On the Nonlinear Theory of Thermoviscoelastic Materials with Voids

Metric anomalies arising from a distribution of point defects (intrinsic interstitials, vacancies, point stacking faults), thermal deformation, biological growth, etc. are well known sources of material inhomogeneity and internal stress. By emphasizing the geometric nature of such anomalies we seek their representations for materially uniform crystalline elastic solids. In particular, we introduce a quasi-plastic deformation framework where the multiplicative decomposition of the total deformation gradient into an elastic and a plastic deformation is established such that the plastic deformation is further decomposed multiplicatively in terms of a deformation due to dislocations and another due to metric anomalies. We discuss our work in the context of quasi-plastic strain formulation and Weyl geometry. We also derive a general form of metric anomalies which yield a zero stress field in the absence of other inhomogeneities and any external sources of stress.