Introduction to Continuum Mechanics

Lecture Notes
Jagan M. Padbidri
School of Engineering Sciences

Mahindra Ecole
Centrale

Fall 2016

Chapter 1

Essential mathematics
1.1

Vector algebra and indicial notation

Quantities that can be completely described by a single number are referred to as scalars. These
quantities are independent of any direction and physically, the number that denotes them refers
to the magnitude of the quantity. Typical examples for scalars are mass, temperature, density
etc. To describe quantities that are associated with a specific direction along with a certain
magnitude, vectors are used. Usually, one associates vectors with the description of physical
quantities such as force, velocity, acceleration etc.
Since our motivation is to describe physical phenomena using vectors, we will confine ourselves to real valued vectors. The same holds true for scalars as well, i.e., we are interested in
real valued scalars. The set of all possible such scalars thus forms the real value space R. We
also define the set of all real valued vectors to form the space V. Both these spaces are linear
spaces and would need to satisfy certain conditions. Before listing the conditions, we will follow
that vectors will be designated using a bold face font or an underscore and unit vectors will be
identified with a carat () symbol. Real valued vectors belonging to the linear vector space V
will need to satisfy the following properties.
Additive commutativity:
For any arbitrarily chosen vectors u, v V,
u+v=v+u
Here, it is also implied that the resultant sum is a vector and is also a member of the vector
space V. Thus, the addition of vectors is an operation that takes two elements of the vectors
space V and maps the resultant, also, on to the space V, i.e., this operation can be described
as V V V. The represents a generic operation, not mathematical multiplication.
Additive associativity:
For any arbitrarily chosen vectors u, v, w V,
(u + v) + w = u + (v + w)
This is also a V V V operation.

Zero element:
There exists an element 0 V such that
u+0=u
Negative element:
For every u V, there exists a v V such that
u + v = 0 = v = -u
Identity scalar multiplication:
For every u V,
1u=u
Note that since 1 R , the above operation involves a scalar operating on a vector to result a
vector, i.e., an R V V operation.
Distributivity with vector addition:
For all R and u, v V,
(u + v) = u + v
Distributivity with scalar addition:
For all , R and u V,
( + ) u = u + u
Associativity with scalar multiplication:
For all , R and u V,
() u = ( u)
Scalar or Dot product
The dot product, or the scalar product of two vectors u, v V is given by
u v = |u| |v| cos()
where |u| and |v| are the magnitudes of the vectors u and v and is the angle between them.
Physically, the dot product of u and v represents the magnitude of v multipled with the
component of u in the direction of v. The converse is true as well. For the special case of
= 0, cos() = 1, we have
u u = |u||u| = |u|2

= |u| = u u

(1.1)

The dot product is an operation on two vectors that results in a scalar, i.e., it is a V V R
operation. Extending the possible values assumed by ,
( = /2)
u v = 0 = u v

We note the dot product also satisfies the following conditions

uv=vu

Commutativity

u (v + w) = u v + u w

Distributivity

(u v) = u (v)

Associativity with scalars

Figure 1.1: (a)Dot product of two vectors and (b) Cross product of two vectors.
Vector or Cross product
The cross product or the vector product of two vectors, u and v results in another vector. The
magnitude of the cross product is given by |u v | = |u| |v| sin() where |u| and |v| are the
magnitudes of the vectors u and v and is the angle between them. The result of the cross
product is a vector w which is perpendicular to both u and v. Physically, the cross product of
u and v represents the area of the parallellogram formed by u and v.
|w| = u v = |u| |v| sin()
The orientation of the vector w is governed by the right hand rule. The cross product of two
vectors satisfies the following conditions
u v = v u

Anti-Commutativity

u (v + w) = u v + u w

Distributivity

(u v) = u (v)

Associativity with scalars

Scalar triple product

The triple product or box product of three vectors u, v and w is given by
(u v)w = (v w)u = (w u)v
If the three vectors u, v and w form a right handed triad, then the triple product gives the
volume of the parallellopiped formed by them.

Figure 1.2: Schematic for scalar triple product.

Formation of a basis
The general rules for addition of vectors belonging to linear vector space can be extended to
3

an arbitrary set of vectors, i.e., the sum of an arbitrary set of vectors that belong to V should
result in a vector belonging to V. This can be written in a general form as follows. Given a set
of scalars (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) R and a set of vectors (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) V,
1 u1 + 2 u2 + + n un = v V
For the specific case of v = 0,
1 u1 + 2 u2 + + n un = 0
If for an arbitrary set of vectors (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) V, we can find a set of scalars (1 , 2 , . . . , n )
R, not all zero such that the above relation is satisfied, the set (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) is said to be linearly dependent.
On the other hand, if
1 u1 + 2 u2 + + n un = 0
implies that 1 = 2 = = n = 0, then the set (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) is said to be linearly independent.
Now, if we have a set of linearly independent vectors, (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) and we chose a set of
scalars, (1 , 2 , . . . , n ), not all 0, then
1 u1 + 2 u2 + + n un 6= 0
Rather,
1 u1 + 2 u2 + + n un = v V
There are two important conclusions that can be drawn from this. First, since (1 , 2 , . . . , n )
are chosen arbitrarily and v V, this means that for any v V, a set of (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) can be
obtained to satisfy the above relation. Second, for a given v, the set (1 , 2 , . . . , n ) is unique
since (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) is linearly independent. This means that any arbitrary v V can be
desribed using the linearly independent set (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ), i.e., (u1 , u2 , . . . , un ) acts as a basis
for the description of elements in V. Such a set of vectors are called the basis vectors for the
space V.
The most commonly used set of basis vectors are the ones used to describe vectors in
the cartesean coordinate system. While a vector space is not limited by dimension, since the
cartesean system describes 3D Euclidean space (R3 ), there are three basis vectors in this system.
We commonly refer to them as the x, y and z axes. Since these are basis vectors, any vector in
(R3 ) can be represented as a linear combination of these three basis vectors.
To simplify determining the set of scalars required to express an arbitrary vector in terms of
the basis vectors, we usually impose the condition that the basis vectors are of unit magnitude,
Also, the
i.e., the vectors along the x, y and z directions are in fact x
, y and z or i, j and k.
vectors that form the basis are orthogonal to each other, i.e., i j = j k = i k = 0. Hence,
this basis is called an Orthonormal basis. Now, any vector v R3 space can be expressed as a

Figure 1.3: Example of a basis in R3 .

linear combination of i, j and k as
v = vxi + vy j + vz k

(1.2)

where vx , vy and vz are the components of v along i, j and k and represent the weight of the
vector along said directions. It follows that
vx = v i; vy = v j; vz = v k

(1.3)

Figure 1.4: Example of representation of a vector v in a basis.

Note that it is not necessary that a vector space has a unique basis. It can have infinitely
many basis. However, the representation of any vector v R3 is unique for that specific basis.
We now revisit the vector operations previously addressed. Consider arbitrary vectors u and v
R3 . The scalar product of the vectors can be written as
(vxi + vy j + vz k)

u v = (uxi + uy j + uz k)
= uxi vxi + uxi vy j + uxi vz k
+ uy j vxi + uy j vy j + uy j vz k
+ uz k vxi + uz k vy j + uz k vz k
= u v = ux vx + uy vy + uz vz

(1.4)

Further, we can write the cross product of u and v as



 i
j k 




u v = ux uy uz 


 vx vy vz 
= u v = (uy vz uz vy )i (ux vz uz vx )j + (ux vy uy vx )k

(1.5)

Index notation
The above examples illustrate that even simple vector operations are rather cumbersome in representation. We now introduce the notion of using indices to simplify representation of vectors
and avoid writing lengthy expressions. Since each vector is represented using the basis vectors,
we need to first address representing the basis vectors themselves in the indicial notation. We
with the set (
replace the set of basis vectors (
x, y, z) or (i, j, k)
e1 , e2 , e3 ). This set can now be
generically represented as ei where i = 1, 2, 3. Note that the index i serves as a placeholder to
assume values 1, 2 or 3 and has no relation to i. We can express a vector as
v = vxi + vy j + vz k
= v1 e1 + v2 e2 + v3 e3
=

3
X

vi ei

i=1

We further simplify the notation by introducing a summation convention: A repeated index

automatically implies summation over all possible values for that index. Using this convention,
the last term of the above equation automatically implies summation over all the possible
values for i even if summation is not explicitly specified. Given that we are concerned with 3D
Euclidean space, i would take values of 1, 2 and 3 implying
v = vi ei = v1 e1 + v2 e2 + v3 e3

(1.6)

Note that the choice of using i as the index is arbitrary. Any other alphabet could be used as
an index, per convenience. We have already specified that the index i is not related to i. As

we have detailed previously, ei actually represents a set of three vectors (

e1 , e2 , e3 ) or (i, j, k).
Similarly, ej represents the set of three vectors, albiet the exact number that i and j assume
can be arbitrary.
Now, consider the simple operation of finding the dot product of two unit vectors ei and
ej . We have already addressed the nature of the dot product when considering vectors from
an orthonormal triad. Just to summarize, ei and ej , each represent the relevant unit vector
depending on the value of the index and we are interested in finding ei ej . Since ei and ej each
represent three vectors, we have a total of nine possibilities. They are
i = 1, j = 1; ei ej = e1 e1 = 1
i = 1, j = 2; ei ej = e1 e2 = 0
i = 1, j = 3; ei ej = e1 e3 = 0
i = 2, j = 1; ei ej = e2 e1 = 0
i = 2, j = 2; ei ej = e2 e2 = 1
i = 2, j = 3; ei ej = e2 e3 = 0
i = 3, j = 1; ei ej = e3 e1 = 0
6

i = 3, j = 2; ei ej = e3 e2 = 0
i = 3, j = 3; ei ej = e3 e3 = 1
The use of indicial notation allows us to account for all of these possibilities into the compact
form ei ej , of course with the knowledge that i and j could take values between 1 and 3. We
can also make another, rather obvious observation from the above set of equations that
ei ej = 1

if i = j

=0

otherwise

We simplify this by introducing a more convenient symbol called the Kronecker delta given
by
ei ej = ij = 1
=0

if i = j
otherwise

(1.7)

Note that ij has two indices i and j, each of which could take three possible values, i.e., ij
can account for all the nine possibilities shown above. Of course, of these possibilities, only
three have non-zero values (i = j = 1; i = j = 2; i = j = 3). The summation convention for the
repeated indices that we have previously introduced, holds good here as well i.e.,
ii = 11 + 22 + 33 = 3
We note that the notion of finding the dot product of basis vectors can be used directly to
find the dot product of any two vectors. Since any arbitrary vector can be expressed in terms
of a set of scalar components and the basis vectors, we can use the properties of linear vector
spaces as,
u v = ui ei vj ej
= ui vj ei ej
= ui vj ij
The above expression, ui vj ij implies that it is a summation over the repeated indices i and j.
Since both i and j can take values of 1, 2 or 3, the terms of the summation can be written as
ui vj ij = u1 v1 11 + u1 v2 12 + u1 v3 13
+ u2 v1 21 + u2 v2 22 + u2 v3 23
+ u3 v1 31 + u3 v2 32 + u3 v3 33
This can be rearranged as
ui vj ij = [u1 v1 11 + u2 v2 22 + u3 v3 33 ]
+ u1 v2 12 + u1 v3 13
+ u2 v1 21 + u2 v3 23
+ u3 v1 31 + u3 v2 32
All the s outside the brackets reduce to 0
ui vj ij = [u1 v1 11 + u2 v2 22 + u3 v3 33 ] + 0
7

ui vj ij = u1 v1 + u2 v2 + u3 v3
= ui vj ij = ui vi
Comparing the respective terms, we get vj ij = vi
Alternatively, let us consider just the term vj ij . For any given value of the index i, vj ij
represents summation over three possible values of j, i.e., vj ij is the sum of three terms with
j taking on values 1, 2 and 3. In these three terms, there will be only one instance when
both i and j have the same value. For the remaining two terms, i 6= j = ij = 0 and
consequently, those two terms vanish! The only non-zero term in the summation corresponds
to when i = j = ij = 1 for that particular term. Thus, the summation vj ij condenses to
just one term, and i = j for that term and we can write
vj ij = vi

(1.8)

Thus, ij acts on specific components of v and effectively flips the index of that component by
rendering the remaining terms of the summation to 0. The dot product of two vectors can be
written as
u v = ui vj ij
= u v = ui vi

(1.9)

Since the above expression has a repeated index, we can write out the summation over that
index and verify that the indicial notation does represent the dot product
u v = ui vi = u1 v1 + u2 v2 + u3 v3
Now, let us consider the cross product of two vectors.
u v = ui ei vj ej = ui vj ei ej
ui and vj are components of the vectors u and v i.e., they are scalars. The challenge lies in
describing the vector product ei ej . This is seemingly more complex than describing the dot
product of two basis vectors since the result of a dot product is a scalar quantity, but we know
that the result of a cross product is a vector, subject to the right hand rule. Let us write down
the possibilities for ei ej .
i = 1, j = 1; e1 e1 = 0
i = 1, j = 2; e1 e2 = e3
i = 1, j = 3; e1 e3 =
e2
i = 2, j = 1; e2 e1 =
e3
i = 2, j = 2; e2 e2 = 0
i = 2, j = 3; e2 e3 = e1
i = 3, j = 1; e3 e1 = e2
8

i = 3, j = 2; e3 e2 =
e1
i = 3, j = 3; e3 e3 = 0
We observe certain patterns in the result of the vector product of two basis vectors. When
i = j, the vector product is 0. For the instances when i 6= j and the cross product is nonzero, the indices i and j yield a vector which corresponds to the third index, k 6= i, j, i.e.,
e2 e3 = e1 , for example. Also, specific sequences of i and j produce a positive vector in
the right handed system and certain other sequences produce a negative vector. For example,
when i and j belong to the sequence 1, 2, 3, i.e., (i, j = 1, 2; i, j = 2, 3; i, j = 3, 1), the result
is a positive vector along ek , and when i and j are in the cyclically opposite sequence (3, 2,
1), i.e., (i, j = 2, 1; i, j = 3, 2; i, j = 1, 3), the result is a negative vector along ek . This can be
summarized as
ei ej = ijk ek
(1.10)
where ijk is called the permutation symbol whose value is given by
ijk =1

if i, j, k belong to 1, 2, 3 sequence,

=1

if i, j, k belong to 3, 2, 1 sequence,

=0

otherwise.

We can now write the cross product of two vectors u and v as

w = u v = ui ei vj ej
= ui vj ei ej
= ui vj ijk ek
= w = u v = ijk ui vj ek

1.2

(1.11)

Transformation of vectors, Introduction to tensors

Transformation of vectors
We have mentioned in the previous section that vectors have both magnitude and direction
and have seen the representation of vectors in an orthonormal triad of basis vectors. However,
we have not specifically addressed the uniqueness of this basis. It is rather obvious that the
three dimensional real Euclidean space (R3 ) we live in does not have a unique set of basis vectors
i.e., one can define a set of basis vectors per convenience and can also switch between the bases
so defined. Note that we are referring to changing the basis for a given vector, not changing or
altering the vector itself. This is reflected as a change in the representation of the vector, but
not the vector itself. For example, if we have a vector v and two different bases ei and ej , the
above argument can be summarized as
v = vi ei = v
j ej = vi 6= vj if ei 6= ej
This still gives no information on relating vi and vi or even ei and ei . We will address this by
formulating the transformation of a vector from one basis to another.

Consider a basis ei = (
e1 , e2 , e3 ) that has been rotated arbitrarily to obtain a new basis
ei = (e1 , e2 , e
3 ), as shown in Fig. 1.2. Note that both the bases are right handed orthonormal
triads. Since the basis vectors are not perfectly alligned with each other, each of the old
basis vectors, ei will have a non-zero component along each of the new basis vectors, ei . The
magnitudes of these components can be obtained from the dot products of the relevant basis
vectors, i.e., we can express each of the new basis vectors as if they were an arbitrary vector
in the old basis.
e
1 = (e
1 e1 )
e1 + (e1 e2 )
e2 + (e1 e3 )
e3
= cos(e
1 , e1 )
e1 + cos(e1 , e2 )
e2 + cos(e1 , e3 )
e3
= cos 11 e1 + cos 12 e2 + cos 13 e3
= e
1 = a11 e1 + a12 e2 + a13 e3

Figure 1.5: Transformation of basis vectors.

It is emphasized here that one needs to be attentive to the conventions being used to describe
the angle between the new and the old basis. Here represents the angle between one new
basis vectors and one old basis vector. The first index for represents the new basis, ei and
the second index represents the old basis, ei , i.e., 23 represents the angle between e2 and e3 .
The other basis vectors in the e
i basis follow a similar mathematical pattern with respect to the
vectors belonging to the ei basis. Thus, the relations between the two bases can be expressed
as


e
1
a11 a12 a13
e1


e2 = a21 a22 a23 e2
e
3
a31 a32 a33
e3
or in the more succint indicial notation as ei = aij ej . We denote the matrix shown above as
A, the transformation matrix. Similarly, we can express the old basis vectors in terms of the
new ones as
e1 = cos(e
1 , e1 )e1 + cos(e2 , e1 )e2 + cos(e3 , e1 )e3
= cos 11 e
1 + cos 21 e2 + cos 31 e3
e1 = a11 e
1 + a21 e2 + a31 e3
= ei = aji e
j
Now, we know that the new basis vectors, ei form an othonormal triad, i.e., ei ej = ij . We

10

can write
ei ej

= aik ek ajl el
= aik ajl ek el
= aik ajl kl
= aik ajk

ij

= aik ajk

ij

= aik (akj )T

= AAT

= I

This yields us the very important observation that the transpose of the transformation matrix
is its inverse, i.e., the transformation matrix is orthogonal.
Now, consider a vector that is represented in both the bases - v
in the ei basis and is

equivalent to v in the ei basis. Using the previously obtained property of the transformation
matrix,
v
= vj ej v = vi ei = vi aji ej

By comparing the relevant coefficients,

vj = aji vi = v
= Av = vAT

The above equation prescribes the rules that need to be satisfied by entities to qualify themselves to be vectors, i.e., vector quantities have to transform from one basis to another described
by the relations above. We emphasize here that we are merely changing the basis for a given
vector, not altering the vector itself. From the above equations, we see that the components
of a vector change with a change in the basis in which it is being represented. Then, what do
we mean by the statement that the vector itself has not changed? As we shall see, there are
certain properties of vectors that are immune to the transformation from one basis to another.
In fact, the property of vectors to transform from one basis to another through a linear mapping
preserves the magnitude and the direction of the vector.
The idea that a vector has not changed or varied, i.e., remained invariant, implies that
the representation and method of quantification of a vector have not changed. For example,
consider the representation of the vector described above in both the bases, ei and ei . The

i
magnitude of the vector in the basis ei is given by |v| = v v = vi vi and in the basis e

is |
v| = v
v
= vi vi . It is straighforward to prove that the transformation of components

between the two vectors, as derived above ensures that the magnitude is the same. However,
more fundamental is the expression for calculating the magnitude of the vector. We see that the
method/ expression to calculate the magnitude remains the same irrespective of the basis being
used i.e., the expression is invariant to the basis. This is the fundamental argument towards
the invariance of a vector with respect to the basis. The reader is advised to repeat the process
to explore the other quintessential property of a vector, its direction. Of course, since the basis

11

has been changed, so will the orientation of the vector described in that basis. Thus, the invariance of the direction of a vector needs to be verified using another arbitrarily defined vector.
We have discussed in detail the transformation of vectors from one basis to another. This
can be easily extended to describe rotation of vectors in the same basis. Instead of keeping our
vector fixed and rotating the basis vectors to a new position, we can keep the basis fixed and
define a new vector by rotating the existing vector about the basis vectors. Determining the
components of this new vector in the same basis is analogous to the previous case where the
vector was fixed and the basis was rotated. Thus, the transformation matrix defined above also
doubles up as a rotation matrix. Such an operation maps a vector from an initial position in
the basis to a final position/ state. Thus, the rotation matrix acts as a linear operator that
maps one vector into another.
Introduction to Tensors
The idea of mapping one vector to another using linear operators is common place, for
eg., the scalar mass is used to map the force and acceleration vectors. However, the spectrum
of mapping one vector to another has been left incomplete i.e., we have considered the more
convenient examples so far. Mapping the force and acceleration vectors takes place through a
physically measurable scalar and is very relavant physically, with both vectors oriented along
the same direction. We have discussed mapping one vector to another using the rotation matrix
with the directions of the two vectors being different, but the rotation matrix itself does not
correspond to any physically measurable quantity. We now introduce quantities which map/
transform vectors and have physical significance - Tensors.
Consider the following description of the angular momentum of a particle. Let the particle
have a mass m, position r = r1 e1 + r2 e2 and angular velocity = 3 e3 . We are familiar that
the angular momentum vector of the particle is given by h = I = mrv, where v = r is
the velocity of the particle. With a basic check, we can see that for r in the (
e1 , e2 ) plane and
along e3 , the velocity, v also lines in the (
e1 , e2 ) plane. The angular momentum vector, h
= mrv is oriented along e3 . Thus, the role of the moment of inertia, I is analogous to mass
m in F = ma i.e., it maps to h with both vectors along the same direction. We note that
there exist significant differences between both cases since the force and acceleration vectors are
defined with respect to the origin of the basis, while angular momentum and angular velocity
can be defined about an arbitrary point or an axis that does not align with any individual basis
vector. Nevertheless, angular momentum and angular velocity are vectors which are mapped
onto each other by the moment of inertia.
Now, consider that the particle has the same angular velocity, = 3 e3 , but its position
vector is given by r = r1 e1 + r2 e2 + r3 e3 . We can deduce that v = r is still parallel to the
(
e1 , e2 ) plane. However, the angular momentum vector, h = mrv will not be along e3 since r
does not lie in the (
e1 , e2 ) plane. So here, the moment of inertia maps to h which are along
different directions. This deviates from our previous observation of I being analogous to m and
12

Figure 1.6: Schematic of a rotating mass and associated vectors.

one can deduce that I is not a mere scalar. Let us analyse the expression for angular momentum
in detail. We know,
h = mr v
= mr ( r)
= m(r r) m(r )r
Written in the indicial notation, we get
h = hi ei = (mrj rj )i ei (mk rk )ri ei
= (mr1 2 + mr2 2 + mr3 2 )1 e1 (m1 r1 + m2 r2 + m3 r3 )r1 e1
+ (mr1 2 + mr2 2 + mr3 2 )2 e2 (m1 r1 + m2 r2 + m3 r3 )r2 e2
+ (mr1 2 + mr2 2 + mr3 2 )3 e3 (m1 r1 + m2 r2 + m3 r3 )r3 e3
= m(r2 2 + r3 2 )1 e1 m(r1 r2 )2 e1 m(r1 r3 )3 e1
m(r2 r1 )1 e2 + m(r1 2 + r3 2 )2 e2 m(r2 r3 )3 e2
m(r3 r1 )1 e3 m(r3 r2 )2 e3 + m(r1 2 + r2 2 )3 e3
Similar to the rotation of a vector, the components of the angular momentum and angular
velocity vectors can be expressed as column vectors and the inertia in a matrix form as



h1
m(r2 2 + r3 2 )
m(r1 r2 )
m(r1 r3 )
1
I11 I12 I13
1



2
2
m(r1 + r3 )
m(r2 r3 ) 2 = I21 I22 I23 2
h2 = m(r2 r1 )
h3
m(r3 r1 )
m(r3 r2 )
m(r1 2 + r2 2 ) 3
I31 I32 I33
3
At first glance, the structure of the above equation looks very similar to that of transformation of vectors between bases. However, the inertia matrix, I and the transformation matrix,
A represent two fundamentally different quantities. The transformation matrix operates on a
vector to result its components in a new basis. Note that the composition of the transformation
matrix is independent of the vector it operates on i.e., the components aij are not derived from
the components of the vector they act on, but are derived from the two bases involved. The
inertia matrix, however, is explicitly derived from the position of the particle (r) and its mass.
Consequently, any change in r is summarily reflected in I. Thus, I has a more sound physical
basis and significance than A and represents a property/ state of the particle in the current
13

basis, in addition to performing the mathematical function of mapping to h. Such quanities

are called as Tensors. However, this does not imply that A is not a tensor. Indeed it is one
and belongs to a class of orthogonal tensors.
We have presented arguments that the components of the Inertia Tensor are derived from
components of the position vector, r. This implies that if one changes the basis such that the
components of r are altered, then the components of I should also change, i.e., the inertia tensor
(and tensors in general) are defined in a specific basis, similar to vectors.
Further we note that each component of I is associated with two basis vectors. For example,
consider how the second row of the I matrix operates. We have h2 = I21 1 + I22 2 + I23 3 . We
know that h2 represents the component of the angular momentum in the e2 direction and 3
represents the component of the angular velocity in the e3 direction. The component I23 is thus
mapping a component along e3 to a quantity along e2 , i.e., each component of I is associated
with two basis vectors. It may be argued that I22 deals exclusively with the e2 direction. The
relevant interpretation here is that I22 maps one component of the vector to one component
of the vector h - they just happen to be along the same direction! Thus, each component of the
tensor I is associated with two basis vectors and consequently, would require two basis vectors
to describe/ represent it.
Also evident is that a vector, which is associated with one basis vector for each component,
can be represented by a column, whereas I requires a two dimensional structure (matrix) for its
representation since each component of I is associated with two basis vectors. Thus, we refer
to I as a second order tensor. Similarly, vectors are referred to as first order tensors and scalars
are zero order tensors. Since we have identified inertia to be a second order tensor, we represent
it as I.
We have previously seen operations such as the dot product or the scalar product in which
a vector is reduced to a scalar, i.e., a first order tensor is reduced to a zero order tensor. Here,
we introduce the notion of tensor product or dyadic product represented by the symbol. In
this operation, two first order tensors (vectors) are operated on to form a second order tensor
given by ei ej = ei ej . The dyadic or tensor product of two vectors can be written as
u v = ui ei vj ej = ui vj ei ej = ui vj ei ej = Tij ei ej
where Tij are the components of the second order tensor T formed by the tensor product of u
and v. The second order tensor has two free indices represented by the basis vectors ei and ej
and its components are represented as a matrix. In the present case, the the inertia tensor can
now be written as
Iij = m(rk rk ij ri rj )
I = m[(r r)I r r]
where I is the identity tensor given by I = e1 e1 + e2 e2 + e3 e3 . Note that all tensors need
not be defined based on position vectors. There are many instances where second and higher or14

der tensors are used to describe a specific property of a material, independent of position vectors.
Once the Inertia tensor has been formed, it acts upon the angular velocity vector to result
the angular momentum vector. We have addressed the fact that the Inetia tensor is a second
order tensor (I) and the angular velocity vector is a first order tensor (). This implies that I
operates on to reduce the number of free indices i.e., the operation beween I and is a scalar
or dot product. This can be written as
h=I
= Iij ei ej k ek
= Iij k ei ej ek
= Iij k ei jk
= hi ei = Iij j ei
which is consistent with previous results.
Properties of Tensors
We have addressed the properties of vectors in a previous subsection in which we observed
that vectors belong to a linear space and since they are defined using a basis, they transform
according to certain rules. The same holds good for tensors as well. Tensors also belong to
the same space. Here, we distinguish between a space containing the collection of vectors, u, v
etc. and the vector space, V. The vector space, V that we have used thus far is not necessarily
limited to the collection of all possible, physical (R3 ) vectors. Rather, it is a more generalised
space of linear operators that satisfy the linear vector space rules outlined in the first section.
Thus, all (R3 ) vectors belong to V, but do not completely define V. The tensors we have
defined can be viewed as linear operators on vectors, and so, belong to this general space of
linear operators and satisfy all the rules associated with belonging to a linear vector space.
We have seen previously the rules governing change of vector representation with a change in
the basis and realized that quantities to be identified as vectors must transform according to
these specific rules. Since tensors are also expressed in a specific basis, there are specific rules
to be satisfied during transformation of bases. Consider the tensor I we have dealt with so far
in the ei basis and is transformed to I in the ei basis.
Iij e
i e
j = Ikl ek el
= Ikl amk em anl en
= Ikl amk anl em en
= amk Ikl (aln )T em en
= I = AIAT

(1.12)

We note from the definition of the tensor I that when represented in a matrix, I is symmetric,
i.e., Iij = Iji . If, for some tensor A, Aij = Aji then that tensor is said to be skew-symmetric.
To satisfy the requirements of skew-symmetry, the diagonal elements of such a tensor are 0.
15

In general, it is not necessary for a tensor to satisfy the requirements of symmetry or skewsymmetry. However, any tensor can be represented as a sum of a symmetric and a skewsymmetric tensor, i.e., any tensor C can be written as
C=A+B
Aij = Aji is a symmetric tensor, where A =

C + CT
2

Bij = Bji is a skew-symmetric tensor, where B =

C CT
2

We have seen that the Inertia tensor maps the angular velocity vector into the angular momentum vector. We summarize that the angular momentum is defined about a point that is
considered to be the origin and the angular velocity is a vector that passes through this origin.
The position vectors are also defined with respect to the origin. Also, the Inertia tensor maps
the angular velocity vector to the angular momentum vector such that they need not be along
the same direction. The formula for the angular momentum is given by
h = mr v = m(r r) m(r )r
The angular momentum vector, h is comprised of two different parts, one along and the
other along r. It is obvious that when r, the part of h along r goes to 0 and hk. We
can present these arguments about the angle between and r and the associated orientation of
h for the idealized example we have considered, i.e., a point mass which is described by a single r.
For a finite dimensional body, i.e., something which cannot be approximated to a point mass
and thus cannot be described by a unique position vector r, the above generalizations would not
hold. The Inertia tensor for such a body would have to be obtained by considering the moments
of inertia of infinitismal elements of the body and integrating them. For such an object, the
only mathematical possibility for h to lie along is for I to be a purely diagonal matrix, i.e.,
the off-diagonal terms should vanish. For each infinitismal elemet considered, the components
of the Inertia tensor of that element are functions of the components of the position vector of
that infinitismal element, i.e., I12 is a function of r1 and r2 , I13 is a function of r1 and r3 etc.
We recall that the components of any vector depend on the basis in which they are described.
Thus, one may select a basis to represent the finite dimensional body such that the off-diagonal
components of the Inertia tensor for a given infinitismal element may be non-zero, but when
that component of the inertia tensor is integrated over the domain of the body, it reduces to
zero. In such a case, the inertia tensor for the entire body would be represented by a diagonal
matrix and consequently, h k . Mathematically, this condition can be written as
h = I =
I = 0
I I = 0
(I I) = 0
We know that the solution for this exists when
16

(1.13)





I I = 0

(1.14)

The set of vectors which from the basis in which this condition is satisfied are called as Eigenvectors and the values of thus obtained are called as Eigenvalues. We can solve for these
by expressing the above equation in a matrix form as




I I = 0




= Iij Iij  = 0


I11

0
0




I22
0 =0
 0


 0
0
I33 
which results in a cubic equation in i.e., three possible Eigenvalues, I , II and III . For each
of these Eigenvalues, there exixts a vector which satisfies Eqn. (1.13) and is the corresponding
Eigenvector, i.e., for = I , there exists a vector I such that
(I I I) I = 0
The set of vectors for all the three possible values of are called as the Eigenvectors. Physically,
this means that around this set of vectors/ axes the mass distribution is symmetric. For a tensor
whose components are real valued and symmetric, the Eigenvectors form an orthogonal triad.

1.3

Calculus of vectors and tensors

Thus far, we have addressed the algebra of vectors, which have been primarily defined at a
specific point at a specific instant of time. We have not considered cases of quantities varying
either spatially or temporally. In most physical situations, quantities do vary with both space
and time. Here we introduce the relevant mathematics to quantify these variations.
Consider a particle that moves with progression of time i.e., the position vector of the particle
changes with time and can thus be represented as a function of time as r = r(t). Let S be the
path that the particle traces. We consider the particle at two instances of time, t and t + t.
Then the velocity of the particle is given by the derivate of the particle position as
r
t0 t

v = lim

If there are no discontinuities in the path S, then,

 
  r
 r 
S
 =
 t 
S t
 
 
From the figure, it can be seen that as t 0, r S and r/S et where et is the
tangential vector to the path S. Thus,
v = lim et
t0

S
dS
=
et
t
dt

17

Figure 1.7: Differentiation of the position vector.

i.e., the magnitude of the velocity vector is the rate at which distance is covered, but it is
oriented tangential to the path along which the particle is travelling. If we express et in terms
of the basis vectors ei , then we can express the velocity as v = vi ei . Note that since ei s are
independent of time, t, this implies that the velocity can be integrated to obtain a general
ei .
expression for the position of the particle as r = ri (t)

Gradient operator
Quite often in continuum description of physical properties and processes, we encounter
spatial variations of properties/ parameters, meaning, these quantities can be expressed as a
function of the coordinates of a given point in space, i.e., they can be expressed as Fields.
The simplest fields to imagine and to mathematically describe are scalar fields. Since the field
describes a scalar quantity, it is not associated with any particular direction. A typical example
could be the spatial distribution of temperature. The value of the temperature field at any
given point in space is a function of the components of the position vector of that point. The
general form of such a scalar valued function at a point P, is given by
= (x, y, z) = (x1 , x2 , x3 )
Note that the position vector of point P is given by P = x
e1 + y
e2 + z
e3 x1 e1 + x2 e2 + x3 e3 .
has been defined to be a continuous function dependent on all the three coordinates. Thus,
the total differential for is given by

x +
y +
z
x
y
z

=
x1 +
x2 +
x3
x1
x2
x3

=
xi
xi

We note that the xi s are essentially components of an infinitismal vector, n, i.e., n = x1 e1 +

x2 e2 + x3 e3 . We also note that the terms involving the partial derivatives could possibly
have directional dependence. We know that is a scalar valued function, i.e., it does not have

components in specific directions. However, to evaluate

, one finds the rate of change of
x1
only as x1 changes, which would obviously be along e1 . Thus, the set of partial derivatives
18

evaluated are actually direction dependent and represent the rate of change of along the
directions of the basis vectors. The above equation for change of can then be written as

x1 +
x2 +
x3
x1
x2
x3



=
e1 +
e2 +
e3 (x1 e1 + x2 e2 + x3 e3 )
x1
x2
x3

The function is a scalar function and does not have any components, implying that the
directional dependence in the above relation is derived from the operator determining the partial
derivative of . This operator is represented using the symbol and referred to as the Del or

the grad or the nabla operator. Mathematically, it represents the Gradient of . Thus,

=
e1 +
e2 +
e3 such that =
e1 +
e2 +
e3 =
ei

x1
x2
x3
x1
x2
x3
xi

(1.15)

The gradient of is rate at which the scalar function changes in space. The expression for
indicates that the total change in is equal to the rate of change of dotted with the
direction of interest. More specifically, the above equation would represent the change of
along a specific direction n given by
n = n

(1.16)

where n has not been specified to be a unit vector. From the definition of the dot product, the
value of the the above dot product is maximum when n k . This means that is maximum

along the direction of , i.e., the gradient of a field is a vector that gives the magnitude and

direction of the greatest change for that field. The vector n can be written in terms of a unit
where S is the length of the vector n. Then, Eqn. (1.16) can be written
vector as n = S n
as
d
n = S n
=
= n

(1.17)

dS
where d/dS is the rate of change of along n
. Of special interest is the case when we find
encounter spatially constant fields. Let us say that that there exists a field (x, y, z) = constant
which represents a level surface. This means that if one moves along the surface of this field ,
there would be no change in its value. Now, in Eqn. (1.16), let us choose n to be a unit vector
that lies along the surface of this plane, i.e., in the tangential direction, t. Since is constant
along the horizontal surface, we can write Eqn. (1.16) as
t = t = 0

(1.18)

This has to be valid for any t chosen to lie in the plane of (x, y, z) = constant, i.e., has to

be normal to the surface (x, y, z) = constant. Physically, we are implying that the direction
of the greatest slope of a plane surface is normal to it! Does this make sense?
From Eqn. (1.15), we see that is a directional operator i.e., its components are associated

with specific basis vectors. Further, the gradient operation of a scalar quantity, yields a

vector, i.e., there is no contraction of bases and the operation is similar to the dyadic product

19

outlined earlier. Thus, the gradient of a vector u would be represented as




u=
e1 +
e2 +
e3 (u1 e1 + u2 e2 + u3 e3 )

x1
x2
x3

=
ei uj ej
xi
uj
=
ei ej
xi
uj
= u =
ei ej

xi

(1.19)

The operator acts on a vector to result a second order tensor. We will see examples and

applications of this later on in the course.

Divergence
In the previous section, we have seen that vectors can be involved in operations like dot
products, cross products and dyadic product. The del operator ( ) has been shown to be a

vector and the gradient operation essentially forms a tensor product. We now focus on the scalar
or dot product using the del operator. Of course, a vector can be dotted only with another
vector or a tensor of higher order, but not a scalar. A simple example of a vector field is shown
in the figure below, which depicts the velocity variation in an idealized fluid flow (recall from
ME 202!). We recall that the general form of such a field is
e1 + v2 (x, y, z)
e2 + v3 (x, y, z)
e3
v(x, y, z) = v1 (x, y, z)

(1.20)

and note that any component of the vector field can be dependent on all the three coordinates
at a given point.

Figure 1.8: Example of the velocity field of fluid flow.

We define the Divergence of the vector field v, represented by div v as
div v = v




=
ei vj ej
xi
vj
=
ei ej
xi
vj
=
ij
xi
vi
= div v = v =

xi
20

(1.21)

The form of the above equation indicates that the divergence of v is a scalar, since no free
indices are present. Further, the divergence of v is a summation over the repeated index i,
given by
vi
v1
v2
v3
div v =
=
+
+
(1.22)
xi
x1 x2 x3
Physically, the divergence of a vector field describes and measures the propensity of a field
to radially converge or diverge at a point in space. Concomitant to the physical meaning of
divergence of a vector field, it can be quickly verified that for the simplistic example of fluid
flow presented earlier, the divergence of the field is 0 at all points in space. The implication of
the divergence operator is elucidated in greater detail in later sections.
Curl
The other vector algebraic operation is the vector or the cross product. When the del
operator () acts on a vector field similar to the cross product, the result is called as the Curl

of the vector field v. Recall that the vector product of two vectors also results in a vector. This
is given by
curl v = v


 e1
e2
e3 








=

x
x
x
 1
2
3


 v1
v2
v3 






v2
v3
v1
v2
v1
v3
e1
e2 +
e3
=

x2 x3
x1 x3
x1 x2
This can be written in indicial form as


curl v = v =
ei vj ej

xi
vj
=
ei ej
xi
vj
ijk ek
=
xi
vj
= v = ijk
ek

xi

(1.23)

The curl of a vector field is also referred to as the rotation of the vector field since it is proportional to the angular velocity at a point in space. Again, the details are presented in subsequent
sections. A vector field for which v = 0 at all points in space is called an irrotational

field.
We introduce the following notation to simplify the representation of partial derivatives.

21

The partial derivative of any quantity with respect to xi is represented using ,i . Thus,

ei = ,i ei
grad = =

xi
uj
ei ej = uj,i ei ej
grad u = u =

xi
ui
div u = u =
= ui,i

xi
uj
curl u = u = ijk
ek = ijk uj,i ek

xi

(1.24)

Integral theorems
The most commonly used integral theorem that relates integrals of fields is called as Gauss
Theorem. However, Gauss theorem itself makes use of the result from the Greens theorem
which relates a volume integral into an integral over its bounding surface. The Greens theorem
states that, if f is a scalar field having continuous partial derivaties for each of the cartesian
basis ei , then
Z
Z
f
dV = f ni dS
xi
S

The theorem is also applicable in lower dimensions, i.e., an integral over a surface S can be
transformed to a contour C as
Z
Z
f
dS = f ni dC
xi
S

From the above integrals, it is obvious that we can define f to be components of a vector
field v and the sum of the integrals over all components would yield
Z
Z
vi
dV = vi ni dS
xi
S
V
(1.25)
Z
Z
v=

=
V

vn

The above result is called the Divergence theorem or Gauss theorem which states that
the divergence of a vector field over a volume is equal to the component of the vector along the
outward normal integrated over the surface that bounds the volume, as shown in Fig. 1.3. We
do have constraints that the vector field and its derivatives are continuous and that the surface
is closed.
The Gauss theorem can also be expressed in a more general form as
Z
Z
? A dV = n
? A dS
(1.26)

where A could represent a scalar, vector or a tensor field and ? represents operations on the
fields such as the dot product, vector product or the dyadic product.
Another important integral transformation theorem relates the integral over a surface, S to
the integral over a closed contour, C, shown in Fig. 1.3. We do need to follow certain conventions
22

Figure 1.9: Transformation of a volume integral into a surface integral - Gauss Theorem
while defining the orientations. The tangent vector, t along the contour C is defined to conform
to the right hand sense with the thumb pointing towards the direction of the normal, n
of the
surface S.

Figure 1.10: Transformation of a surface integral into a contour integral - Stokes Theorem
The general version of the Stokes theorem can then be written using A and ? defined above, as
Z

Z
(
n ) ? A dS =

t ? A dC

(1.27)

For the specific case of A representing a vector field v and ? representing the dot product, we
get
Z
Z
( v) n
dS = t v dC
(1.28)

23

Chapter 2

Kinematics of Continuous Media:

Configurations and motion
In the previous chapter, we have studied the mathematics and various notations that are necessary for the description of continuous media. Beginning this chapter, we get into the application
of the ideas learnt so far to describe the phenomena associated with continuous bodies. The
study of kinematics marks the first step in studying the mechanics of continuous media, the
other two being general laws governing continua and formation of constitutive relations for materials and phenomena. The study of kinematics enables us to quantify evolution of objects,
and correspondingly, fields, with time. In general, the emphasis is to study the geometry of
motion without getting into details of the associated driving forces.

2.1

Configurations and motion

We define a continuous object as one that facilititates easy and unique description mathematically i.e., each point in the body should to be uniquely representable mathematically. This
implies that, for example, if two surfaces are in contact with one another, we represent the
contact as either being two points belonging to two surfaces/ bodies or that both surfaces have
combined to form a single object, but steer clear of representations of one physical point belonging to two different objects. Thus, each point of an object has a unique position in space and
vice versa. This is a very fundamental requirement in developing the mathematics associated
with continuumm mechanics. When describing the mechanics of continua, we are interested in
capturing the physical phenomena that take place in the body. Contrary to our focus on spatial
representations thus far, we do not preclude the influence of time in descreptions henceforth,
i.e., the body itself and the processes associated with it are considered to be dependent on both
space and time.
Let the collection of all the material points of a body be represented as B and let P be one
of the material points that belong to B. We use a coordinate system to represent the position
of any particle of an object. Let one such instantiation of B be represented by and the
corresponding position of the point P be X. Note that X does not represent the particle
P . It only represents the position of the particle P in the configuration . It follows that
24

 is basically one particular mapping of the body B. It is not necessary that the body B and
consequently, the point P are mapped only once. It is possible for B to have different mappings
at different instances of time. For the sake of continuity with respect to time, we choose one
such mapping to occur at time t = 0 and represent that mapping or that configuration as 0 .
Since we have imposed the constraint that each particle in B retains its uniqueness in each
configuration, this implies that the position vector X has a one to one mapping with P and is
invertible, i.e.,
X = 0 (P ) = P = 1
0 (X)
Similarly, we consider another mapping of B at time t, to the configuration t . In this instance,
the position vector of the material point P is given by x. The uniqueness of mapping B to t
follows and thus,
x = t (P ) = P = 1
t (x)
However, since P can be expressed in terms of X, we can write
1
x = t (P ) = t (1
0 (X)) = t 0 (X)

= x(t) = (X, t)

(2.1)

Figure 2.1: Mapping of a body into configurations.

Note that the function/ mapping is represented as , i.e., its a vector valued function since
it yields the position vector x. We have, thus, outlined the method to describe the transition of
the body B through different states of space and time. Since we have considered 0 to represent
the configuration of B at t = 0, we usually refer to it as the reference configuration or as the
initial configuration or as the undeformed configuration. t represents a subsequent state of B
and is referred to as the current configuration or as the deformed configuration. We can now
describe the motion of the particle P as
u = x(t) X(t)

2.2

(2.2)

Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of motion

The Lagrangian description of motion is intended to describe the motion or deformation of an

object from an individual particle point of view i.e., we aim to follow an individual particle
25

as it progresses through various stages of motion or deformation. Recall that we have chosen
0 as the reference configuration in which each particle P belonging to the body B has been
identified with a unique position vector X, i.e., we already have a point-to-point map of each
particle P B onto 0 for which X acts as a parameter or a representative. Thus, following
or describing the motion of the particle P is anologous to following the change in X since X is
a unique mapping of P . As shown in Fig.2.1, the position of P at time t can be expressed in
terms of X as
x(X, t) = (X, t) = X(t) + u(X, t)

(2.3)

Note that terming X as X(t) is redundant since we know t = 0 for the configuration 0 , but is
followed to retain uniformity in representation. We can write the velocity of the particle P as
the rate of change of position of P given by
(X, t)
x(X, t)
u(X, t)
=
=
(2.4)
t
t
t
We are able to write V as V(X, t) since we know that we are describing the velocity of point
P , which is identified by X in 0 . Subsequently, the acceleration of P can be written as
V(X, t) =

V(X, t)
2 u(X, t)
=
(2.5)
t
t2
We point out that A is different from the rotation tensor A we have used earlier. From
here on, we use Q to represent rigid body rotation. We illustrate the validity of the Lagrangian
description of motion using a simple example - rigid body motion.
A(X, t) =

Consider the example shown in Fig. 2.2. We describe the rigid body motion of the body
from an initial configuration 0 to t . Since we are citing rigid body motion, the displacement
is achieved via a rotation, specified by Q and a translation given by C. We emphasize there is
no change of shape (distortion) or change of volume (expansion) during rigid body motion, i.e.,
any two points have to remain the same distance apart during the motion. We consider two
points A and B, represented by position vectors XA and XB and the relative position vector
given by XAB = XB XA . The distance between these two points in 0 is given by

 q
 AB 
X  = XAB XAB
q
= XiAB ei XjAB ej
q
= XiAB XjAB ij
q
= XiAB XiAB
The body is deformed from the 0 configuration to the t configuration involving rigid body
rotation and translation. The mathematical mapping between X and x is given by
x(X, t) = (X, t) = C(X, t) + Q(X, t) X(t)

26

Figure 2.2: Rigid body motion using Lagrangian description.

Since there are no variations of deformation due to rigid body motion, C and Q are same
for all points of the body. Further, to simplify the equations, we drop the t in the expressions
since we know x = x(X, t). The relative position vector in the deformed configuration can be
written as

xAB = xB xA
= (C + Q XB ) (C + Q XA )
= Q (XB XA )
= Q XAB
The magnitude of the relative position vector in the deformed configuration is given by


 AB  p AB AB
x  = x x
r
 

Q XAB Q XAB
=
q
= Qij XjAB ei Qmn XnAB em
q
= Qij XjAB Qmn XnAB im
q
= XjAB Qij Qin XnAB
r
 
T

XjAB Qji Qin XnAB

q
= XjAB jn XnAB
q
= XnAB XnAB
=

We have used the orthogonality of Q, i.e., QT Q = I to verify that the Lagrangian description does indeed capture the kinematics of objects.
The other approach to describing the kinematics of motion is called as the Eulerian description of motion. Contrary to the Lagrangian approach where attention is fixed on a material
particle and its progression is tracked, the Eulerian approach places emphasis on a certain point/
window in space and tracks the movement of particles within that point/ domain of observation.
Thus, while we do observe material points pass through this window and quantify the relevant
27

kinematic variables corresponding to those material points when they are in the window, we do
not follow them as we did in the Lagrangian approach. This means that the relevant kinematics
are described using parameters representing the point of observation, and not the particle itself.
Recall that in the Lagrangian approach, we had mapped each material point P to a position
vector X in 0 and followed that material point as it evolved to the t configuration. If there is
a subsequent configuration at time, say 2t, we would still follow the same particle as it reaches
some new position x
(X, 2t). In the Eulerian approach, the emphasis is on quantifying what
happens at the position x. At time t, this might correspond to the point P and at time 2t, it
might correspond to some other particle. However, we continue to observe x irrespective of the
material points which exists there at that instant of time. We do however, retain all information
of which particle is being mapped, i.e., (X, t) are defined and are used in the relevant analysis.
Since the mapping exists, the kinematics are directly derived from this as
v(x, t) =

(X, t)
x(X, t)
u(X, t)
=
=
t
t
t

(2.6)

for the particle with position x at the time t. The expressions for the velocity of a particle seem
exactly the same as they were for the velocity using the Lagrangian approach. This is because
the Eulerian approach measures the property of the particle at x at the time t. We know that
this is still, the particle P that we have followed using the Lagrangian approach. Obviously, a
material particle can have only one velocity, irrespective of the approach used to estimate it.
Similarly, the acceleration for the particle with position x at the time t can be given as
a(x, t) =

2 (X, t)
2 u(X, t)
2 x(X, t)
=
=
2
2
t
t
t2

(2.7)

We do point out here that though we have argued that the values of the velocity or acceleration
in both approaches have to be the same, the functional form has to be different since the
Lagrangian approach is in terms of X and the Eulerian approach is in terms of x. Thus, to
establish equivalence between the two approaches, we use the inverse of Eqn. (2.1) in Eqns.
(2.6) and (2.7) as


1 (x, t)

(X, t)
v(x, t) =
=
t
 t

(2.8)
2 1 (x, t)
2 (X, t)
a(x, t) =
=
t2
t2

We further detail the equivalence of both approaches using examples below.

2.3

Equivalence of Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions

We present a simple example to compare the descriptions of motion using both Lagrangian and
Eulerian approaches. Consider the configurations shown in Fig. 2.3. We consider a simple case
of a 2D object. The body of interest is a square with corners described by points A, B, C and D.
We track the deformation of the set of particles as they deform from the initial configuration

28

0 to deformed configurations, identified by 1 at time t = 1 and 2 at time t = 2. The initial

positions of the points are given by
XA
1 + 0 e2
0 =0e
XB
1 + 0 e2
0 =1e
XC
1 + 1 e2
0 =1e
XD
1 + 1 e2
0 =0e

Figure 2.3: Initial and deformed configurations to demonstrate equivalence.

The functions describing the deformation are given by


x(X, t) = (X, t) = X1 1 + t2 e1 + (X2 )2 (1 + t) e2
If we desribe the motion of the body using a Lagrangian approach, the velocity and accleration
during the deformation can be given from Eqns. (2.4 and 5) as
V(X, t) =

(X, t)
= 2X1 t e1 + (X2 )2 e2
t

The acceleration using the Lagrangian approach is given by

A(X, t) =

V (X, t)
= 2X1 e1
t

Let us choose material points B and C and follow the velocity and acceleration of these material
points respectively. The velocity of point B is determined to be VB (t = 1) = 2 e1 and VB (t =
2) = 4
e1 . The acceleration of point C is determined to be AC (t = 1) = 2
e1 and AC (t = 2) = 2
e1 .
Now, we write the general expressions for the velocity and acceleration using the Eulerian
approach. The velocity is given by
v(x, t) =

(X, t)
= 2X1 t e1 + (X2 )2 e2
t

Inspite of intending to describe v in terms of x, we still have v in terms of X. However, we

already know the relation between x and X, i.e.,
r
x1
x2
and
X
=
X1 =
2
1 + t2
1+t
29

using these relations, the velocity using the Eulerian approach can be given as
v(x, t) =

2tx1
x2
e1 +
e2
1 + t2
1+t

We know that x = 2 e1 + 0 e2 and t = 1 at the relevant point of observation. The velocity can be
determined to be vB (t = 1) = 2 e1 and vB (t = 2) = 4 e1 . So, we end up with the same velocity
that we have predicted previously, albiet with different representations, i.e., the velocity itself
and thus its magnitude are the same in both cases, but differ in their functional representations
since one is in terms of X and the other is in terms of x.
Now, let us determine the acceleration at the spatial point where the material point C is
present at any given instant of time. Using the expression for acceleration and the relation
between X and x, we can write
a(x, t) = 2X1 e1 =

2x1
e1
1 + t2

At, t = 1 and x = 2 e1 + 2 e2 , aC (t = 1) = 2 e1 and at t = 2 and x = 5 e1 + 3 e2 , aC (t = 2) = 2 e1 .

We find out that the acceleration of a given material point is also the same, independent of the
approach used. However, it is important to understand the differences between the approaches.
In the first approach, we calculated the velocity of the material point B, VB (X, t) with the
knowledge that we were following point B. In the second approach, we were actually calculating the velocity of the material point present at coordinates (2, 0) at t = 1 and at coordinates
(5, 0) at t = 2. Of course, we chose the locations at those instances of time since we know that
they correspond to the material point B for a comparison to be made with the Lagrangian
approach. However, in general it is not necessary that we always follow the exact same material
point using both approaches.
For finding the acceleration using the Eulerian approach, we have simply used 1 to transform from A to a. Let us verify rigorously if this actually holds true.
v(x, t)
t



2tx1
x2
=
e1 +
e2
t 1 + t2
1+t


1
1
2t x1
x1 + 2t
2tx1 +
= 2
e1
1 + t2
(1 + t2 )2
1 + t2 t


1
1 x2
x
+
+
e2
2
(1 + t)2
1 + t t

a(x, t) =

Here, using the relations between x and X, we get



2x1
4t2
2t
2
a(x, t) =

X1 (1 + t ) +
2tX1 e1
1 + t2 (1 + t2 )2
1 + t2


1
1
2 (1 + t) +
2
X
X
+
e2
(1 + t)2 2
1+t 2
2x1
=
e1
1 + t2

30

2.4

Material time derivative

In this chapter, we have seen methods for representing bodies/ objects in different states (configurations) as they progress through deformation and have addressed two approaches in describing the deformation of a body. We have also seen that both approaches ultimately yield
the same description, provided we have a clear relation between the different configurations
and mathematical relations between them, i.e., we have determined that V(X, t) v(x, t) and
A(X, t) a(x, t), the only difference between them being representation in X or x. Inspite of
the equivalence between the two representations, we have been dependent on the mathematical
relation between X and x via x = (X, t) and the inverse thereof. While this might be a reasonable way to illustrate the idea of equivalence, it may not be feasible in practical analysis to
compute 1 at every point of interest. Further, such an approach would imply that we would
need to correlate the spatial point of observation x at time t and the material point X at every
instant of time (t) we make an observation. Thus, it would be more operationally convenient
and mathematically elegant if we could relate these two configurations without explicit mathematical dependence on .
We recap here that when we compute the time derivative in the Lagrangian approach, we
are computing the time derivatives corresponding to a specific material point and since X is a
unique representation of that material point in the configuration 0 , the time derivative of that
material point is given by
V(X, t)

A(X, t) =

t
given X
However, when we find the acceleration using the Eulerian approach, we are capturing the
acceleration observed at the spatial point x, i.e.,
v(x, t)

a(x, t) =

t
given x
In the previous section, we related the spatial coordinate x with a specific material point using
1 , i.e., we were calculating a(x, t) at the spatial point x that corresponds to the material
point X - we were still calculating the acceleration for a given X, but representing it in terms
of x. That is why we ended up with the same values for velocity and acceleration of a point
using both approaches - we were describing the same physical quantity! Thus, for our purpose
of relating the Lagrangian and Eulerian approaches, the above equation actually represents
v(x, t)

a(x, t) =

t
x=(X,t) for a given X
We note that v(x, t) is explicitly a function of t, but is also implicitly dependent on t via
x = (X, t). Thus, using the chain rule of differentiation, the above equation can be written as
v(x, t)
v(x, t)
v(x, t) x

=
+

t
t
x t
given X
given x


v(x, t)

=
+ x v(x, t) v(x, t)

t
given x

where is the spatial gradient operator defined previously. We denote the relevant gradient

here as x since we are finding the gradient at the spatial location x. We note that the above

31

equation gives the time derivative of the material point present at x at t. This is different from
the time rate of change of v observed at x which is the first term of the above equation. This
term represents the rate at which the velocity of particles observed to be at x changes and is thus
not representative of the rate of change in velocity of the material particle at x. The second
term in the above equation compensates for this inadequacy and gives a measure of the varition
of velocity with space since the points neighbouring to x need not have the same velocity. Since
the above equation describes the Total derivative or the derivative of the material point at x,

it is referred to as the Material derivative and is represented by D Dt, given by

Dv(x, t)
v(x, t) 
=
+ x v(x, t) v(x, t)
Dt
t

32

(2.9)