Static Elasticity in a Riemannian Manifold

We discuss the equations of elastostatics in aRiemannian manifold,which generalize those of classical elastostatics in the three-dimensional Euclidean space. Assuming that the deformation of an elastic body arising in response to given loads should minimize over a specific set of admissible deformations the total energy of the elastic body, we derive the equations of elastostatics in a Riemannian manifold first as variational equations, then as a boundary value problem. We then show that this boundary value problem possesses a solution if the loads are sufficiently small in a specific sense. The proof is constructive and provides an estimation for the size of the loads.