Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The first constitutive equation (constitutive law) was developed by Robert Hooke and is known as Hooke's law.It deals with the case of linear elastic materials.Following this discovery, this type of equation, often called a "stress-strain relation" in this example, but also called a "constitutive assumption" or an "equation of state" was commonly used.
The Navier–Stokes equations are based on the assumption that the fluid, at the scale of interest, is a continuum – a continuous substance rather than discrete particles. Another necessary assumption is that all the fields of interest including pressure, flow velocity, density, and temperature are at least weakly differentiable.
The constitutive relation is expressed as a linear first-order differential equation: = + ˙ This model represents a solid undergoing reversible, viscoelastic strain. Upon application of a constant stress, the material deforms at a decreasing rate, asymptotically approaching the steady-state strain.
This constitutive equation is also called the Newton law of viscosity. The total stress tensor σ {\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {\sigma }}} can always be decomposed as the sum of the isotropic stress tensor and the deviatoric stress tensor ( σ ′ {\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {\sigma }}'} ):
The basic stress analysis problem can be formulated by Euler's equations of motion for continuous bodies (which are consequences of Newton's laws for conservation of linear momentum and angular momentum) and the Euler-Cauchy stress principle, together with the appropriate constitutive equations. These laws yield a system of partial differential ...
This ordinary differential equation is what is obtained when the Navier–Stokes equations are written and the flow assumptions applied (additionally, the pressure gradient is solved for). The nonlinear term makes this a very difficult problem to solve analytically (a lengthy implicit solution may be found which involves elliptic integrals and ...
The concept of a continuum underlies the mathematical framework for studying large-scale forces and deformations in materials. Although materials are composed of discrete atoms and molecules, separated by empty space or microscopic cracks and crystallographic defects, physical phenomena can often be modeled by considering a substance distributed throughout some region of space.
Analytical or closed-form solutions to the differential equations can be obtained when the geometry, constitutive relations, and boundary conditions are simple enough. Otherwise one must generally resort to numerical approximations such as the finite element method , the finite difference method , and the boundary element method .