are considered. For such problems, deformations are calculated corresponding to the assumed stress distributions. In some of the situations, it is found that non-unique solutions are possible. Interestingly, non-monotonic response of the deformation is possible corresponding to monotonic increase in loading. For a subclass of models, the strain–stress relationship leads to a pronounced strain-gradient concentration domain in the body in that the strains increase tremendously with the stress for small range of the stress (or put differently, the gradient of the strain with respect to the stress is very large in a narrow domain), and they remain practically constant as the stress increases further. Most importantly, we find that for a large subclass of the models considered, the strain remains bounded as the stresses become arbitrarily large, an impossibility in the case of the classical linearized elastic model. This last result has relevance to important problems in which singularities in stresses develop, such as fracture mechanics and other problems involving the application of concentrated loads.