VELS INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED STUDIES (VISTAS)

B.Sc NAUTICAL SCIENCE

MECS - UNIT-1

Strength of Materials

Elasticity or Elastic Deformation:

When a force is applied to anybody it undergoes a change in its length, breadth and height

(l, b, h) called deformation. When the force is removed it tends to regain its original shape.

Elasticity is the ability of a body to resist a distorting influence and to return to its original

size and shape when that influence or force is removed.

Plasticity or Plastic Deformation:

Plasticity is also known as plastic deformation. It is the ability of a solid material to undergo

permanent deformation, a non-reversible change of shape in response to applied forces.

Hooke’s Law:

Hooke's law states that the strain of the material is proportional to the

applied stress within the elastic limit of that material. When the elastic materials are

stretched, the atoms and molecules deform until stress is been applied and when

the stress is removed they return to their initial state.

1
Hooke’s law states that the strain of the material is proportional to the applied stress

within the elastic limit of that material.

When the elastic materials are stretched, the atoms and molecules deform until stress is

been applied and when the stress is removed they return to their initial state.

Hooke’s law is commonly expressed as:

F = –k.x

2
In the equation,

 F is the force

 x is the extension length

 k is the constant of proportionality known as spring constant in N/m.

Tensile Force:

Tensile force is the stretching forces acting on the material and has two components

namely, tensile stress and tensile strain. This means that the material experiencing

the force is under tension and the forces are trying to stretch it.

Tensile Stress:

Tensile stress is a quantity associated with stretching or tensile forces. Usually, tensile

stress is defined as the force per unit area and denoted by the symbol σ. The tensile stress

(σ) that develops when an external stretching force (F) is applied on an object is given by σ

= F/A where A is the cross sectional area of the object. Therefore, the SI unit of measuring

tensile stress is Nm-2 or Pa. Higher the load or tensile force, higher the tensile stress.

Compressive Stress:

3
 Compressive stress is the opposite of tensile stress. An object experiences a
compressive stress when a squeezing force is applied on the object. So, an object subjected
to a compressive stress is shortened. Compressive stress is also defined as the force per
unit area and denoted by the symbol σ. The compressive stress (σ) that develops when an
external compressive or squeezing force (F) is applied on an object is given by σ = F/A.
Higher the compressive force, higher the compressive stress.

The main difference between tensile and compressive stress is that tensile stress
results in elongation whereas compressive stress results in shortening.

Tensile, Compressive and Shear force:

From the above Stress and strain diagrams there are quite a few materials terms
that are used when describing the properties of materials. Many of the materials are
related to the stress-strain curve of a material. What are stress and strain, and how are they
related?

Let us take a cylinder and stress it. To stress it, I would fix one end of the cylinder and pull
from the other end as shown in the figure below.

4
According to Newton's third law, the cylinder will experience a force downward on the

lower surface of the cylinder and an equal and opposite force on the upper surface of the

cylinder. The original length of the cylinder is Io and surface area of Ao. As we pull on my

material with the force F the cylinder will lengthen and the resulting length will be l. Stress,

σ, is defined as the force divided by the initial surface area, σ=F/A o. This pulling stress is

called tensile stress. Strain is what results from this applied stress. Strain, ε, is defined as

the change in length divided by the original length, ε=ΔI/Io.

The other types of stress are compressive stress and shear stress.

If instead of pulling on our material, we push or compress our cylinder we are

introducing compressive stress. This is illustrated in the following figure:

5
If instead of applying a force perpendicular to the surface, we apply parallel but opposite
forces on the two surfaces we are applying a shear stress. This is illustrated in the
following figure:

Stress related to shear is torsional stress. If we hold one end of our cylinder fixed
and twist the other end as shown in the figure below, we are applying a torsional stress.

6
Failure of Materials under Tension, Compression and Shear:

Failure –Classification:

 Failure of a material component is the loss of ability to function

normally or to perform the intended job!
 Three general ways failure
 Excessive elastic deformation, E.g.: buckling .Controlled by design and
elastic modulus of the material.
 Excessive plastic deformation, Controlled by yield strength of the
material. E.g.: loss of shape, creep and/or stress-rupture at elevated
temperatures.
 Fracture, involves complete disruption of continuity of a component–
under static load: brittle or ductile, under fluctuating /cyclic load: fatigue,
mode in which most machine parts fail in service.

Material Failure:
In materials science, material failure is the loss of load carrying capacity of a material unit.
This definition introduces to the fact that material failure can be examined in different
scales, from microscopic, to macroscopic. In structural problems, where the structural

7
response may be beyond the initiation of nonlinear material behaviour, material failure is
of profound importance for the determination of the integrity of the structure. On the other
hand, due to the lack of globally accepted fracture criteria, the determination of the
structure's damage, due to material failure, is still under intensive research.

Material failure can be distinguished in two broader categories depending on the scale in
which the material is examined:

Microscopic Failure:

Microscopic material failure is defined in terms of crack initiation and propagation. Such

methodologies are useful for gaining insight in the cracking of specimens and simple

structures under well-defined global load distributions. Microscopic failure considers the

initiation and propagation of a crack. Failure criteria in this case are related to microscopic

fracture. Some of the most popular failure models in this area are the micromechanical

failure models, which combine the advantages of continuum mechanics and

classical fracture mechanics.[1] Such models are based on the concept that during plastic

deformation.

Macroscopic Failure:

Macroscopic material failure is defined in terms of load carrying capacity or energy storage

capacity, equivalently. The classification of macroscopic failure criteria in four categories:

 Stress or strain failure

 Energy type failure (S-criterion, T-criterion)

 Damage failure

 Empirical failure

8
Five general levels are considered, at which the meaning of deformation and failure is

interpreted differently: the structural element scale, the macroscopic scale where

macroscopic stress and strain are defined.

Failure of Materials under Compression:

Compressive strength or compression strength is the capacity of a material or

structure to withstand loads tending to reduce size, as opposed to which withstands loads

tending to elongate. In other words, compressive strength resists being pushed together,

whereas tensile strength resists tension (being pulled apart).

When a specimen of material is loaded in such a way that it extends it is said to be

in tension. On the other hand, if the material compresses and shortens it is said to be
in compression.

On an atomic level, the molecules or atoms are forced apart when in tension
whereas in compression they are forced together. Since atoms in solids always try to find
an equilibrium position, and distance between other atoms, forces arise throughout the
entire material which oppose both tension and compression. The phenomena prevailing on
an atomic level are therefore similar.

As can be imagined, the specimen (usually cylindrical) is shortened as well as

spread laterally. A stress–strain curve is plotted by the instrument and would look similar
to the following:

9
True Stress-Strain curve for a typical specimen

The compressive strength of the material would correspond to the stress at the red point
shown on the curve. In a compression test, there is a linear region where the material
follows Hooke's law. Hence, for this region, σ = Eε, where, this time, E refers to the Young's
Modulus for compression. In this region, the material deforms elastically and returns to its
original length when the stress is removed.

Failure of Materials under Shear:

Shear failure can be defined as a failure that takes place due to insufficiency
of shear resistance available between the materials. Shear failure can be easily determined
by checking out the excessive deflection or development of cracks, which gives an advance
warning about the probable occurrence of shear failure.

Fig.5. Schematic diagram for shear failure

10
 Fig.6. Example diagram for Shear failure in a Beam

Failure of materials under Fatigue:

Fig.7. Example diagram for Fatigue failure of a tool

11
Fatigue Failure: It has been recognized that a metal subjected to a repetitive or fluctuating stress

will fail at a stress much lower than that required to cause failure on a single application of load.

Failures occurring under conditions of dynamic loading are called fatigue failures. This is caused by

Fatigue failure is characterized by three stages which are,

o Crack Initiation

o Crack Propagation

o Final Fracture

12
Fatigue Failure on Ships – Marine Engineering:
Fatigue is the failure of a component under fluctuating stress, and as such all components which are

exposed to alternating stress must ensure that either it has a defined service lifetime or that the applied

level of fluctuating stress is below the fatigue limit for that material. Materials can be tested to find the

relationship between the applied stress (S) and the number of stress cycles (N).

Material Defect and Fatigue Failure:

When a material defect occurs, then the level of stress in a localised area around that defect will rise. The

level of the stress increase will be dictated by the position of the crack, its orientation to the applied

stress, and the level of applied stress in the material. Normally any material defect, which increases the

stress level, will cause the component to fail at an earlier stage.

13
14