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A geometric approach to Hu-Washizu variational principle in nonlinear elasticity

We discuss the Hu-Washizu (HW) variational principle from a geometric standpoint. The mainstay of the present approach is to treat quantities defined on the co-tangent bundles of reference and deformed configurations as primal. Such a treatment invites compatibility equations so that the base space (configurations of the solid body) could be realised as a subset of an Euclidean space. Cartan's method of moving frames and the associated structure equations establish this compatibility. Moreover, they permit us to write the metric and connection using 1-forms. With the mathematical machinery provided by differentiable manifolds, we rewrite the deformation gradient and Cauchy-Green deformation tensor in terms of frame and co-frame fields. The geometric understanding of stress as a co-vector valued 2-form fits squarely within our overall program. We also show that for a hyperelastic solid, an equation similar to the Doyle-Erciksen formula may be written for the co-vector part of the stress 2-form. Using this kinetic and kinematic understanding, we rewrite the HW functional in terms of frames and differential forms. Finally, we show that the compatibility of deformation, constitutive rules and equations of equilibrium are obtainable as Euler-Lagrange equations of the HW functional when varied with respect to traction 1-forms, deformation 1-forms and the deformation. This new perspective that involves the notion of kinematic closure precisely explicates the necessary geometrical restrictions on the variational principle, without which the deformed body may not be realized as a subset of the Euclidean space. It also provides a pointer to how these restrictions could be adjusted within a non-Euclidean setting.