Some exact solutions for a class of compressible non-linearly elastic materials

In this paper we consider exact solutions for plane and axisymmetric deformations for a class of compressible elastic materials we call coharmonic. The coharmonic materials are derived from the harmonic materials by using Shield's inverse deformation theorem. The governing equations for the coharmonic material show the same kind of simplification associated with the harmonic materials. The equations reduce to first-order linear equations depending on an arbitrary harmonic function. They are intractable in general, so various ansätze are investigated. Boundary value problems for the coharmonic materials are compared with the same problems for harmonic materials. For certain boundary value problems, the harmonic materials exhibit well-known problematic behaviour which limits their use as models of material behaviour. The corresponding solutions for the coharmonic materials do not display these non-physical features.