Hyperelastic cloaking theory: Transformation elasticity with pre-stressed solids

Abstract

Transformation elasticity, by analogy with transformation acoustics and optics, converts material domains without altering waveproperties, thereby enabling cloaking and related effects. By noting the similarity between transformation elasticity and the theory of incremental motion superimposed on finite pre-strain, it is shown that the constitutive parameters of transformation elasticity correspond to the density and moduli of small-on-large theory. The formal equivalence indicates that transformation elasticity can be achieved by selecting a particular finite (hyperelastic) strain energy function, which for isotropic elasticity is semilinear strain energy. The associated elastic transformation is restricted by the requirement of statically equilibrated pre-stress. This constraint can be cast as tr F = constant, where F is the deformation gradient, subject to symmetry constraints, and its consequences are explored both analytically and through numerical examples of cloaking of anti-plane and in-plane wavemotion. © 2012 The Royal Society.