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 =========================================