A note on incremental equations for a new class of constitutive relations for elastic bodies

•Incremental equations are obtained for some new constitutive relations.•The propagation of small waves is studied for an infinite solid.•The influence of the initial time independent stress distribution is considered.

Some new classes of constitutive relations for elastic bodies have been proposed in the literature, wherein the stresses and strains are obtained from implicit constitutive relations. A special case of the above relations corresponds to a class of constitutive equations where the linearized strain tensor is given as a nonlinear function of the stresses. For such constitutive equations we consider the problem of decomposing the stresses into two parts: one corresponds to a time-independent solution of the boundary value problem, plus a small (in comparison with the above) time-dependent stress tensor. The effect of this initial time-independent stress in the propagation of a small wave motion is studied for an infinite medium.