Variational theory for spatial rods

David Steigmann (1) , Gary M. Faulkner (2)

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering [Berkeley]
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering

The simplest theory of spatial rods is presented in a variational setting and certain necessary conditions for minimizers of the potential energy are derived. These include the Weierstrass and Legendre inequalities, which require that the vector describing curvature and twist belong to a domain of convexity of the strain energy function.

Domaines: Mécanique [physics.med-ph]

David Steigmann, Gary M. Faulkner. Variational theory for spatial rods. Journal of Elasticity, 1993, 33 (1), pp.1-26. ⟨hal-00782186⟩