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2.2IndexNotationforVectorandTensorOperations

Operations on Cartesian components of vectors and tensors may be expressed very efficiently and clearly using index
notation.

2.1.Vectorandtensorcomponents.

Letxbea(threedimensional)vectorandletSbeasecondordertensor.Let
beaCartesianbasis.Denote
thecomponentsofxinthisbasisby

,anddenotethecomponentsofSby

Usingindexnotation,wewouldexpressxandSas

2.2.Conventionsandspecialsymbolsforindexnotation

Range Convention: Lower case Latin subscripts (i, j, k) have the range
components of a vector

and

. The symbol

. The symbol denotes three

denotes nine components of a second order tensor,

Summationconvention(Einsteinconvention):Ifanindexisrepeatedinaproductofvectorsortensors,summation
isimpliedovertherepeatedindex.Thus

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Inthelasttwoequations,

and

denotethe

componentmatricesofA,BandC.

TheKroneckerDelta:Thesymbol

isknownastheKroneckerdelta,andhastheproperties

thus
Youcanalsothinkof

asthecomponentsoftheidentitytensor,ora

identitymatrix.Observethefollowing

usefulresults

ThePermutationSymbol:Thesymbol

hasproperties

thus

Notethat

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2.3.Rulesofindexnotation

1.Thesameindex(subscript)maynotappearmorethantwiceinaproductoftwo(ormore)vectorsortensors.
Thus
arevalid,but
aremeaningless

2.Freeindicesoneachtermofanequationmustagree.Thus

arevalid,but

aremeaningless.

3.Freeanddummyindicesmaybechangedwithoutalteringthemeaningofanexpression,providedthatrules1
and2arenotviolated.Thus

2.4.Vectoroperationsexpressedusingindexnotation

Addition.

DotProduct

VectorProduct

DyadicProduct

ChangeofBasis.Letabeavector.Let

inthisbasisby .Let
.Then,define
where

beaCartesianbasis,anddenotethecomponentsofa

beasecondbasis,anddenotethecomponentsofainthisbasisby

denotestheanglebetweentheunitvectors

and .Then

2.5.Tensoroperationsexpressedusingindexnotation.

Addition.

Transpose
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ScalarProducts

Productofatensorandavector

Productoftwotensors

Determinant

Inverse

beaCartesianbasis,anddenotethe

ChangeofBasis. Let A be a second order tensor. Let

componentsofAinthisbasisby .Let
Ainthisbasisby
where

beasecondbasis,anddenotethecomponentsof

.Then,define

denotestheanglebetweentheunitvectors

2.6.Calculususingindexnotation

Thederivative
canbededucedbynotingthat

and .Then

and

.Therefore

Thesameargumentcanbeusedforhigherordertensors

2.7.Examplesofalgebraicmanipulationsusingindexnotation

1.Leta,b,c,dbevectors.Provethat

Express the left hand side of the equation using index notation (check the rules for cross products and dot products of
vectorstoseehowthisisdone)
Recalltheidentity
so
Multiplyout,andnotethat
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(multiplyingbyaKroneckerdeltahastheeffectofswitchingindices)so
Finally,notethat
andsimilarlyforotherproductswiththesameindex,sothat

2.Thestressstrainrelationforlinearelasticitymaybeexpressedas

where and arethecomponentsofthestressandstraintensor,and and denoteYoungsmodulusandPoissons

ratio.Findanexpressionforstrainintermsofstress.

Seti=jtoseethat

Recallthat

,andnoticethatwecanreplacetheremainingiibykk

Now,substitutefor

inthegivenstressstrainrelation

3.Solvetheequation

for intermsof and

Multiplybothsidesby toseethat

Substitutebackintotheequationgivenfor

toseethat

4.Let

.Calculate

Wecanjustapplytheusualchainandproductrulesofdifferentiation
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5.Let

ContinuumMechanicsIndexNotation

.Calculate

Usingtheproductrule

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