无穷小应变理论 （infinitesimal strain theory）也稱為无限小应变理论 ，是连续介质力学 中描述固體形變 的數學分析法，適用在其形變量遠小於物體尺寸（無窮小量 ）的情形，因此若是均質材料，可以假設材料每一點的結構性質（密度 及剛度 ）都相等，不會隨變形而不同。
在此假設下，連續介质力學的方程可以簡化。此作法也稱為是小形變理論 、小位移理論 或小位移梯度理論 。无穷小应变理论和有限应变理论 的假設恰好相反，後者假設形變量沒有遠小於物體尺寸。
无穷小应变理论常用在土木工程 及機械工程 中，其中會進行結構的應力分析 混凝土 及钢 製成，而結構設計的目標也是在一般結構荷重 下，希望其形變量可以降到最小。不過若分析的結構物是較細較薄，較容易變形的元件（例如桿、平板及薄殼），用无限小应变理论來分析就不可靠了[ 1]
在連續體 的無限小變形中（位移梯度張量 遠小於1，也就是
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{\displaystyle \mathbf {E} ={\frac {1}{2}}\left(\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} +(\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}+(\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} \right)\approx {\frac {1}{2}}\left(\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} +(\nabla _{\mathbf {X} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}\right)}
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{\displaystyle E_{KL}={\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial U_{K}}{\partial X_{L}}}+{\frac {\partial U_{L}}{\partial X_{K}}}+{\frac {\partial U_{M}}{\partial X_{K}}}{\frac {\partial U_{M}}{\partial X_{L}}}\right)\approx {\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial U_{K}}{\partial X_{L}}}+{\frac {\partial U_{L}}{\partial X_{K}}}\right)}
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{\displaystyle \mathbf {e} ={\frac {1}{2}}\left(\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} +(\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}-\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} (\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}\right)\approx {\frac {1}{2}}\left(\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} +(\nabla _{\mathbf {x} }\mathbf {u} )^{T}\right)}
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{\displaystyle e_{rs}={\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{r}}{\partial x_{s}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{s}}{\partial x_{r}}}-{\frac {\partial u_{k}}{\partial x_{r}}}{\frac {\partial u_{k}}{\partial x_{s}}}\right)\approx {\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{r}}{\partial x_{s}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{s}}{\partial x_{r}}}\right)}
線性化意味著連續體中特定點的物質坐標（material coordinate）和空間坐標（spatial coordinate）差異很小，拉格朗日描述和尤拉描述近似相等。因此，物質位移梯度張量和空間位移梯度張量的分量也相近相等。可得
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{\displaystyle \mathbf {E} \approx \mathbf {e} \approx {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}={\frac {1}{2}}\left((\nabla \mathbf {u} )^{T}+\nabla \mathbf {u} \right)}
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{\displaystyle E_{KL}\approx e_{rs}\approx \varepsilon _{ij}={\frac {1}{2}}\left(u_{i,j}+u_{j,i}\right)}
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{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\varepsilon _{ij}&={\frac {1}{2}}\left(u_{i,j}+u_{j,i}\right)\\&={\begin{bmatrix}\varepsilon _{11}&\varepsilon _{12}&\varepsilon _{13}\\\varepsilon _{21}&\varepsilon _{22}&\varepsilon _{23}\\\varepsilon _{31}&\varepsilon _{32}&\varepsilon _{33}\\\end{bmatrix}}\\&={\begin{bmatrix}{\frac {\partial u_{1}}{\partial x_{1}}}&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{1}}{\partial x_{2}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{2}}{\partial x_{1}}}\right)&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{1}}{\partial x_{3}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{3}}{\partial x_{1}}}\right)\\{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{2}}{\partial x_{1}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{1}}{\partial x_{2}}}\right)&{\frac {\partial u_{2}}{\partial x_{2}}}&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{2}}{\partial x_{3}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{3}}{\partial x_{2}}}\right)\\{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{3}}{\partial x_{1}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{1}}{\partial x_{3}}}\right)&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{3}}{\partial x_{2}}}+{\frac {\partial u_{2}}{\partial x_{3}}}\right)&{\frac {\partial u_{3}}{\partial x_{3}}}\\\end{bmatrix}}\end{aligned}}}
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{\displaystyle {\begin{bmatrix}\varepsilon _{xx}&\varepsilon _{xy}&\varepsilon _{xz}\\\varepsilon _{yx}&\varepsilon _{yy}&\varepsilon _{yz}\\\varepsilon _{zx}&\varepsilon _{zy}&\varepsilon _{zz}\\\end{bmatrix}}={\begin{bmatrix}{\frac {\partial u_{x}}{\partial x}}&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{x}}{\partial y}}+{\frac {\partial u_{y}}{\partial x}}\right)&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{x}}{\partial z}}+{\frac {\partial u_{z}}{\partial x}}\right)\\{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{y}}{\partial x}}+{\frac {\partial u_{x}}{\partial y}}\right)&{\frac {\partial u_{y}}{\partial y}}&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{y}}{\partial z}}+{\frac {\partial u_{z}}{\partial y}}\right)\\{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{z}}{\partial x}}+{\frac {\partial u_{x}}{\partial z}}\right)&{\frac {1}{2}}\left({\frac {\partial u_{z}}{\partial y}}+{\frac {\partial u_{y}}{\partial z}}\right)&{\frac {\partial u_{z}}{\partial z}}\\\end{bmatrix}}}
進一步來說，因為形變梯度可以表示成
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{\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {F}}={\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {u} +{\boldsymbol {I}}}
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{\displaystyle {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}={\frac {1}{2}}\left({\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}+{\boldsymbol {F}}\right)-{\boldsymbol {I}}}
另外，根據拉格朗日有限應變張量及尤拉有限應變張量的通用表示法，可得
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{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\mathbf {E} _{(m)}&={\frac {1}{2m}}(\mathbf {U} ^{2m}-{\boldsymbol {I}})={\frac {1}{2m}}[({\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}{\boldsymbol {F}})^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\frac {1}{2m}}[\{{\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {u} +({\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {u} )^{T}+{\boldsymbol {I}}\}^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}\\\mathbf {e} _{(m)}&={\frac {1}{2m}}(\mathbf {V} ^{2m}-{\boldsymbol {I}})={\frac {1}{2m}}[({\boldsymbol {F}}{\boldsymbol {F}}^{T})^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}\end{aligned}}}
^ Boresi, Arthur P. (Arthur Peter), 1924-. Advanced mechanics of materials. Schmidt, Richard J. (Richard Joseph), 1954- 6th. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 2003: 62. ISBN 1601199228OCLC 430194205
![{\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\mathbf {E} _{(m)}&={\frac {1}{2m}}(\mathbf {U} ^{2m}-{\boldsymbol {I}})={\frac {1}{2m}}[({\boldsymbol {F}}^{T}{\boldsymbol {F}})^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\frac {1}{2m}}[\{{\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {u} +({\boldsymbol {\nabla }}\mathbf {u} )^{T}+{\boldsymbol {I}}\}^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}\\\mathbf {e} _{(m)}&={\frac {1}{2m}}(\mathbf {V} ^{2m}-{\boldsymbol {I}})={\frac {1}{2m}}[({\boldsymbol {F}}{\boldsymbol {F}}^{T})^{m}-{\boldsymbol {I}}]\approx {\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }}\end{aligned}}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/3f23afe38e5f63d74050dbaf5d362b65b4da1ca0)
