Anisotropic solids also are common in nature and technology. Examples are single crystals; polycrystals in which the grains are not completely random in their crystallographic orientation but have a “texture,” typically owing to some plastic or creep flow process that has left a preferred grain orientation; fibrous biological materials such as wood or bone; and composite materials that, on a microscale, either have the structure of reinforcing fibres in a matrix, with fibres oriented in a single direction or in multiple directions (e.g., to ensure strength along more than a single direction), or have the structure of a lamination of thin layers of separate materials. In the most general case, the application of any of the six components of stress induces all six components of strain, and there is no shortage of elastic constants. There would seem to be 6 × 6 = 36 in the most general case, but, as a consequence of the laws of thermodynamics, the maximum number of independent elastic constants is 21 (compared with 2 for isotropic solids). In many cases of practical interest, symmetry considerations reduce the number to far below 21. For example, crystals of cubic symmetry, such as rock salt (NaCl); face-centred cubic metals, such as aluminum, copper, or gold; body-centred cubic metals, such as iron at low temperatures or tungsten; and such nonmetals as diamond, germanium, or silicon have only three independent elastic constants. Solids with a special direction, and with identical properties along any direction perpendicular to that direction, are called transversely isotropic; they have five independent elastic constants. Examples are provided by fibre-reinforced composite materials, with fibres that are randomly emplaced but aligned in a single direction in an isotropic or transversely isotropic matrix, and by single crystals of hexagonal close packing such as zinc.

General linear elastic stress-strain relations have the form where the coefficients C_ijkl are known as the tensor elastic moduli. Because the ε_kl are symmetric, one may choose C_ijkl = C_ijlk, and, because the σ_ij are symmetric, C_ijkl = C_jikl. Hence the 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 = 81 components of C_ijkl reduce to the 6 × 6 = 36 mentioned. In cases of temperature change, the ε_ij above is replaced by ε_ij − ε_ij^thermal, where ε_ij^thermal = α_ij(θ − θ₀) and α_ij is the set of thermal strain coefficients, with α_ij = α_ji. An alternative matrix notation is sometimes employed, especially in the literature on single crystals. That approach introduces 6-element columns of stress and strain {σ} and {ε}, defined so that the columns, when transposed (superscript T) or laid out as rows, are {σ}^T = (σ₁₁, σ₂₂, σ₃₃, σ₁₂, σ₂₃, σ₃₁) and {ε}^T = (ε₁₁, ε₂₂, ε₃₃, 2ε₁₂, 2ε₂₃, 2ε₃₁). These forms assure that the scalar {σ}^T{dε} ≡ tr([σ][dε]) is an increment of stress working per unit volume. The stress-strain relations are then written {σ} = [c]{ε}, where [c] is the 6 × 6 matrix of elastic moduli. Thus, c₁₃ = C₁₁₃₃, c₁₅ = C₁₁₂₃, c₄₄ = C₁₂₁₂, and so on.

Thermodynamic considerations

In thermodynamic terminology, a state of purely elastic material response corresponds to an equilibrium state, and a process during which there is purely elastic response corresponds to a sequence of equilibrium states and hence to a reversible process. The second law of thermodynamics assures that the heat absorbed per unit mass can be written θds, where θ is the thermodynamic (absolute) temperature and s is the entropy per unit mass. Hence, writing the work per unit volume of reference configuration in a manner appropriate to cases when infinitesimal strain can be used, and letting ρ₀ be the density in that configuration, from the first law of thermodynamics it can be stated that ρ₀θds + tr([σ][dε]) = ρ₀de, where e is the internal energy per unit mass. This relation shows that if e is expressed as a function of entropy s and strains [ε], and if e is written so as to depend identically on ε_ij and ε_ji, then σ_ij = ρ₀∂e([ε], s)/∂ε_ij.

Alternatively, one may introduce the Helmholtz free energy f per unit mass, where f = e − θs = f([ε], θ), and show that σ_ij = ρ₀∂f([ε], θ)/∂ε_ij. The latter form corresponds to the variables with which the stress-strain relations were written above. Sometimes ρ₀f is called the strain energy for states of isothermal (constant θ) elastic deformation; ρ₀e has the same interpretation for adiabatic (s = constant) elastic deformation, achieved when the time scale is too short to allow heat transfer to or from a deforming element. Since the mixed partial derivatives must be independent of order, a consequence of the last equation is that ∂σ_ij([ε], θ)/∂ε_kl = ∂σ_kl([ε], θ)/∂ε_ij, which requires that C_ijkl = C_klij, or equivalently that the matrix [c] be symmetric, [c] = [c]^T, reducing the maximum possible number of independent elastic constraints from 36 to 21. The strain energy W([ε]) at constant temperature θ₀ is W([ε]) ≡ ρ₀f([ε], θ₀) = (1/2){ε}^T[c]{ε}.

The elastic moduli for adiabatic response are slightly different from those for isothermal response. In the case of the isotropic material, it is convenient to give results in terms of G and K, the isothermal shear and bulk moduli. The adiabatic moduli G and K̄ are then G = G and K̄ = K(1 + 9θ₀K α²/ρ₀c_ε), where c_ε = θ₀∂s([ε],θ)/∂θ, evaluated at θ = θ₀ and [ε] = [0], is the specific heat at constant strain. The fractional change in the bulk modulus, given by the second term in the parentheses, is very small, typically on the order of 1 percent or less, even for metals and ceramics of relatively high α, on the order of 10⁻⁵/kelvin.

The fractional change in absolute temperature during an adiabatic deformation is found to involve the same small parameter: [(θ − θ₀)/θ₀]_{s = const} = −(9θ₀Kα²/ρ₀c_ε) [(ε₁₁ + ε₂₂ + ε₃₃)/3αθ₀]. Values of α for most solid elements and inorganic compounds are in the range of 10⁻⁶ to 4 × 10⁻⁵/kelvin; room temperature is about 300 kelvins, so 3αθ₀ is typically in the range 10⁻³ to 4 × 10⁻². Thus, if the fractional change in volume is on the order of 1 percent, which is quite large for a metal or ceramic deforming in its elastic range, the fractional change in absolute temperature is also on the order of 1 percent. For those reasons, it is usually appropriate to neglect the alteration of the temperature field due to elastic deformation and hence to use purely mechanical formulations of elasticity in which distinctions between adiabatic and isothermal response are neglected.

Finite elastic deformations

When elastic response under arbitrary deformation gradients is considered—because rotations, if not strains, are large or, in a material such as rubber, because the strains are large too—it is necessary to dispense with the infinitesimal strain theory. In such cases, the combined first and second laws of thermodynamics have the form ρ₀θds + det[F]tr([F]⁻¹[σ][dF]) = ρ₀de, where [F]⁻¹ is the matrix inverse of the deformation gradient [F]. If a parcel of material is deformed by [F] and then given some additional rigid rotation, the free energy f must be unchanged in that rotation. In terms of the polar decomposition [F] = [R][U], this is equivalent to saying that f is independent of the rotation part [R] of [F], which is then equivalent to saying that f is a function of the finite strain measure [E^M] = (1/2)([F]^T[F] − [I]) based on change of metric or, for that matter, on any member of the family of material strain tensors. Thus, is sometimes called the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress and is given by S_kl = ρ₀∂f([E^M],θ)/∂EM/kl, it being assumed that f has been written so as to have identical dependence on EM/kl and EM/lk.