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### Linear elastic materials

Linear elastic materials are characterized by an elastic potential of which only the quadratic terms in the strain are kept. It can be defined in a isotropic, orthotropic or fully anisotropic version. Isotropic linear elastic materials are characterized by their Young's modulus and Poisson's coefficient. Common steels are usually isotropic. Orthotropic materials, such as wood or cubic single crystals are characterized by 9 nonzero constants and fully anisotropic materials by 21 constants. For elastic materials the keyword *ELASTIC is used.