On local uniqueness in nonlinear elastodynamics

A conservation law, derived from properties of the energy-momentum tensor, is used to establish uniqueness of suitably constrained solutions to the initial boundary value problem of nonlinear elastodynamics. It is assumed that the region is star-shaped, that the data are affine, and that the strain-energy function is strictly rank-one convex and quasi-convex. It is shown how these assumptions may be successively relaxed provided that the class of considered solutions is correspondingly further constrained. © 2006 Brown University.