MECHANICS OF COMPLIANT MATERIALS

From Toothpaste to Titanium

Arun R. Srinivasa
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Texas A & M University

August 2021

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5 Material Behavior: Model Development-Variables, duality
and lumped parameter models

By reading and doing the exercises in this section, you should be able to
• Describe what is a mathematical model

• Describe what is duality in physical models and identify dual pairs in link geometries
• Describe what are lumped parameter

5.1 Q: what do you mean by a ”model” for a system

You are most possibly used to the notion of a model as in a ”model airplane”— ie a miniature
represenattion of the actual object. Similarly you might have been exposed to ”Solidworks modes?
which are virtual geometrical representations of objects.
We are now going to define yet another type of model : A Mathematical Model
A Mathematical model is a symoblic repsentation of the behavior of a physical system. It contains
variables that describe the state of the system and mathematical relationships between the current
(and perhaps even past) states

5.2 Q: What do you mean by state? I hav been hearing about this from
my chemistry classes all the way through thermodynamics but I
only have a vague idea, so what is the definition
What we mean by a state is any quantifiable property of the system that we are interested in.
Notice that the state is a subjective matter: it depends upon what we, the observers are interested
in. THis is why, you need to know the purpose of the model before we use it. THis is what defines
the possible states. without purpose we wont know what will interest us. Also the same system may
have different state variables based on what we are interested in.
The way we have described state is broader than how the thermdynamics community use. There
are additional restrictions used by them, includng the idea of internal state. Our use is closer to
how the the controls system folks use the notion of the state of a system. We will refine it further
as we get deeper into modeling.
Next also note that it should be quantifiable. So for example ”color” is not a state, ”wavelength
of light reflected by the system” could be a state variable. So, we need to have a way of quantifying
it. It is this step that allows us to develop a mathematical model.

5.3 Q: can you give me an example of what you mean?

Consider the list of elements that we did in chapter 04. Presumably, as a first step, we are interested
in the geometry of the elements. SO we need variables that will represent the geometry. Here is a
table of the elements and their ”geometrical state variables”

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 Geometrical State Variables for the elements
Elemt Name Geometry state de- state variables
scription
point-mass location < x(t), y(t), z(t) >
link end point locations < x1 (t), y1 (t), z1 (t) >, < x2 (t), y2 (t), z2 (t) >
CST element corner locations < xi (t), yi (t), zi (t) >, i = 1, 2, 3
Tetrahedron corner locations < xi (t), yi (t), zi (t) >, i = 1, 2, 3, 4
rigid body CM location and < x(t), y(t), z(t) >, (θ, φ, ψ)
orientation
beam or rod end point locations < xi (t), yi (t), zi (t) >, (θi , φi , ψi ), i = 1, 2
and orientations
plate /shell corner locations < xi (t), yi (t), zi (t) >, (θi , φi , ψi ), i = 1, 2, 3
and orientations

5.4 Q: How come you didn’t include velocity and acceleration as state
variables in the above list
I should and sometimes it is done but it is easy to see that ”technically” they are included in the
idea of position etc as a function of time. So velocity and acceleration can be “derived” from them

5.5 Q: Why did you put angled brackets for position and curved brackets
for the others?
We will reserve angle brackets for vectors and curved brackets for state variables (like rotation
angles) that form a group but it is not a vector. Just to be clear, the state of a system can be
described by any combination of scalars, vectors, matrices etc, so long as it can be quantified. They
will be collectively called the degrees of freedom of the system (DOFS) and could include things like
temeprature etc

5.6 Q: Is there only one way to describe the state of a system, I thought
that the length of the link or truss element was a state variable
The same geometrical system can be explained by many different ways. For example, you could have
used polar coordinates to describe the geometrical state of a particle or some other coordinates. for
a link or a truss element , we can use location of mid point and the length and 2 orientation angles
of the element to describe it. But the number of state variables ie the number of DOFS will be the
same no matter how you describe it,

5.7 Q: why did you not include forces torques etc in the state variables?
Remember the definition of state? If we are only interested in the geometry of the element (as we
would be in doing solidworks for instance) then only geometrical variables are of interest. If we are
interested in the physics of motion ie mechanical state of the system then I have to include forces
etc. If we entend to thermal effects I will have to include temperature, entropy etc in the descrption.

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5.8 Q: so what are the mechanical state variables of the elements that
we considered so far?
in additIon to the geometrical state variables that we have listed in Table5.3 we have to list the
following
Geometrical State Variables for the elements
Elemt Name Load state descrip- state variables
tion
point-mass force < F x(t), F y(t), F z(t) >
link end point forces < F xi (t), F yi (t), F zi (t) >, i = 1, 2
CST element corner forces < F xi (t), F yi (t), F zi (t) >, i = 1, 2, 3
Tetrahedron corner forces < F xi (t), F yi (t), F zi (t) >, i = 1, 2, 3, 4
rigid body CM forces and Mo- < F x(t), F y(t), F z(t) >, < M x(t), M y(t), M z(t) >
ments
beam or rod end point forces < F x(t), F y(t), F z(t) >, < M x(t), M y(t), M z(t) >
and Moments , i = 1, 2
plate /shell corner forces and < F x(t), F y(t), F z(t) >, < M x(t), M y(t), M z(t) >
Moments , i = 1, 2, 3

5.9 Q: How come the list is very similar to the list of geometrical vari-
ables? is this an accident?
No it is not accidental that (a) the list of load states has the same form as the list of geometrical
states and (b) there seems to be some correspondance between the geometrical state variables and
force state varables/ this is actually a very deep aspect of physics and is called duality we will
describe it in more detail shortly.

5.10 Q: But,, but, I noticed that while orientiation variables were NOT
vectors, the Moments ¡Mx,MyMz¿ are vectors, why is there a dif-
ference
Good catch! The reason is again something deep about physics modeling. The loads cause the
geometry to change so the duality that I referred to is the relationship between the forces and the
Change in geometry! For positions which is given by a vector , the change in position is given by
velocity which is also a vector. Orientation variables are not vectors, but... cnanges in orientation
are given by the angular velocity VECTOR! So the idea of duality is related to changes either wirh
repect to time (which is called ”rate” ) or with respect to space (which is called gradient)!

5.11 Q: whoa, whoa, this requires getting used to, and I am not com-
pletely sure that I understand, so can you tell me what is duality
again?
I am glad you asked. Here is what duality means:
For most mathematical models of physical systems, the variables that describe the state of the
system always come in pairs, these pair of variables are such that their product will have the physical
dimensions of energy or more precisely, the product of one variable with the increment or change in
the other variable in the pair will have dimensions of energy rate or energy gradient or power

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 This is an abstract definition. To root it in more common terms, consider electircal circuits, the
variables of interest are.. Voltage and current and their product is.. Power.. Jules/sec. So voltage
and current form a conjugate or duality pair. In the same way if we consider forces and positions,
we can see that force time displacement per unit time is Power. For pipe flow problems we see that
the variables are flow rate and pressure and their product is Power ! yet again
Similarly for spinning systems and for beams etc. The variables are Moment and Change in
angle and their product is.. energy per unit time (if the change in angle is is per unit time= angular
velocity) or energy per unit length if the change in angle is measured per unit length (ie it is the
curvature).
In every case, if we identify one variable, you should also look for its conjugate variable by asking
(what variable will give me energy dimensions)

5.12 Q: That’s interesting, is there any guidelines for how to look for
conjugate variables
Typically in terms of our experience, we think about duality in terms of what is the ”cause” and
what is the ”effect”. So you can start with that and designate the variable you have as either ”cause”
or ”effect”. Ask yourself if we think of the variable that have as the ”cause” (or ”effect”) then you
need to find out what is the ”effect” (or ”cause”). For example if you have a bar and you have
identified the temperature of the ends and want to identify its conjugate, you can start by asking
”what is the effect of the temperature at the two ends being at diffeent values?” you might arrive
at ...”heat will flow”. So we now have identified the confugate variable— Heat flux. Try your hand
at the other variables
Another alternative is to think in terms of ”control variables” and ”response variables”. For
example you can ask ”If I control the temperature at the ends of the bar, what will be its response
of the bar, what will happen in the bar?” This is the control systems approach. When you do tension
test, we do this, we say : ”we will control the displacement and measure the response (force).
The flow analogy: Finally there is one more way to think about it based on the electrical circuit
or pipe flow analogy: Identify the variable that you have as a physical quantity that either ”flows
through the system” (like current or mass or heat)—the ”through variable” or that we measure
”across the system” (like voltage)—-the across variable.
If what you have is the through variable, then its conjugate is the across variable (and vice versa).
Of the three strategies, the last one is the most ”physical”. My recommendation is to use one or
other of these strategies to identify the variables and use the other two to check your understanding.
This will be part of your next homework.
Also there is no simple mapping between “cause” ”effect” and ”through” and ”across” variables.
Sometimes the accross variable is the cause and the through variable is the effect (Voltage difference
is the cause and current is the effect). Ino other places the role will be reversed. For example FOrce
is the cause and the change in displacement is the effect.
By the way, what is cause and what is effect is sort of subjective. Only conjugacy or duality matters,
whether we call something cause or effect is part of the meaning of the variable, the math doesnt
care
So to not confuse these things, we will use ”control Variable” and ”response variable” as our
generic names for the duality pairs.
Mathematically also this Duality plays a very important role. There is a sort of “duality” between
row and column vectors in linear algebra. We have row vectors and column vectors and their matrix
multiplication will give you a scalar.(In the language of tensors, they are called contra-variant and
co-variant vectors —-dont ask why the names.)

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 So this idea of duality is central to our whole approach to modeling.

5.13 Q: how does duality help in modeling systems?

It tells us what to observe. For example for truss elements it will tell us that you need to observe forces
and not something else.So from an experimental point of view we can figure out what to control and
what to observe. We will develop relationships between the control and its corresponding response
variables.

5.14 Q: can you show us an example of how this model works?

At last, after all this description and discussion, we are ready to look at some actual response. We
will focus only on truss elements. As a quick recap, the geometrical state variables are the position
vectors r 1 , r 2 at the end points. Duality will tell us that the conjugate variables are the forces f 1 , f 2
at the ends. the position vectors are the acrossvariables and the forces are the through variables. To
make matters a bit simpler we can use the displacements u1 , u2 as the geometrical state variables
if we keep the starting or reference state fixed Now the key is to find a way to relate f i to

Figure 1: A truss element AB with end A at r 1 and end B at r 2 will move to ab. The displacements of the two ends
are u1 and u)2, THe dual variables are the forces f 1 and f 2

ui . IF we think of carrying out a test to do it, we have to find two vectors f 1 and f 2 given the
displacement vectors at the end. THis is a hard task, but we have a trick up our sleeve that will
make it considerably easier.
We are going to make the truss element into a lumped mass system

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5.15 Q: what is a lumped mass system, why do we care about it
The problem with physical bodies is that wheneever there is material there is also mass. For example
if I want to consider the elastic response of a rubber truss element, I have to contend with the fact
its mass is distributed along its entire length. This will make the applications of Newtons laws
very messy. Among other things it will now have rotation moment of inertia and will make my life
miserable.
So we will take a drastic step: : divide and conquer or if you remember your 401 separate
your functions!. THis will be our motto throughout our modeling
When the going gets tough, find a way to separate different aspects and them assemble them to get
what you want. Divide and conquer. Separate and assemble. . We have already done this for the
geometry, we will now do this for the response also
In our truss element model, we want to separate the inertial aspects (that has to obey Newtons
laws) from the rests of the response. So we will lump the mass and move it to the two ends which
are called the NODES. Then the region between the two ends is massless and so we dont have to
worry about the inertial effects and we can do everything like statics. This is a huge simplification
and, although there is a price to be paid in terms of loss of fidelity, the inaccuracy is so small that
the bang for the buck is fantastic.
As an added bonus, when you put these truss elements together, all the mass will end up at the
nodes and when you have to apply Newtons laws you simply do method of joints and write equations
of motion for each joint (like you did in your 225 class)—-how simple is that!

Figure 2: A real truss element will have a distributed mass as shown on the left. replacing with an idealized body
where the masses are lumped at the two ends and the middle portion is massless. So we can use concepts of statics
for the middle portion! WHen the elements are assembled as shown in the ”bridge truss” we can see that all the mass
is lumped at the joints. THis way we can still use method of joints in a pretty straight-forward way.

In almost all models that we consider, we will always lump the mass as shown.

5.16 Q: now that you have lumped the mass, now what?
Well the forces f 1 and f 2 are now applied to the region between the ends and since it is massless
we can use equilibrium for a two force member (channelling your engineering mechanics class) and
conclude from linear moment balance that

f 1 = −f 2 (1)

IN other words, the forces between the bars have to be equal and opposite! Not only that by balance
of angluar momentum we can also conclude that the forces have to be only axial, there cannot be any
transverse forces! Wow! just from lumping the system we gained A LOT !! It is worth repeating:

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For truss elements, If we lump the mass at the nodes, I t becomes a tow force member. then we can
conclude that (a) the nodal forces are equal and oppposite and (b) they are along the line joing the
two ends in other words (see figure 1) the forces must be of the form

f A = f eba , f B = f eab (2)

where eij is the unit vector starting at i and pointing towards j

This is a big deal! instead of having to find two force vectors, we have now reduced it to finding
a relationship for a single scalar namely f

5.17 Q: I already sorta knew this from my engg mechanics class when
we did two force members and trusses, so what is the big deal?
Well I sort of slipped one over you somewhat sneakily. There are several things that we did at once
, so let me disaggregate the steps:
1. We first removed the end masses and just drew a FBD of the bar (see figure 3).

2. then we considered what happens to the remainiming massless bar when froces are aplied to
it. NOTICE that the direction of the force is NOT along the original direction AB
in figure 1 but along the final direction ab. This is because the balance of linear and
angular momentum should be applied to the loaded state b where the force is acting, not the
unloaded state AB. This will cause all kinds of issues when we try to do solutions but that is
several weeks ahead. Lets enjoy the simplification and we will deal with the headaches later
(of course we have a trick for that too:-)) )
3. We can then see that we need to consider the structural response of bar ONLY under equal
and opposite forces. No need to worry about vibrations of the bar or rotational inertia or other
pesky aspects that come from the distributed mass.

5.18 Q: wait a minute, what do we do with the end masses that we sort
of ”threw away”
We will consider all the forces from all the bars at each joint and then just use method of joints .
THe beauty of the entire separte and conquer idea is shown in figure ?? below One way to imagine
the resulting shape change is as follows : ”the truss moves in a way that is determined by the
competion between how the end masses want to move by Newtons laws and the resistance to the
motion from the structural response of the truss. In your UG classes, the trusses are so stiff that
their resistance wins the battle and the truss hardly moves. For compliant systems the two sides are
sort of ”evenly balanced” and we may have to consider both. BTW this process will work with all
the other elemments also:
For triangular elements, we will lump at the triangle corners and the triangle itself will have
simple response functions. For beams the ends will be treated as rigid bodies, etc.
We are now ready to look deeper into the modeling of the elements. THis is the topic of the next
chapter

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Figure 3: FBD of our idealized lumped parameter system starts out as AB in between the lumped masses (shown as
dotted lines since they have been removed) at the two ends. we then consider the forces transmitted from the end
masses to the bar in the middle: Since the bar is massless, it will move until (a) the forces align with the bar and
are equal and opposite. The forces and the unit vector eab and eba which indicate the direction of the bars is shown.
The lumped masses will be analyed separately using Newtons laws. This idealization approach allows us to separate
application of Newton’s second law and the structural response characteristics. Note the unlike the engg. mech class
where the forces were acting on the state AB (there forces had negligible on the geometry of the bar. Here the bar
length and orientation changes A LOT and the forces are aligned in the current state ab, not the starting state AB

Figure 4: the lumpy skeleton model: Our approach to modeling is revealed in this single graphic: (a) We model
the geometry using a collection of connected truss elements (b) we then simplify the truss physically by moving the
mass of the truss to the joints (c) this allows us to focus only on the structural response of the truss bars without
worrying about statisfyin newtons laws in the bar (they are automatically met when we put equal and opposite forces.
THe result is that we get something that we learnt in our engg mech classes. (d) We use newtons laws by leveraging
the mthod of joints.!

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6 Structural : Elastic Truss Elements

By reading and doing the exercises in this section, you should be able to
• Define what is meant by the elastic response of a truss
• Describe what is the typical shape for rubbery and leathery behavior of elastic materials

• Find constitutive relations, and strain energy of the elastic truss element

6.1 Q: We talked in quite a bit of generality about models and separation

etc, Can we get down to some actual models and show me how to
model these?
I know that we have been describing a lot of ”philosophical” issues but the aim is to get you to do
your own models and know what idealizations are actually involved in an intuitive way. My aim is
to get you model the response of compliant mechanisms and structures not just a cookbook recipe
follower. This is the difference between a junior required class (I show you how to do something,
not necessarily how it works) and a senior/grad tech elective. SO bear with me. We will start by
modeling something that we sort of know, which is an Elastic element.

6.2 Q: what is an elastic material-model? I only know what I learnt

in my materials science classes and strenght of mateials as saying
”stress is proportional to strain up to yield” is that what you mean?
Actually NO. We must distinguish between a ”model” which is a
cartoon (we have already converted all objects into ”lumpy skele-
tons” already) and it will exaggerate certain features at the expense
of others. In our case we will ignore yielding fracture etc and focus
only on ”ideal elasticity”
A truss element is considered ”elastic” if

1. the length of the truss element is determined entirely by the current axial load
and not load history (no load memory)
2. its length changes instantly when it is axially loaded
3. the free length is recovered instantly when the axial load is removed (linked to item 1)

4. When we apply and remove the load the net work done by the external axial load is exactly
zero.
The central idea is the the axial load and length are the conjugate variables (since their product
will give you energy or power). ad that there is a unique relationship between them in other words

faxial = g(length) orlength = h(fa xial) (3)

Notice that item 4 is not something that we might have thought about, but it is a key aspect of
elasticity. Without it, you could create a perpetual motion machine— cycle the truss element back

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and forth and produce endless work. This is because, the response has NO memory. (for a plastic
or viscoelastic material, no matter which way you cycle it will consume work and conver it into
heat–this is because it has memory of past states. Ths is not obvious but we will discuss it later).
This aspect of the response of elastic materials is called ”Green Elasticity” due to a remarkable
mathematican by the name of George Green. You should look him up— he was a miller and had
only one year of foraml education but he appears to have been a mathematical genius (Remember
Green’s Theorem from vector calculus—yep that is the guy)

6.3 Q: but I thought that elasticity for a spring meant that f=-kx. How
is this related?
THis brings my to a very important point:
Never memorize a concept through some formula: It will completely hide the meaning. Formulae are
like the text messages or emojis of the math world– without context you wont be able to interpret
them. Always memorize concepts and ideas by writing them out in words not in symbols.
If you cannot write your concept or idea in words, you didnt really understand it and
all you can do is simply use it without knowing what it is.
This is because math only focusses on logic not meaning. It says ”if you know what ”f” ”x” and
”k” are then for a linear spring they are related by f = −kx”. BUt what if the spring was along
the y axis or along the radius or something else? Which way does the spring point?
For example, you might know centripetal acceleration as v 2 /r but what is V? what is R? What
doe they mean?. If you write it down in words, then you will see that centripetal acceleration is
”the square of the speed divided by the radius of the turn”. Now it has meaning”.

6.4 Q: so how should I remebar the elastic response for a truss element
We first define the ”free length” of a truss element.
The free length of a truss element is the length of the bar whan no load is applied and the truss has
stopped moving. For an elastic or vsicoelastic truss element, the free length is fixed. For plastic or
viscoplastic elements, the free length depends upon its past history.
Now we can define an elastic truss element
An elastic truss member is one for which the axial pulling force is a function of the difference between
the current length and the free length. If the relationship is linear then we have a linear-elastic truss
element.
Notice how specific I get: first I didnt just say force, I actually said, “axial pulling force” (so
we get the direction that we prefer to use—pointing away from the truss element at either end.
Second, note that I said “function of” not proportional to. finally I didnt say ”strain” or ”x” or
something but actually ”current length-free length”. This way you can operationalize the definition
and interpret it.
A steel bar could be considered as a linear elastic material but a rubber band has a nonlinear
relationship between forces and lengths. Both are elastic.
We can write this in symbolic form as

fa = g(l − lf ), fa is axial force, l is current length, lf is free length (4)

here g is called the elastic response function. We can think g for “Green-elastic” as a tribute to
George Green.

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6.5 Q: what does this elastic response function g look like for rubber
and steel?
If we plot axial force versus change in length we will commonly get one of 3 types of responses
1. Type 1: Linear response: the entire response can be characterized by ONE parameter, the
slope of the line which is called stiffness (not modulus) since it is a structural property
2. Type 2: S shaped curve, an initial stiff response (with high slope followed by a shallow nearly
flat portion and then another much stiffer response. THis is called rubbery response. You
have experienced it when blowing up a rubber balloon: Very difficult to blow up initial (stiff
response) followed by a region where it is very easy to blow up and then finally a very stiff
response. The last part you can feel with a rubberband–it gets very stiff before it fails. the
result is a classic S shaped curve. Materials that have this kind of elastic response will be sort
of stiff (and not very flexible) and not floppy like cloth and they will feel ..er...rubbery :-)))
3. Type 3: Type 3: J type response. There is an initial very low modulus region followed by a
very abrupt stiffening. This is classic cloth like or tissue like ”learthery” reponse. this will
make the material sort of floppy and not very stretchy. It will be very flxible as a sheet but
will not stretch like a rubberband. Your skin response looks like that.

Figure 5: The three types of commonly observed elastic responses. The linear response is typically observed in very
stiff materials like steel below yield or brittle material

A word of caution: Real rubber and tissue are NOT elastic as we show, they actually have more
hysteresis and energy loss, that is why dampers and suspensions use rubber and vibration dampers
— the MODEL is simple to use

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