Fractional calculus for continuum mechanics – anisotropic non-locality

In this paper, a generalisation of previous author’s formulation of fractional continuum mechanics for the case of anisotropic non-locality is presented. The discussion includes a review of competitive formulations available in literature. The overall concept is based on the fractional deformation gradient which is non-local due to fractional derivative definition. The main advantage of the proposed formulation is its structure, analogous to the general framework of classical continuum mechanics. In this sense, it allows to define similar physical and geometrical meaning of introduced objects. The theoretical discussion is illustrated by numerical examples assuming anisotropy limited to single direction.