The use of complex valued functions for the solution of three-dimensional elasticity problems

For the treatment of plane elasticity problems the use of complex functions has turned out to be an elegant and effective method. The complex formulation of stresses and displacements resulted from the introduction of a real stress function which has to satisfy the 2-dimensional biharmonic equation. It can be expressed therefore with the aid of complex functions. In this paper the fundamental idea of characterizing the elasticity problem in the...