Conservation laws and the material momentum tensor for the elastic dielectric

It is shown that a Langrangian formulation of continuum mechanics can provide not only the equations of motion, but the conservation laws related to the material symmetries in a perfect continuum interacting with an external electric field. These conservation laws in the presence of defects lead to the path-independent integrals widely used in fracture mechanics. They are basically related to the “material force” on a defect in a continuum. The quantity playing the role of the physical stress tensor in this formulation is the material momentum tensor. A material force in the form of a path-independent integral for the elastic dielectric is derived employing Toupin's [1] formulations.