Counter-examples to the high-order version and strong version of the generalized Eshelby conjecture for anisotropic media

TL;DR

This paper provides counter-examples to the generalized high-order Eshelby conjecture in anisotropic media, showing non-ellipsoidal inclusions can produce uniform polynomial elastic strains, challenging previous assumptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of non-ellipsoidal inclusions that induce uniform polynomial elastic strains in anisotropic media, countering the generalized Eshelby conjecture.

Findings

Counter-examples for quadratic and higher polynomial eigenstrains.

Existence of non-ellipsoidal inclusions with uniform strain fields.

Reveals complexity beyond classical ellipsoidal inclusion models.

Abstract

In this work, we prove that in anisotropic media possessing cubic, transversely isotropic, orthotropic, and monoclinic symmetries, there exist non-ellipsoidal inclusions that can transform particular quadratic eigenstrains into quadratic elastic strain fields in them. Further, we prove that in these anisotropic media, there exist non-ellipsoidal inclusions that can transform particular polynomial eigenstrains of even degrees into polynomial elastic strain fields of the same even degrees in them. A sufficient condition for the existence of those counter-examples is provided. These results constitute counter-examples, in the strong sense, to the generalized high-order Eshelby conjecture (inverse problem of Eshelby's polynomial conservation theorem) for polynomial eigenstrains in both anisotropic media and the isotropic medium (quadratic eigenstrain only). In addition, we also show that there are counter-examples to the strong version of the generalized Eshelby conjecture for uniform eigenstrains in these anisotropic media. These findings reveal striking richness of the uniformity between the eigenstrains and the correspondingly induced elastic strains in inclusions in anisotropic media beyond the canonical ellipsoidal inclusion.