Weak local minimizers in finite elasticity

This paper deals with necessary conditions and sufficient conditions for a weak local minimum of the energy of a hyperelastic body. We consider anisotropic bodies of arbitrary shape, subject to prescribed displacements on a given portion of the boundary. As an example, we consider the uniaxial stretching of a cylinder, in the two cases of compressible and incompressible material. In both cases we find that there is a continuous path across the natural state, made of local energy minimizers. For the Blatz-Ko compressible material and for the Mooney-Rivlin incompressible material, explicit estimates of the minimizing path are given and compared with those available in the literature.