Buy article online - an online subscription or single-article purchase is required to access this article.
research papers
A practicable and simple averaging procedure of even-rank tensors is described, realizing an idea of Aleksandrov & Aizenberg [Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, (1967), 167, 1028-1031]. It possesses the properties of a geometric mean, identically obeying the physical condition = . The orientation distribution function f(g) enters the calculations in the form of the well known arithmetic mean. The general case is completed by the consideration of specific (twice-symmetric) fourth-rank elastic tensors. Calculations with real and modelled orientation distributions lead to results close to those of much more complicated self-consistent schemes.