General Expression of Elastic Tensor for Anisotropic Materials

In order to formulate a general expression of elastic tensor for anisotropic materials, a method of tensor derivative is used for determining relationship between fourth-order elastic tensor and second-order structure tensor that has satisfied material symmetrical conditions. From this general expression of elastic tensor, specific expressions of elastic tensor for different anisotropic materials, such as isotropic materials, transverse isotropic materials and orthogonal-anisotropic materials, can be deduced. This expression underlies the scalar description of anisotropic factors, which are used for classifying and analyzing anisotropic materials. Cubic crystals are analyzed macroscopically by means of the general expression and anisotropic factor.