Abstract or Additional Information
The specification of constitutive and evolution equations in problems of growth, remodeling and aging gives rise to various differential geometric entities that can be subsumed under the general notion of material groupoid. After informally reviewing the definition and properties of groupoids in general, several material groupoids will be introduced that reflect physical characteristics of evolutive process, such as anelastic evolution, preservation of material symmetry type and morphogenesis. The consequences of making a sharp distinction between various properties of the material groupoids will be interpreted in physical terms, with particular attention to the canonical decomposition of an arbitrary evolutive process into remodeling and aging components.