C H A P T E R

4
The Balance Laws:
Forces Involved in Deformation

O U T L I N E

4.1 General Statement 97 4.3.2.1 Invariants of the

Deviatoric Stress 106
4.2 Conservation of Mass 98
4.3.2.2 The Octahedral Stress 106
4.3 Balance of Linear Momentum 99 4.3.3 Equilibrium Conditions 107
4.3.1 Shear and Normal Stresses
Recommended Additional Reading 109
on an Arbitrary Plane 103
4.3.2 Stress Deviator and Invariants,
the Octahedral Stress 106

4.1 GENERAL STATEMENT

In the previous two chapters we have discussed the rules that govern the geometrical
transformations and the movements (flows) that are involved in the deformation of rocks.
These are both geometrical concepts; one involves the geometrical transformations that
constitute deformation and the other the geometry of the flows that result in deformation.
These concepts do not require that the causes of the deformation and motion are consid-
ered. We now consider the ways in which bodies of rock react to forces or displacements
that are applied to the surfaces of the bodies by adjacent parts of the Earth. In order
to understand the various responses that may arise due to surface tractions or displace-
ments we need to formulate a set of laws that govern the balance of various quantities of
interest. For a metamorphic geologist, there are just four quantities of interest, namely,

Structural Geology
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407820-8.00004-7 97 Copyright Ó 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
98 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

mass, linear and angular momentum, and energy and hence we need to deal with four
laws:
1. The conservation of mass.
2. The balance of linear momentum.
3. The balance of angular momentum.
4. The balance of energy; this is commonly known as the first law of thermodynamics.
This chapter is concerned with the first three balance laws on the list. Chapter 5 considers
the balance of energy.

4.2 CONSERVATION OF MASS

Let us consider a body of deforming rock where the density, r, varies both with the spatial
position within the body and with time. This might correspond to a deforming/reacting rock
where a metamorphic reaction produces denser or less dense phases or where local temper-
ature fluctuations arising from the heat of reaction change the density. Thus we write for the
material derivative of the density:
Dr vr vr dx
¼ þ (4.1)
Dt vt vx dt
and the mass, m, of the body with volume, V, is
Z
m ¼ rðx; tÞdV (4.2)
V

For mass to be conserved, the Reynold’s transport relation gives

$
Z Z
rðx; tÞdV ¼ ½r_ þ rdivvdv ¼ 0 (4.3)
V V

Since (4.3) is to hold for any volume, V, the quantity within the square brackets must be
zero so that
r_ þ rdivv ¼ 0 (4.4)
An alternative is
vr
þ divðrvÞ ¼ 0 (4.5)
vt
Both (4.4) and (4.5) are known as the spatial form of the continuity equation.
The material form of the continuity equation is
Jr ¼ r0 (4.6)
where J is the Jacobian of the deformation and r0, r are the densities in the reference and
deformed states, respectively (Tadmor et al., 2012).

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM 99
4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM
In this section we are concerned with the causes of deformation in the sense that we want
to understand what happens on the boundaries of a body that results in flow being generated
within the body. There are two end member ways of loading the surface of a body. One is to
apply a system of forces and the other is to displace the surface in some manner. These two
loading methods are illustrated in Figure 4.1. In Figure 4.1(a) a dead weight of 100 kg is
placed upon the body and this induces a system of forces within the body that are essentially
reaction forces in response to the accelerations generated by application of the dead weight.
The deformation of the body is a direct response to these forces. If the material is ideally lin-
early elastic the displacements are linearly related to the forces through the elastic constants. If
the material is ideally linearly viscous then the displacement rates are linearly related to the
forces through the viscosity.
In Figure 4.1(b) the body is deformed by the application of a constant velocity at the bound-
ary. By Newton’s second law of motion there is no acceleration at the boundary of the body
and hence no applied force. However, a system of forces is generated in the body arising from
the deformation. If the material is ideally linearly elastic the forces generated in the material
are linearly related to the current displacement through the elastic constants. If the material is
ideally linearly viscous the forces in the material are related to the velocity by the viscosity.
If conducted in a laboratory the first of these experiments is called a creep experiment,
whereas the second corresponds to a displacement controlled experiment in an infinitely stiff
loading frame. The two loading regimes produce dual responses within the body. In the dead
load case the applied force controls the displacements and/or the displacement rates. In the
constant velocity case the displacement or the displacement rates control the forces within
the material. It is important to distinguish between the two end member loading regimes

FIGURE 4.1 The two end member ways of loading a body. (a) Dead weight loading. This corresponds to the
application of a constant force. (b) Constant velocity loading. This corresponds to loading by an infinitely stiff
loading frame.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

100 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

because entirely different deformation responses arise in the two cases, for instance with
respect to buckling of layers (Volume II) and fracture pattern formation (Chapter 8). These
two loading regimes are end members of a spectrum of possibilities including mixed
force/displacement combinations as well as constant stress and constant strain rate combi-
nations. It is an interesting exercise to speculate what the loading conditions are within the
lithosphere of the Earth. Mechanisms of generating a constant force on the boundaries of a
body of rock seem more difficult to contemplate except for the dead weight exerted by rocks
overlying a system of interest. This contrasts with velocity boundary conditions generated by
Plate motions.
However, the result of all loading regimes is the development of a system of forces, T,
within the deforming material and it is convenient to introduce the concept of stress at a point.
Stress is the force per unit area at a point in the material. Immediately, given the discussions in
Chapters 2 and 3 the question arises: Which area do you mean; the spatial or the material represen-
tation? The answer is that both representations are important for different problems. If one
uses the spatial (or current, or deformed) area then the stress is called the Cauchy stress, s.
If the material (or reference or undeformed) area is used the stress is called the first Piola-
Kirchhoff stress, P. There is a second Piola-Kirchhoff stress which is formed by transforming T
using the same affine transformation that links the undeformed (or reference) coordinates
to the spatial (or deformed) coordinates and dividing by the material representation of the
area (Fung, 1965, Section 16.2). These concepts are illustrated in Figures 4.2 and 4.3. The first
and second Piola-Kirchhoff stresses are also known as Lagrangian and Kirchhoff stresses,
respectively. It makes sense to refer to the Cauchy stress as an Eulerian stress and this occurs
sometimes. The second Piola-Kirchhoff stress is used in discussions of the general three
dimensional buckling of a layer in Volume II; unless otherwise specified we use the Cauchy
stress.
The dimensions of stress are [ML1T2] which is the same as the dimensions of momentum
flux per unit area. Thus one can consider the application of stress to a plane within a body as
the result of a momentum flux across that plane. This is the reason that the study of stress is
related to the balance of momentum. The diffusion of momentum (per unit area) is commonly

FIGURE 4.2 The first Piola-Kirchhoff and Cauchy stresses. The force, T, defined in the deformed state, acts
across the area da in the deformed state to define the Cauchy stress. This identical force acts across the equivalent
area dA in the undeformed state to define the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM 101

FIGURE 4.3 The first and second Piola-Kirchhoff stresses. (a) The first Kirchhoff stress is defined by the force T,
which is a spatial concept defined in the deformed state, acting across the equivalent area in the undeformed state.
(b) The force T is transformed by the same affine transformation that links the material coordinates to the spatial
coordinates to generate the Kirchhoff force TK. This force acts across the deformed area to define the second Piola-
Kirchhoff stress.

referred to as stress diffusion. For metamorphic systems the concept becomes important at
large length scales (say of the order of 10’s of kilometres) and we consider this in Volume II.
It is also convenient to define the normal stress and the shear stress across a surface
(Figure 4.4). The force T acting on a surface is resolved normal and parallel to the surface
of area Da to produce the normal force Tn and the shear force Ts. The quantities sn ¼ Tn/
Da and ss ¼ Ts/Da are called the normal stress and the shear stress.
These concepts can be extended to a general case of a cube at a point P in the body sub-
jected to a set of forces across its faces (Figure 4.5) so that on each face there are two shear

FIGURE 4.4 The concepts of normal and shear stresses. (a) A force applied to the surface (with area Da) of a
body is resolved into two components, one normal to the surface called the normal force and the other parallel to
the surface called the shear force. (b) The normal force and the shear force are both divided by the area of the surface
to form the normal stress, sn, and the shear stress, ss. If the area Da is the material (or reference) representation of
the area then the stresses are known as the Piola stresses. If the area is the spatial (or current or deformed) repre-
sentation of the area the stresses are known as the Cauchy stresses.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

102 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

FIGURE 4.5 The concept of stress at a point. (a) A small box with centroid at P (not shown) is subjected to forces
on its boundaries. (Forces on the hidden boundaries are not shown). These forces can be resolved into shear forces
parallel to the bounding surfaces and normal forces normal to the bounding surfaces. (b) The normal and shear
forces divided by the areas of the bounding surfaces give rise to six components of shear stress and three com-
ponents of normal stress. (Forces on the hidden bounding surfaces are not shown). Each component of stress is
labelled in the following manner: s[direction of surface normal, direction of action of the stress]. The stresses are shown as
positive stresses. They would be negative in the opposite directions. When the box shrinks to a point we have the
components of stress at P.

stresses and one normal stress. We do not include a detailed mathematical analysis of the
concepts presented above. One can access such discussions in many text books including
Tadmor et al. (2012, pp. 113e118) and Gurtin et al. (2010, Chapter 19). The outcome is that
both the Cauchy and the two Piola-Kirchhoff stresses are second order tensors. The Cauchy
stress is symmetrical if body torques (as would arise from a magnetic material in a magnetic
field) do not exist and can be written as
2 3
s11 s12 s13
6 7
s ¼ sij ¼ 4 s21 s22 s23 5 (4.7)
s31 s32 s33
with sij ¼ sji. The first Piola-Kirchhoff stress is asymmetrical while the second Piola-
Kirchhoff stress is symmetrical (Tadmor et al., 2012, pp. 123e126).
Since the Cauchy stress, s, is symmetrical it can be expressed as a representation ellipsoid
(Nye, 1957) e the stress ellipsoid e with principal axes (eigenvectors) given by the roots (eigen-
values) of
 
 s11  l s12 s13 

 
 s21 s22  l s23  ¼ 0
 
 s31 s32 s33  l 

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM 103
or,
l3 þ Is l2  IIs l þ IIIs ¼ 0
where Is, IIs, IIIs are the first three stress invariants of s given by
Is ¼ s11 þ s22 þ s33 ¼ s1 þ s2 þ s3
     
 s22 s23   s11 s13   s11 s12 
      ¼ s1 s2 þ s2 s3 þ s3 s1
IIs ¼  þ þ 
s   s31 s33   s21
32 s33 s 
22
  (4.8)
 s11 s12 s13 
 
 
III ¼  s21 s22 s23  ¼ s1 s2 s3
s 
 
s 
31 s32 s33

and s1, s2, and s3 are the principal stresses or eigenvalues of s.

If the stress is referred to the coordinate axes parallel to the principal axes of stress then
(4.7) becomes
2 3
s1 0 0
6 7
s ¼ 4 0 s2 0 5
0 0 s3

4.3.1 Shear and Normal Stresses on an Arbitrary Plane

Some problems arise where we need to calculate the normal and/or shear stresses across
an arbitrary plane and in an arbitrary direction in that plane, given a stress referred to arbi-
trary axes. This problem arises, for instance, in calculating the shear stresses across planes of
slip in a crystal during crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) development (Chapter
13). A way of addressing this problem is to express the components of s in terms of another
coordinate frame that has two axes parallel to the plane of interest and one axis parallel to the
direction of interest.
In Figure 4.6 we show two sets of Cartesian coordinate axes that are related to each other
by the direction cosines shown in Table 4.1. The rotation matrix describing the coordinate
transformation is R so that x ¼ Rx and
2a 3
11 a12 a13
7
R ¼ 4 a21 a22 a23 5 (4.9)
a31 a32 a33
A vector v referred to the coordinates x becomes the vector v ¼ Rv when referred to the
axes x. This transformation is used widely in problems related to crystal reorientation during
CPO development (Chapter 13).
A stress tensor s referred to the coordinates x becomes the tensor s when referred to the
axes x and is given by
s ¼ RsRT

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

104 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

FIGURE 4.6 Two sets of coordinate axes, x (black) and x (red) related by a rotation. The rotation is defined by
the direction cosines aij in Table 4.1 and the matrix (4.9).

TABLE 4.1 The Matrix of Direction Cosines Relating a New Set of

Coordinates, xi , to Another Set, xi
x1 x2 x3

x1 a11 a12 a13

x2 a21 a22 a23
x3 a31 a32 a33

The aij form the components of R in (4.9).

We illustrate the problem in two dimensions. Consider an arbitrary stress s referred to a

set of axes x1 and x2 and suppose we want to calculate the stresses s relative to a set of axes,
xi , inclined at 4 to x1 (Figure 4.7).
The rotation is described by a rotation matrix:
 
cos 4 sin 4
R ¼ (4.10)
sin 4 cos 4
The new tensor s is obtained as
 " #"
cos 4 sin 4
#
T cos 4 sin 4 s11 s12
s ¼ RsR ¼ (4.11)
sin 4 cos 4 s12 s22 sin 4 cos 4

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM 105

FIGURE 4.7 Transformation of stress in two dimensions. The coordinate axes x are related to x by a rotation
through 4. The stress s referred to the coordinate axes x is related to the stress referred to the coordinate axes x by
the transformation (4.11) where the rotation matrix is given by (4.10).

This gives
sxx ¼ sxx cos2 4 þ syy sin2 4 þ 2sxy sin 4 cos 4

syy ¼ sxx sin2 4 þ syy cos2 4  2sxy sin 4 cos 4

   
sxy ¼  sxx þ syy sin 4 cos 4 þ sxy cos2 4  sin2 4
If we use the identities sin2 4 ¼ 12 ð1  cos 24Þ and cos2 4 ¼ 12 ð1 þ cos 24Þ we obtain

sxx þ syy sxx  syy

sxx ¼ þ cos 24 þ sxy sin 24
2 2
sxx þ syy sxx  syy
syy ¼  cos 24  sxy sin 24 (4.12)
2 2
sxx  syy
sxy ¼  sin 24 þ sxy cos 24
2
These expressions are for stress fields referred to general coordinates. The equations
reduce to the familiar ones that appear in texts such as Jaeger (1969) and Means (1976)
when s is referred to the principal axes of strain so that sxx and syy are principal stresses
and sxy ¼ 0; they are the basis of the Mohr circle construction for stress.
One can also note that
2sxy
tan 24 ¼ when sxy ¼ 0 (4.13)
sxx  syy
This value of 4 gives the orientations of the principal axes of s.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

106 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

4.3.2 Stress Deviator and Invariants, the Octahedral Stress

Any tensor can be divided into a deviatoric and a spherical part (Gurtin et al., 2010, Section
2.7). By definition the deviatoric part of a tensor A is traceless which means that TrA ¼ 0 for
the deviator. The deviator is constructed by the rule
1
A0ij ¼ Aij  IA dij (4.14)
3
The spherical part is 13IA dij . The deviator of the Cauchy stress, the deviatoric stress, is
2 3
s11  ðIs =3Þ s12 s13
6 7
s0 ¼ 4 s21 s22  ðIs =3Þ s23 5
s
s31 s32 s33  ðI =3Þ
or,
1
s0ij ¼ sij  Is dij (4.15)
3
The spherical part of s is 13 ðs1 þ s2 þ s3 Þ, which is the mean stress. It is common to identify
this quantity with the hydrostatic pressure.
The deviatoric stress contains only information on shear stresses and is important because
there are many materials where the deformation process depends on the deviatoric stress and
is relatively insensitive to the spherical part of the stress (Chapter 6).

4.3.2.1 Invariants of the Deviatoric Stress

The invariants of the deviatoric stress are conventionally labelled J1, J2 and J3; J2 features
prominently in plasticity theory. These invariants are given by
J1 ¼ 0
1 1
J2 ¼ Is2  IIs ¼ s0ij s0ij (4.16)
3 2
1 2 1
J3 ¼ IIIs  Is IIs þ Is3 ¼ s0ij s0jk s0ki
3 27 3

4.3.2.2 The Octahedral Stress

The octahedral stress, soct is an important concept in plasticity theory and is represented
using Figure 4.8 which shows, in s1es2es3 space, planes equally inclined to the principal
stress axes. The direction cosines of these eight planes are p1ffiffi. They are known as the octa-
3
hedral planes. The resultant shear stresses on these planes are the octahedral shear stresses and
are given by
1h i
soct ¼ ðs1  s2 Þ2 þ ðs2  s3 Þ2 þ ðs3  s1 Þ2 (4.17)
9
The octahedral shear stress can be expressed in terms of the stress invariants as
1  s2
soct ¼ 2I  6IIs (4.18)
9

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 4.3 BALANCE OF LINEAR MOMENTUM 107

FIGURE 4.8 The octahedral stress. (a) The octahedral planes in principal stress space. (b) Construction on an
octahedral plane to find the magnitude and orientation of the octahedral shear stress given the values of the
principal stresses. After Nadai (1950), Figure 10e18.

Also,
3
J2 ¼ s2oct (4.19)
2
This last relation, introduced by Nadai (1950) plays an important role in plasticity theory
(Chapter 6). A useful construction to find soct on an octahedral plane (Nadai, 1950,
Figure 10e18) is shown in Figure 4.8(b).

4.3.3 Equilibrium Conditions

Many problems require knowledge of the conditions for equilibrium of a deforming body
under the influence of a general stress field that is varying with position within the body. By
equilibrium here we mean mechanical equilibrium where the body is stationary or moving
with constant velocity. In Figure 4.9 we show such an infinitesimal cube with faces parallel
to the coordinate axes. All the components of stress that exist in the x1 direction are shown
including that arising from the x1 component of a body force B per unit volume. The other
components comprise, for instance, the stress s11 and its variation through the body,
s11 þ vs 11
vx1 dx1 . Similar expressions can be written for the variation of s21 and s31 through
the body. In addition there is the component of the body force B1dx1dx2dx3.
For mechanical equilibrium in the x1 direction all the forces in the x1 direction must
balance:
 
vs11
s11 þ dx1 dx2 dx3  s11 dx2 dx3 þ
vx1
 
vs21
s21 þ dx2 dx3 dx1  s21 dx3 dx1 þ
vx2
 
vs31
s31 þ dx3 dx1 dx2  s31 dx1 dx2 þ B1 dx1 dx2 dx3 ¼ 0
vx3

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

108 4. THE BALANCE LAWS: FORCES INVOLVED IN DEFORMATION

FIGURE 4.9 Components of stress in the x1 direction for an infinitesimal cube. These components are s11, s21
and s31 together with the variations of these stresses through the cube. Also involved is the x1 component of the
body force per unit volume, B1.

If we divide by dx1 dx2 dx3 we obtain

vs11 vs21 vs31
þ þ þ B1 ¼ 0
vx1 vx1 vx1
Identical arguments hold for the x2 and x3 directions so that the complete set of equations
for mechanical equilibrium is
vs11 vs21 vs31
þ þ þ B1 ¼ 0
vx1 vx1 vx1
vs12 vs22 vs32
þ þ þ B2 ¼ 0 (4.20)
vx2 vx2 vx2
vs13 vs23 vs33
þ þ þ B3 ¼ 0
vx3 vx3 vx3
This set of equations can be obtained more elegantly using the Gauss divergence theorem
and we refer the reader to Fung (1965, Section 5.5), Tadmor et al. (2012, pp. 119e120) and Gur-
tin et al. (2010, Section 19.6). Similar derivations arrive also at the Eulerian form of the equa-
tions of motion or the balance of linear momentum:
divs þ rB ¼ ra (4.21)
which reduces to (4.20) at mechanical equilibrium when Dv Dt ¼ 0. (4.21) is also known as
i

Cauchy’s first law and is important because it says that given the forces on a body, one can
only determine the divergence of the stress not the stress itself (Truesdell, 1966). In order
to determine the stress one needs extra information concerning the material that makes up
the body in the form of constitutive laws for the material.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS

 RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING 109
One can perform the same exercise as above with respect to the moments of the shear
stresses about the centroid of the cube. The result is that
sij ¼ sji (4.22)
which states that the Cauchy stress tensor is symmetrical. This result is known as the balance
of angular momentum and derives from Cauchy’s second law (Truesdell, 1966).

Recommended Additional Reading

Fung, Y.C. (1965). Foundations of Solid Mechanics. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
A readable and extensive treatment of solid mechanics. The treatment of stress is particularly good.
Gurtin, M.E., Fried, E., Anand, L. (2010). The Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Continua. Cambridge University
Press.
This text includes a good but advanced discussion of balance laws and stress.
Jaeger, J.C. (1969). Elasticity, Fracture and Flow. Methuen.
An invaluable, classical treatment of mechanics.
Means, W.D. (1976). Stress and Strain. Springer-Verlag.
A discussion of stress concepts with an emphasis on the use of Mohr diagrams.
Nye, J.F. (1957). Physical Properties of Crystals. Oxford Press, 322 pp.
This book is an excellent introduction to stress and coordinate transformations.
Tadmor, E.B., Miller, R.E., Elliot, R.S. (2012). Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics. Cambridge University Press.
A modern treatment of mechanics with an excellent treatment of balance laws and stress.
Truesdell, C.A. (1966). Six Lectures on Modern Natural Philosophy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
An entertaining and informative view of mechanics, thermodynamics and the role of balance laws.

A. THE MECHANICS OF DEFORMED ROCKS