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Continuum Mechanics - Wikipedia

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with modeling materials as a continuous medium rather than discrete particles. It describes deformable bodies and uses tensors and differential equations to represent physical properties independently of any coordinate system. Major areas include solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, elasticity, plasticity, and rheology.

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30 views2 pages

Continuum Mechanics - Wikipedia

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with modeling materials as a continuous medium rather than discrete particles. It describes deformable bodies and uses tensors and differential equations to represent physical properties independently of any coordinate system. Major areas include solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, elasticity, plasticity, and rheology.

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darnit2703
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Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the deformation of and
transmission of forces through materials modeled as a continuous medium (also called a
continuum) rather than as discrete particles. The French mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy
was the first to formulate such models in the 19th century.

Continuum mechanics deals with deformable bodies, as opposed to rigid bodies. A continuum
model assumes that the substance of the object completely fills the space it occupies. While
ignoring the fact that matter is made of atoms, this provides a sufficiently accurate description
of matter on length scales much greater than that of inter-atomic distances. The concept of a
continuous medium allows for intuitive analysis of bulk matter by using differential equations
that describe the behavior of such matter according to physical laws, such as mass
conservation, momentum conservation, and energy conservation. Information about the specific
material is expressed in constitutive relationships.

Continuum mechanics treats the physical properties of solids and fluids independently of any
particular coordinate system in which they are observed. These properties are represented by
tensors, which are mathematical objects with the salient property of being independent of
coordinate systems. This permits definition of physical properties at any point in the continuum,
according to mathematically convenient continuous functions. The theories of elasticity,
plasticity and fluid mechanics are based on the concepts of continuum mechanics.

Concept of a continuum

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. A continuum is a body that can be continually sub-divided into
infinitesimal elements with local material properties defined at any particular point. Properties of
the bulk material can therefore be described by continuous functions, and their evolution can be
studied using the mathematics of calculus.

Apart from the assumption of continuity, two other independent assumptions are often
employed in the study of continuum mechanics. These are homogeneity (assumption of identical
properties at all locations) and isotropy (assumption of directionally invariant vector
properties).[1] If these auxiliary assumptions are not globally applicable, the material may be
segregated into sections where they are applicable in order to simplify the analysis. For more
complex cases, one or both of these assumptions can be dropped. In these cases,
computational methods are often used to solve the differential equations describing the
evolution of material properties.

Major areas

Elasticity
Describes materials that return to their rest shape after applied

Solid mechanics stresses are removed.

The study of the physics of continuous Plasticity


materials with a defined rest shape. Describes materials that
Continuum
permanently deform after a Rheology
mechanics
sufficient applied stress. The study of materials with
The study of the physics
Non-Newtonian fluid both solid and fluid
of continuous materials
Do not undergo strain rates characteristics.
Fluid mechanics
The study of the physics of continuous proportional to the applied shear

materials which deform when subjected stress.


to a force. Newtonian fluids undergo strain rates proportional to the
applied shear stress.

An additional area of continuum mechanics comprises elastomeric foams, which exhibit a


curious hyperbolic stress-strain relationship. The elastomer is a true continuum, but a
homogeneous distribution of voids gives it unusual properties.[2]

Formulation of models

Figure 1. Configuration of a
continuum body

Continuum mechanics models begin by assigning a region in three-dimensional Euclidean space


to the material body being modeled. The points within this region are called particles or
material points. Different configurations or states of the body correspond to different regions in
Euclidean space. The region corresponding to the body's configuration at time is labeled
.

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