ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers the general case of bodies that are allowed to undergo arbitrarily large deformations as well as rigid-body translations and rotations. It employs an approach to obtain a Newton's method procedure for solving the resulting nonlinear equations. The chapter begins with a discussion on large-deformation kinematics and defines the relevant deformation tensors. It illustrates the process of recasting the principle of virtual work from the deformed configuration into an equivalent expression in the original configuration. The chapter concludes with two case studies. In the first case study, the author considers a simple truss structure and observes the phenomenon of snap-through buckling after the applied load reaches a critical value. In the second case study, the reader is taken through a large-deformation analysis of a nonlinearly elastic (rubber) test specimen.
