The Method of Virtual Power in Continuum Mechanics. Part 2: Microstructure

The advantages of a systematic application of the method of virtual power are exemplified by the study of continuous media with microstructure. Results on micromorphic media of order one are easily found and the equations of motion for the general micromorphic medium are established for the first time. Various interesting special cases, which have been previously considered in the literature, may be derived upon imposing some convenient constraints. The paper ends with some comparisons with other related work.