The deformation gradient F contains the full information about the local rotation and deformation of the material. It also shows, for example, how a small line segment in the undeformed body, dX, is rotated and stretched into a line segment in the deformed body, dx, since dx = F dX. As F is volume preserving this implies that det F = 1.
Syntax
F = deformationGradientTensor(varargin)