On several new methods to polar decomposition computation

In this paper, the polar decomposition of a deformation gradient tensor is analyzed in detail. The four new methods for polar decomposition computation are given: (1) the iterated method, (2) the principal invariant's method, (3) the principal rotation axis's method, (4) the coordinate transformation's method. The iterated method makes it possible to establish the nonlinear finite element method based on polar decomposition. Furthermore, the material time derivatives of the stretch tensor and the rotation tensor are obtained by explicit and simple expressions. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support rendered by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi of China in 1998.