Polyconvexity implies Hill's inequality in
arXiv:2606.18879 · doi:10.1016/j.euromechsol.2026.106296
Abstract
For compressible nonlinear isotropic elasticity it is well known that rank-one convexity, polyconvexity and the monotonicity of the Cauchy stress tensor with respect to the logarithmic stretch tensor (the true-stress-true-strain monotonicity, TSTS-M) are independent constitutive conditions which should, however, all together be satisfied for a physically meaningful description of idealized elastic materials. In the incompressible case, TSTS-M turns into Hill's inequality since the Cauchy stress reduces to the Kirchhoff stress . Hill's inequality requires then monotonicity of the Kirchhoff stress in terms of the logarithmic stretch tensor evaluated for incompressible response. In this paper we clarify how the a priori independent notions of Legendre-Hadamard ellipticity (LH), polyconvexity and Hill's inequality are nevertheless intimately connected. More precisely, by providing several alternative proofs, we show that both LH-ellipticity (rank-one convexity) and polyconvexity imply the weak Hill inequality in the incompressible two-dimensional case.
10 pages