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Elastodynamic tensor calculus on Mathematica

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg18310] Elastodynamic tensor calculus on Mathematica
  • From: lafleur at usl.edu (L. Dwynn Lafleur)
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 22:24:17 -0400
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

I would like to use Mathematica to derive symbolic equations in the field of
elastodynamics; specifically, elastic waves in isotropic elastic solids.
These equations involve tensors (stress, strain), vectors (particle
displacement, velocity), and scalars (density, elastic constants), so a
package to do symbolic calculus with tensors would be ideal.

I realize there are at least three packages freely available: Ricci, TTC
(Tools for Tensor Calculus), and GRTensor(?).  (I rule out MathTensor for
economic reasons at this point.)  However, these three packages seem tilted
heavily toward the study of General Relativity and, as far as I've seen, the
only tutorial examples using these packages are in that field.  Since I am
functionally illiterate in the tensor calculus of General Relativity, I
cannot judge from looking at these examples which package, if any, would be
useful to me.

Is there anyone out there who has used one of these packages or some other
for the symbolic derivation of tensor equations in elasticity or some
closely related field?  If you could tell me that one particular package has
served you well, I can focus my efforts on learning that package.  Any
pointers to illustrative examples would also be appreciated.

TIA for any responses.

Dwynn Lafleur

=========================================
L. Dwynn Lafleur
Professor of Physics
The University of Southwestern Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana (USA)
lafleur at usl.edu
=========================================


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