Reflecting new developments in the study of Saint-Venant’s problem, Classical and Generalized Models of Elastic Rods focuses on the deformation of elastic cylinders for three models of continuum: classical elastic continuum, Cosserat elastic body, and porous elastic material.

The author presents a method to construct Saint-Venant’s solutions, minimum energy characterizations of these solutions, and a proof of Saint-Venant’s principle. He then discusses the deformation of nonhomogenous and isotropic cylinders as well as the problem of loaded anisotropic elastic cylinders. The book also deals with the deformation of cylinders within the linearized theory of homogeneous Cosserat elastic solids, the deformation of nonhomogeneous Cosserat cylinders, and the extension, bending, and torsion of porous elastic cylinders.

With numerous results not found in related texts, this book provides a unique, unified point of view in the theory of the deformation of elastic cylinders.