This book provides novel insights into two fundamental subjects in solid mechanics: virtual
work and shape change. The author explains how the principle of virtual work represents a tool
for analysis of the mechanical effects of the evolution of the shape of a system how it can be
applied to observations and experiments and how it may be adapted to produce predictive
theories of numerous phenomena. The book is divided into three parts. The first relates the
principle of virtual work to what we observe with our eyes the second demonstrates its
flexibility on the basis of many examples and the third applies the principle to predict the
motion of solids with large deformations. Examples of both usual and unusual shape changes are
presented and equations of motion some of which are entirely new are derived for smooth and
non-smooth motions associated with for instance systems of disks systems of balls classical
and non-classical small deformation theories systems involving volume and surface damage
systems with interactions at a distance (e.g. solids reinforced by fibers) systems involving
porosity collisions and fracturing of solids.
