INDICIAL NOTATION (Cartesian Tensor)

Basic Rules
i)
ii)
iii)

A free index appears only once in each term of a tensor equation. The equation
then holds for all possible values of that index.
Summation is implied on an index, which appears twice.
No index can appear more than twice in any term.

Definition (Cartesian Tensors)

Consider a change of frame
x *i = Q ij x j , x j = Q ij x *i , det Q ij = 1 , Q ij Q ik = jk , Q ij Q kj = ik

The quantities T(x) , v (x) , and t (x) are said to be a scalar, a vector, or a second order
tensor if they transform according to the rules:
T* = T , v* = Q v , * = Q t QT
or in component forms:
v *i = Q ij v j , t *ij = Q ik Q jl t kl

Similarly, a third order tensor transforms as:

*ijk = Q im Q jn Q kl mnl

Tensor Operations
Gradient:

= ,i
x i
v j
(v ) ij =
= v j, i
x
() i =

Divergence:

v = v i ,i
( ) j =

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ij
x i

= ij,i

G. Ahmadi

Curl:
( U) i = ijk

U k
= ijk U k , j
x j

Here, ijk is the permutation symbol. The permutation symbol is used for
evaluating the determinant. e.g.,
det A = ijk A 1i A 2 j A 3k ,

The inner product of the permutation symbol satisfy the following identity:
ijk imn = jm kn jn km
Laplacian:
2 =

2
= ,ii
x i x i

Isotropic Tensors
Isotropic tensors are tensors, which are form invariant under all possible rotations
of the frame of reference. The most general forms of the isotropic tensors are:
Rank zero: All scalars isotropic
Rank one: None
Rank two: ij , a scalar and ij = Kronec ker delta
Rank three: ijk
Rank four: ij kl + ( ik jl + il jk ) + ( ik jl il jk )

ME637

G. Ahmadi