Mohammad Altaf Hossain

Assistant Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering
Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology
Fundamental concepts of stress and strain,
Mechanical properties of materials;
Strain energy;
Stresses and strains in member subjected to tension,
compression, shear and temperature changes.
Torsional stress in shafts and tubes with different cross section.
Helical springs,
Stresses in thin walled pressure vessels.
Bending moment and shear force diagrams of beams and
frames,
Flexural and shear stress in beam (Straight & Curve), Inelastic
Bending of Beams.
Introduction:
Two fundamental concepts in design are
stress and strain. If we want to have a
successful design, we have to understand
these two concepts, their behavior, and their
effect on every designed element. As a
matter of fact, we have to design every
element to support some amount of stress
and strain.
To be able to understand these fundamental concepts, we have to
first understand the theory of elasticity, which provides the basis
for the proper stress and strain analysis. This theory provides
more powerful methods to solve certain engineering problems,
principally for three-dimensional elements. For example, it
provides the means to investigate stresses in regions of sharp
variation in cross section of shafts. As it is known, high stress
concentrations occur at reentrant corners and that is the zone
where cracks are likely to start. If we are able to avoid those zones,
or minimize the stress effect, we will have a more efficient element,
which will last more, and will have a longer service life.
When designing an element, we always want to work on the
elastic zone. As said by Timoshenko, “the fundamental problem
for the designer is to establish the proportions of the members of
the structure such that it will approach the condition of a perfectly
elastic body under all service conditions” (Timoshenko, 1962). This
is because we do not want our element to suffer permanent
deformation, since this will affect its performance and its service
life, and what we want to achieve is an element with the best
characteristics to last more.
 Stress is defined as force per unit area. It has the
same units as pressure, and in fact pressure is one
special variety of stress. However, stress is a
much more complex quantity than pressure
because it varies both with direction and with the
surface it acts on.
Compression Stress: Stress that acts to shorten an object.
Tensile Stress: Stress that acts to lengthen an object.
Normal Stress: Stress that acts perpendicular to a surface. Can be
either compressional or tensional.
Shear Stress: Stress that acts parallel to a surface. It can cause one
object to slide over another. It also tends to deform originally
rectangular objects into parallelograms. The most general definition is
that shear acts to change the angles in an object.
Hydrostatic Stress (usually compressional) that is uniform in all
directions. A scuba diver experiences hydrostatic stress. Stress in the
earth is nearly hydrostatic. The term for uniform stress in the earth is
lithostatic.
Directed Stress: Stress that varies with direction. Stress under a stone
slab is directed; there is a force in one direction but no counteracting
forces perpendicular to it. This is why a person under a thick slab gets
squashed but a scuba diver under the same pressure doesn't. The
scuba diver feels the same force in all directions.
Strain is defined as the amount of deformation an
object experiences compared to its original size
and shape. For example, if a block 10 cm on a side
is deformed so that it becomes 9 cm long, the
strain is (10-9)/10 or 0.1 (sometimes expressed in
percent, in this case 10 percent.) Note that strain is
dimensionless.
Longitudinal or Linear Strain: Strain that changes the length of a line
without changing its direction. Can be either compressional or tensional.
Compression Longitudinal strain that shortens an object.
Tension Longitudinal strain that lengthens an object.
Shear Strain that changes the angles of an object. Shear causes lines to
rotate.
Infinitesimal Strain: Strain that is tiny, a few percent or less. Allows a
number of useful mathematical simplifications and approximations.
Finite Strain: Strain larger than a few percent. Requires a more
complicated mathematical treatment than infinitesimal strain.
Homogeneous Strain: Uniform strain. Straight lines in the original object
remain straight. Parallel lines remain parallel. Circles deform to ellipses.
Note that this definition rules out folding, since an originally straight
layer has to remain straight.
Inhomogeneous Strain: How real geology behaves. Deformation varies
from place to place. Lines may bend and do not necessarily remain
parallel.
Elastic Material deforms under stress but returns to its original size and
shape when the stress is released. There is no permanent deformation.
Some elastic strain, like in a rubber band, can be large, but in rocks it is
usually small enough to be considered infinitesimal.
Brittle Material deforms by fracturing. Glass is brittle. Rocks are typically
brittle at low temperatures and pressures.
Ductile Material deforms without breaking. Metals are ductile. Many
materials show both types of behavior. They may deform in a ductile
manner if deformed slowly, but fracture if deformed too quickly or too
much. Rocks are typically ductile at high temperatures or pressures.
Viscous Materials that deform steadily under stress. Purely viscous
materials like liquids deform under even the smallest stress. Rocks may
behave like viscous materials under high temperature and pressure.
Plastic Material does not flow until a threshold stress has been exceeded.
Viscoelastic Combines elastic and viscous behavior. Models of glacio-
isostasy frequently assume a viscoelastic earth: the crust flexes elastically
and the underlying mantle flows viscously.
To understand the concept of
elastic zone, we must first take
a look at the stress-strain
diagram. The one presented
here is for typical structural
steel in tension, and it is one of
the most typical curves, even if
there are other kinds. The point
from 1 to 2 represents the zone
where the relationship between
stress and Figure 1 strain is
proportional, and that is why
the point 2 is called the
proportional limit. The slope of
the straight line from 1 to 2 is
called the modulus of elasticity.
After passing the proportional limit, the stress keeps increasing, as it
does the strain, but strain increases more rapidly. As a consequence
of this, the curve and the slope decreases until reaching a point where
it becomes almost horizontal, and then the slope becomes negative
until reaching point 3. At this point, considerable elongation occurs
with no noticeable increase in the tensile force, phenomenon known
as yielding. So point 3 is known as yield point. The stress at this point
is known as the yield stress.
From point 3 to point 4 of the curve, the material starts to suffer some
changes in its crystalline structure, causing an effect known as strain
hardening. This allows the material to increase its resistance for
further deformation. At point 4, the load reaches its maximum value,
and that is why it is called the ultimate tensile strength. By strength,
it must be understood as the capacity of a structure to resist loads
(Gere & Timoshenko, 1997). This can be taken also as the failure load.
The corresponding stress for this point is called ultimate stress. After
point 4, the load decreases until reaching point 5, where fracture
occurs.
A short post constructed from a hollow circular tube of
aluminum supports a compressive load of 26 kips. The inner
and outer diameters of the tube are d1 is 4.0 in. and d2 is 4.5
in., respectively, and its length is 16 in. The shortening of the
post due to the load is measured as 0.012 in. Determine the
compressive stress and strain in the post. (Disregard the
weight of the post itself, and assume that the post does not
buckle under the load.)