The scientists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, led by Jas. Bernoulli and Euler, created a coherent theory of the mechanics of strings and rods undergoing planar deformations. They introduced the basic con cepts of strain, both extensional and flexural, of contact force with its com ponents of tension and shear force, and of contact couple. They extended Newton's Law of Motion for a mass point to a law valid for any deformable body. Euler formulated its independent and much subtler complement, the Angular Momentum Principle. (Euler also gave effective variational characterizations of the governing equations. ) These scientists breathed life into the theory by proposing, formulating, and solving the problems of the suspension bridge, the catenary, the velaria, the elastica, and the small transverse vibrations of an elastic string. (The level of difficulty of some of these problems is such that even today their descriptions are sel dom vouchsafed to undergraduates. The realization that such profound and beautiful results could be deduced by mathematical reasoning from fundamental physical principles furnished a significant contribution to the intellectual climate of the Age of Reason. ) At first, those who solved these problems did not distinguish between linear and nonlinear equations, and so were not intimidated by the latter. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Cauchy had constructed the basic framework of three-dimensional continuum mechanics on the founda tions built by his eighteenth-century predecessors.
This second edition is an enlarged, completely updated, and extensively revised version of the authoritative first edition. It is devoted to the detailed study of illuminating specific problems of nonlinear elasticity, directed toward the scientist, engineer, and mathematician who wish to see careful treatments of precisely formulated problems. Special emphasis is placed on the role of nonlinear material response. The mathematical tools from nonlinear analysis are given self-contained presentations where they are needed. This book begins with chapters on (geometrically exact theories of) strings, rods, and shells, and on the applications of bifurcation theory and the calculus of variations to problems for these bodies. The book continues with chapters on tensors, three-dimensional continuum mechanics, three-dimensional elasticity, large-strain plasticity, general theories of rods and shells, and dynamical problems. Each chapter contains a wealth of interesting, challenging, and tractable exercises.
Reviews of the first edition:
``A scholarly work, it is uncompromising in its approach to model formulation, while achieving striking generality in the analysis of particular problems. It will undoubtedly become a standard research reference in elasticity but will be appreciated also by teachers of both solid mechanics and applied analysis for its clear derivation of equations and wealth of examples.'' --- J. M. Ball, (Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society), 1996.
``It is destined to become a standard reference in the field which belongs on the bookshelf of anyone working on the application of mathematics to continuum mechanics. For graduate students, it provides a fascinating introduction to an active field of mathematical research.'' --- M. Renardy, (SIAM Review), 1995.
``The monograph is a masterpiece for writing a modern theoretical treatise on a field of natural sciences. It is highly recommended to all scientists, engineers and mathematicians interested in a careful treatment of uncompromised nonlinear problems of elasticity, and it is a `must' for applied mathematicians working on such problems.'' --- L. v Wolfersdorf, (Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik), 1995.
