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The geometrically nonlinear Cosserat micropolar shear-stretch energy. Part II: Non-classical energy-minimizing microrotations in 3D and their computational validation

In any geometrically nonlinear, isotropic and quadratic Cosserat micropolar extended continuum model formulated in the deformation gradient field $F = \nablaφ: Ω\to GL^+(n)$ and the microrotation field $R: Ω\to SO(n)$, the shear-stretch energy is necessarily of the form $$W_{μ,μ_c}(R;F) = μ\, \| sym(R^T F - 1) \|^2 + μ_c\, \| skew(R^T F - 1) \|^2 .$$ We aim at the derivation of closed form expressions for the minimizers of $W(R;F)$ in $SO(3)$, i.e., for the set of optimal Cosserat microrotations in dimension $n = 3$, as a function of $F \in GL^+(n)$. In a previous contribution (Part I), we have first shown that, for all $n \geq 2$, the full range of weights $μ> 0$ and $μ_c \geq 0$ can be reduced to either a classical or a non-classical limit case. We have then derived the associated closed form expressions for the optimal planar rotations in $SO(2)$ and proved their global optimality. In the present contribution (Part II), we characterize the non-classical optimal rotations in dimension n = 3. After a lift of the minimization problem to the unit quaternions, the Euler-Lagrange equations can be symbolically solved by the computer algebra system Mathematica. Among the symbolic expressions for the critical points, we single out two candidates $rpolar^{\pm}_{μ,μ_c}(F) \in SO(3)$ which we analyze and for which we can computationally validate their global optimality by Monte Carlo statistical sampling of $SO(3)$. Geometrically, our proposed optimal Cosserat rotations $rpolar^{\pm}_{μ,μ_c}(F)$ act in the "plane of maximal strain" and our previously obtained explicit formulae for planar optimal Cosserat rotations in $SO(2)$ reveal themselves as a simple special case. Further, we derive the associated reduced energy levels of the Cosserat shear--stretch energy and criteria for the existence of non-classical optimal rotations.