Virtual power principle and Maxwell's tensor: which comes first?
ISSN: 0332-1649
Article publication date: 15 November 2011
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the status of Maxwell's tensor with respect to the virtual power principle (VPP).
Design/methodology/approach
Mathematical analysis is employed.
Findings
The VPP, logically stronger, is more fundamental. Maxwell's tensor derives from it, under further restrictive assumptions, and hence, its range of applicability is limited. In particular, it fails to deal with some aspects of magnetostriction.
Originality/value
The paper shows that when magnetic constitutive laws depend, locally, on strain, the body force is not, as a rule, the divergence of the Maxwell tensor. People who intend to compute forces this way should be wary of that.
Keywords
Citation
Bossavit, A. (2011), "Virtual power principle and Maxwell's tensor: which comes first?", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 30 No. 6, pp. 1804-1814. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321641111168110
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited