Modeling of electrodynamic processes by means of mechanical analogies

Abstract

AbstractThis study continues the line of earlier research in mechanical models of electrodynamic processes suggested in previous works. The basic steps we take to construct these models are: to formulate equations of a special type Cosserat continuum, and then to suggest analogies between quantities characterizing the stress–strain state of the continuum and quantities characterizing electrodynamic processes. In addition to the previously introduced mechanical analogies of the electric field vector and the magnetic induction vector, in this paper we provide mechanical analogies of the magnetic field vector, the electric induction vector, the electric current density and the electric charge density. In the framework of the suggested model, we obtain a set of differential equations that coincide with the first Maxwell's equation (the one with the displacement current term), the Gauss law for electric field and the charge conservation law. As a debatable question, we discuss the possibility of modifying the Maxwell–Faraday equation and the Gauss law for magnetic field.