On configurational compatibility and multiscale energy momentum tensors

In this work the continuum theory of defects has been revised through the development of kinematic defect potentials. These defect potentials and their corresponding variational principles provide a basis for constructing a new class of conservation laws associated with the compatibility conditions of continua. These conservation laws represent configurational compatibility conditions which are independent of the constitutive behavior of the continuum. They lead to the development of a new concept termed configurational compatibility, dual to the concept of configurational force. The contour integral of the corresponding conserved quantity is path-independent, if the domain encompassed by the integral is defect-free. It is shown that the Peach-Koehler force can be recovered as one of these invariant integrals. Based on the proposed defect potentials and their corresponding defect energies, two-field multiscale mixed variational principles can be employed to construct multiscale energy momentum tensors. An application is outlined in the form of a mode III elasto-plastic crack problem for which the new configurational quantities are calculated.