Weak forms of generalized governing equations in theory of elasticity

This paper presents the derivation of the generalized governing equations in theory of elasticity, their weak forms and the some applications in the numerical analysis of structural mechanics. Unlike the differential equations in classical elasticity theory, the generalized equations of the equilibrium and compatibility equations presented here take the form of integral equations, and the generalized equilibrium equations contain the classical differential equations and the boundary conditions in a single equation. By using appropriate test functions, the weak forms of these generalized governing equations can be established. It can be shown that various variational principles in structural analysis are merely the special cases of these weak forms of generalized governing equations in elasticity. The present weak forms of elasticity equations extend greatly the choices of the trial functions for approximate solutions in the numerical analysis of various engineering problems. Therefore, the weak forms of generalized governing equations in elasticity provide a powerful modeling tool in the computational structural mechanics.