INTRODUCTION TO

STRENGTH OF MATERIALS

COURSE
INTRODUCTION
 COURSE GOALS

 This course has two specific goals:

 (i)To introduce students to concepts of
stresses and strain; shearing force and
bending; as well as torsion and deflection of
different structural elements.

 (ii)To develop theoretical and analytical skills

relevant to the areas mentioned in (i) above.
 Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students
should be able to:

 (i) Understand and solve simple problems involving

stresses and strain in one and two dimensions.

 (ii) Understand the difference between statically

determinate and indeterminate problems.

 (iii) Understand and carry out the properties of materials in

tension, compression as well as hardness and impact tests.
 COURSE OBJECTIVES CONTD.

 (iv) Analyze stresses in two dimensions and

understand the concepts of principal stresses and
the use of Mohr circles to solve two-dimensional
stress problems.

 (v) Draw shear force and bending moment diagrams

of simple beams and understand the relationships
between loading intensity, shearing force and
bending moment.

 (vi) Compute the bending stresses in beams with

one or two materials.
 Engineering Mechanics
 Solid mechanics
 Fluid mechanics
 Transferring the force from their point of
application to supports the materials of the
structure and develops resisting forces and
undergoes deformation.
 The effects of those resisting force on the structure
element is treated under the subjected strength of
material and moderately it is called solid
mechanics
 Fluid mechanics: dealing the force acting on
the liquid and gas
 Strength of material; is the branch of the major
discipline of solid mechanics.
 This subject is concerned with calculation of the
response of structure that is subjected to
external loads
CHAPTER ONE

STRESS AND STRAIN

RELATIONS
 1.1 DIRECT OR NORMAL
STRESS
 When a force is transmitted through a body,
the body tends to change its shape or
deform. The body is said to be strained.

 Direct Stress = Applied Force (F)

Cross Sectional Area (A)

 Units: Usually N/m2 (Pa), N/mm2, MN/m2,

GN/m2 or N/cm2
 Note: 1 N/mm2 = 1 MN/m2 = 1 MPa
 Direct Stress Contd.

 Direct stress may be tensile,  t or

compressive, c and result from forces
acting perpendicular to the plane of the
cross-section

Tension

Compression
 1.2 Direct or Normal Strain
 When loads are applied to a body, some
deformation will occur resulting to a
change in dimension.
 Consider a bar, subjected to axial tensile
loading force, F.If the bar extension is dl
and its original length (before loading) is
L, then tensile strain is:
 Direct or Normal Strain Contd.

F F
L dl

 Direct Strain ( ) = Change in Length

Original Length
i.e.  = dl/L
 Direct or Normal Strain Contd.
 As strain is a ratio of lengths, it is
dimensionless.
 Similarly, for compression by amount,
dl: Compressive strain = - dl/L
 Note: Strain is positive for an increase
in dimension and negative for a
reduction in dimension.
1.3 Shear Stress and Shear Strain
 Shear stresses are produced by
equal and opposite parallel forces
not in line.
 The forces tend to make one part
of the material slide over the other
part.
 Shear stress is tangential to the
area over which it acts.
 Shear Stress and Shear Strain
Contd.
x C’
C D D’
F
P Q
L
 S R

A B
Shear strain is the distortion produced by shear stress on
an element or rectangular block as above. The shear
strain,  (gamma) is given as:
 = x/L = tan 
Shear Stress and Shear Strain
Concluded

 For small  ,  
 Shear strain then becomes the change
in the right angle.
 It is dimensionless and is measured in
radians.
 1.3 Complementary Shear Stress

P 1
Q
2

2 S R
1 b

Consider a small element, PQRS of the material in the

last diagram. Let the shear stress created on faces PQ
and RS be  1
Complimentary Shear Stress
Contd.

 The element is therefore subjected to a

couple and for equilibrium, a balancing
couple must be brought into action.
 This will only arise from the shear stress on
faces QR and PS.

 Let the shear stresses on these faces be

. 2
Complimentary Shear Stress
Contd.

 Let t be the thickness of the material at

right angles to the paper and lengths of
sides of element be a and b as shown.
 For equilibrium, clockwise couple =
anticlockwise couple
 i.e. Force on PQ (or RS) x a = Force
on QR (or PS) x b
 1 x b t x a  2 x at x b
i. e.  1  2
Complimentary Shear Stress
Concluded

 Thus: Whenever a shear stress occurs on

a plane within a material, it is automatically
accompanied by an equal shear stress on
the perpendicular plane.
 The direction of the complementary shear
stress is such that their couple opposes that
of the original shear stresses.
1.4 Volumetric Strain
 Defined as the change in volume
divided by original volume.
 Strain produced change in volume
 The change in volume can be calculated
from the axial and lateral strains
 Consider a small rectangular paralleled
piped element of isotropic material cut
from a bar in tension. The element has side
lengths a, b, and c in the x, y, and z
directions, respectively.
 The dashed line in the fig below shows the shape
of the element after the load is applied.

 The elongation of the element in the direction

of loading is aε, where ε is the axial strain.
 Because the lateral strains are - νε the lateral
dimensions decrease by bνε and cνε in the y and
z directions respectively.
 Thus, the final dimensions of the element are a (1 +
ε), b (1 - νε), and c (1 - νε), and the final volume
is

 Expanding this expression will give:-

 As ε is very small compared to unity, its square and

cube are negligible in comparison to ε itself.
Therefore, the final volume of the element is
 The change in volume is, V = V – V
f o

 The unit volume change, i.e. volumetric strain,

1.5 Elasticity and Hooke’s Law

 All solid materials deform when they are

stressed, and as stress is increased,
deformation also increases.
 If a material returns to its original size and
shape on removal of load causing
deformation, it is said to be elastic.
 If the stress is steadily increased, a point is
reached when, after the removal of load, not
all the induced strain is removed.
 This is called the elastic limit.
Hooke’s Law
 States that providing the limit of
proportionality of a material is not exceeded,
the stress is directly proportional to the strain
produced.
 If a graph of stress and strain is plotted as
load is gradually applied, the first portion of
the graph will be a straight line.
 The slope of this line is the constant of
proportionality called modulus of Elasticity, E
or Young’s Modulus.
 It is a measure of the stiffness of a material.
 Hooke’s Law
Direct stress 
Modulus of Elasticity, E = 
Direct strain 

Shear stress 
Also: For Shear stress: Modulus of rigidity or shear modulus, G = 
Shear strain 
Stress-Strain Relations of Mild
Steel
 Equation For Extension

From the above equations:

 F/A F L
E   
 dl / L A dl
F L
dl 
AE

This equation for extension is

very important
 1.6 Factor of Safety
 The load which any member of a machine
carries is called working load, and stress
produced by this load is the working stress.
 Obviously, the working stress must be less
than the yield stress, tensile strength or the
ultimate stress.
 This working stress is also called the
permissible stress or the allowable stress or
the design stress.
Factor of Safety Contd.
 Some reasons for factor of safety
include the inexactness or inaccuracies
in the estimation of stresses and the
non-uniformity of some materials.

Ultimate or yield stress

Factor of safety =
Design or working stress

Note: Ultimate stress is used for materials e.g.

concrete which do not have a well-defined yield point,
or brittle materials which behave in a linear manner
up to failure. Yield stress is used for other materials
e.g. steel with well defined yield stress.
1.7 Practical Class Details
 Each Student will have two practical
classes: one on :
 Stress/strain characteristics and
 Hardness and impact tests.
 (i) The stress/strain characteristics
practical will involve the measurement
of the characteristics for four metals,
copper, aluminium, steel and brass
using a tensometer.
Practical Class Details Contd.
 The test will be done up to fracture of the
metals.
 This test will also involve the accurate
measurement of the modulus of elasticity for
one metal.
 There is the incorporation of an
extensometer for accurate measurement of
very small extensions to produce an
accurate stress-strain graphs.
 The test will be done up to elastic limit.
1.8 MATERIALS TESTING
 Tensile Test: This is the most common test
carried out on a material.
 It is performed on a machine capable of
applying a true axial load to the test
specimen. The machine must have:
 (i) A means of measuring the applied load
and
 (ii) An extensometer is attached to the test
specimen to determine its extension.
 Tensile Test Contd.
 Notes: 1. For iron or steel, the limit of
proportionality and the elastic limit are
virtually same but for other materials like
non-ferrous materials, they are different.
 2. Up to maximum or ultimate stress, there
is no visible reduction in diameter of
specimen but after this stress, a local
reduction in diameter called necking occurs
and this is more well defined as the load falls
off up to fracture point.
 Original area of specimen is used for
analysis.
 Results From a Tensile Test
Stress up to lim it of proportionality
(a) Modulus of Elasticity, E
Strain
(b) Yield Stress or Proof Stress (See below)
Increase in gauge length
(c) Percentage elongation = x 100
Original gauge length
Original area  area at fracture
(d) Percentage reduction in area = x 100
Original area
Maximum load
(e) Tensile Strength =
Original cross sec tional area
The percentage of elongation and percentage reduction in area give an indication of the
ductility of the material i.e. its ability to withstand strain without fracture occurring.
Proof Stress
 High carbon steels, cast iron and most of the
non-ferrous alloys do not exhibit a well
defined yield as is the case with mild steel.
 For these materials, a limiting stress called
proof stress is specified, corresponding to a
non-proportional extension.
 The non-proportional extension is a specified
percentage of the original length e.g. 0.05,
0.10, 0.20 or 0.50%.
 Determination of Proof Stress

Stress
Proof Stress P

Strain
A
The proof stress is obtained by drawing AP parallel to the initial
slope of the stress/strain graph, the distance, OA being the strain
corresponding to the required non-proportional extension e.g. for
0.05% proof stress, the strain is 0.0005.
1.9 Lateral Strain and Poisson’s Ratio

 Under the action of a longitudinal

stress, a body will extend in the
direction of the stress and contract in
the transverse or lateral direction
 The reverse occurs under a
compressive load.
 Stress Effects

P P

Longitudinal Tensile Stress Effect

P P

Longitudinal Compressive Stress Effect

 Poisson’s Ratio
Lateral strain is proportional to the longitudinal strain,
with the constant of proportionality called ‘Poisson’s ratio’ with symbol,  .

Lateral strain
Mathematically, 
Direct or longitudinal strain

For most metals, the range of  is 0.28 to 0.33.

 1.10 Thermal Strain
Most structural materials expand when heated,
in accordance to the law:   T
where  is linear strain and
 is the coefficient of linear expansion;
T is the rise in temperature.
That is for a rod of Length, L;
if its temperature increased by t, the extension,
dl =  L T.
 1.11 Compound Bars
A compound bar is one comprising two or more parallel elements, of different materials,
which are fixed together at their end. The compound bar may be loaded in tension or
compression.
1 2

F F

Section through a typical compound bar consisting of a circular bar (1) surrounded by a
tube (2)
 1.11.1 Stresses Due to Applied Loads
in Compound Bars

If a compound bar is loaded in compression by a force, F,

Since the rod and tube are of the same length and must remain
together, the two materials must have the same strain i.e.
1  2
S tre ss 1 2  1E 2
S tra in  i. e  ,  2  ..... ( 1 )
E E1 E2 E1

Where E1 and E2 are the elastic moduli of materials 1 and 2 respectively.

Also: The total load, F must be shared by the two materials, i.e. F = F 1 + F2
Where: F1 and F2 are the loads in the individual elements.
1.12 Elastic Strain Energy
 If a material is strained by a gradually
applied load, then work is done on the
material by the applied load.
 The work is stored in the material in the form
of strain energy.
 If the strain is within the elastic range of the
material, this energy is not retained by the
material upon the removal of load.
 Elastic Strain Energy Contd.
Figure below shows the load-extension graph of a uniform bar.
The extension dl is associated with a gradually applied load, P
which is within the elastic range. The shaded area represents
the work done in increasing the load from zero to its value
Load
P

Extension
dl
Work done = strain energy of bar = shaded area
 THE END !

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