SIMPLE TRANSFORMATIONS BY PROPER CONTRACTED FORMS - CAN WE CHANGE THE USUAL PRACTICE

In elasticity theory involving anisotropic materials, the rotational transformation of stress, strain and constitutive relations is of major importance. Also, when these problems are represented in matrix form there are several different contracted notations used to express the stress and strain tensors as column matrices. In general, the contracted notations used lead to unnecessary complications and may lead to errors. In the paper, contracted forms which yield orthonormal rotational transformations are advocated. These transformations are illustrated for stress, strain, modulus and compliance and are also applicable for strength transformation. The gains to be made are procedural and mathematically simple, leading to easier understanding.