Computational Aspects of the Symmetric Eigenvalue Problem of Second Order Tensors

Abstract

The symmetric eigenvalue problem of second order tensors or 3 x 3 matrices, respectively, is a frequently treated topic in the field of Computational Mechanics because there exist analytical solutions. However, there are several known difficulties in the numerical computation of the analytical formulae which are recapitulated in this article. In order to show this, a sensitivity analysis is applied and a comparison of different procedures to calculate the eigenvalues, eigenvectors and eigendyades is carried out.