Mechanics of the inelastic behavior of materials - Part 1, theoretical underpinnings

This is the first of a two-part paper that is concerned with the modeling o f the behavior of inelastic materials from a continuum viewpoint, taking in to account changes in the elastic response and material symmetry that occur due to changes in the microstructure of the material. The first part discu sses some of the fundamental issues that must be addressed when modeling th e elastic response of these materials. In particular, we discuss in detail the far reaching effects of the notion of materials with families of elasti c response functions with corresponding natural configurations that was int roduced by Wineman and Rajagopal (1990, Archives of Mechanics, 42, 53-75) a nd Rajagopal and Wineman (1992, Int. J. Plasticity 8, 385-395) for the stud y of the inelastic behavior of polymeric materials and later generalized an d extended to the study of deformation twinning of polycrystals by Rajagopa l and Srinivasa (1995 Int. J. Plasticity 11(6), 653-678, 1997, 13(1/2) 1-35 ). For these materials, a definition of material symmetry is introduced, th at makes it possible to discuss the concept of "evolving material symmetry" . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.