Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

PC221CE: SOLID MECHANICS

UNIT I: SIMPLE STRESS AND STRAINS

Introduction, Mechanical Properties of Materials, Concept of Stress, Types of Stress

Introduction to Mechanics of Materials

Strength of Materials or Mechanics of Materials is a branch of applied mechanics that deals
with the behaviour of deformable solid bodies subjected to various types of loadings. While studying
Engineering Mechanics it is assumed that all bodies are either rigid or point particles. In this course
on Strength of Materials, the bodies are considered deformable and subjected to failure or
breakage. The focus is more on the internal effects in a body due to externally applied loads. This
helps in determining the safe loads on a structure and is essential in the safe design of all types of
structures like airplanes, antennas, buildings, bridges, ships, automobiles, spacecrafts, etc. This
course forms the foundation for most engineering disciplines.

Mechanical Properties of Engineering Materials

The mechanical properties of a material are those which affect the mechanical strength and
ability of material to be engineered into a suitable shape or application. Some of the typical
mechanical properties of a material are as follows.
Strength: The strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied load without failure. Failure
is the state of the material in which it is no longer able to bear the applied load.
Elasticity: The property of a material by the virtue of which it returns to its original shape and size
after removal of the applied load is called elasticity. The materials which follow such behaviour are
said to be elastic.
Plasticity: The property of a material by the virtue of which it undergoes permanent deformations,
even after removal of the applied loads is known as plasticity. The materials which are not elastic
are said to be plastic.
Ductility: Ductility is a property which allows the material to be deformed longitudinally to a
reduced section under tensile stress. Ductility is often categorized by the ability of material to get
stretched into a wire by pulling or drawing. This mechanical property is also an aspect of plasticity of
material.
Brittleness: Brittleness means lack of ductility. A brittle material cannot be deformed longitudinally
to a reduced section under tensile stress. It fails or breaks without significant deformation and
without any warning. It is an undesirable property from structural engineering point of view.
Malleability: Malleability is property of the material which allows the material to get easily
deformed into any shape under compressive stress. Malleability is often categorized by the ability of
material to be formed in the form of a thin sheet by hammering or rolling. This mechanical property
is an aspect of plasticity of material.
Toughness: Toughness is the ability of material to absorb energy and gets plastically deformed
without fracturing. Its numerical value is determined by the amount of energy per unit volume. It
unit is Joule/ m3. Value of toughness of a material can be determines by stress-strain characteristics
of material. For good toughness material should have good strength as well as ductility. For example:
brittle materials, having good strength but limited ductility are not tough enough. Conversely,

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

materials having good ductility but low strength are also not tough enough. Therefore, to be tough,
material should be capable to withstand with both high stress and strain.
Hardness: Hardness is the ability of a material to resist indentation or surface abrasion. Hardness
measures are categorized into scratch hardness, indentation hardness and rebound hardness.

Concept of Stress and Strain

Stress: There are no engineering materials which are perfectly rigid and hence when material is
subjected to external loads, it undergoes deformation. While undergoing deformation the particles
of the material exert a resisting force. When this resisting force becomes equal to the applied load,
an equilibrium condition takes place and deformation stops. This internal resistance is called stress.
Definition of Stress: Thus, we can define stress as follows:
When a body is subjected to an external load, the internal resistance developed in the material per
unit area of a chosen plane of cross-section is called intensity of stress (σ).
Its SI unit is N/m2 or Pascal (Pa).
It is common in civil engineering practices is to specify the units of stress in N/mm2 or MPa.
Consider a uniform cross-section bar under an axial load P. Let us pass an imaginary plane
perpendicular to the bar along the middle so that the bar is divided into two halves. What holds one
part of the bar with the other part is the internal molecular forces, which arise due to the external
load P. In other words, due to the external load there is an internal resistive force that is generated
which the holds the body together. This internal resistive force per unit area is defined as stress. If A
is the area of cross-section of the bar, then the average stress (σ) on a given cross-sectional area (A)
of a material, which is subjected to load P, is given by
P
 (1)
A
Saint Venant’s principle:
We must note that the above expression for stress is the average value of the stress over the entire
surface. In reality, the stress varies along the cross-section, particularly at the ends of the bar
carrying axial load, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Illustration of Stress Concentration and St. Venant’s Principle

(Image taken from Chapter 2, “Mechanics of Materials” by F.D. Beer, E.R. Johnston and J.T. DeWolf)

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

The stresses are highly concentrated in the immediate vicinity of the point of application of the load
and reduce is magnitude as we move away from it along the cross-section. However, as we move
away from the end of the bar towards the middle portion of the bar, the stress distribution becomes
more uniform throughout the cross-section. Thus, away from the ends, the cross-sections can be
assumed to have uniform stress, as given in equation (1). This is called the St. Venant’s principle,
which is more formally stated as:
The stresses in a deformable solid body at a point sufficiently remote from the point of application of
the load depend only on the static resultant of the loads and not on the local distribution of the loads.
Figures (1) and (2) depict this principle.

Figure 2. Illustration of St. Venant’s Principle

Image taken from the website University of Manchester, U.K.:
http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/project/teaching/civil/structuralconcepts/Statics/stress/stress_mod3.php

Types of Stress
A) Normal/Direct Stress

1. Tensile Stress
The stress induced in a body, when subjected to two equal and opposite pull, as a result of which
there is an increase in length, is known as tensile stress. Tensile stress tends to elongate the body.

Figure 3. A bar subjected to tensile (axial) loading

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

Consider a uniform bar of cross-section area A subjected to an axial force P. The stress at any
section, x-x, normal to the line of action of tensile force P is shown in the figure. The internal
resistance R at x-x is equal to applied force P.
Resisting Force (R) P
TensileStress   (2)
CrossSectional Area (A) A
Under tensile stress, bar suffer stretching or elongation.

2. Compressive Stress
The stress induced in a body, when subjected to two equal and opposites pushes, as a result of
which there is decrease in length, is known as compressive stress.

Figure 4. A bar subjected to compressive (axial) loading

Consider a uniform bar of cross-section area A subjected to an axial compressive load P. The stress at
any section x-x normal to the line of action of compressive force P is shown in the figure. The
internal resistance R at x-x is equal to applied load P.
Resisting Force (R) P
Compressive Stress   (3)
CrossSectional Area (A) A
Under compressive stress, bar suffers shortening.
Tensile Stresses are considered positive and compressive stresses are considered negative, as per
general numerical sign convention for stresses.

B) Shear/Tangential Stress
A shear stress, symbolized by the Greek letter tau, τ, results when a member is subjected to a force
that is parallel or tangent to the surface. The average shear stress in the member is obtained by
dividing the magnitude of the resultant shear force V by the cross sectional area A. Shear stress is:
Shear Force (V) V
Shear Stress,    (4)
CrossSectional Area (A) A

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

Figure 5. A rivet subjected to shear force

Consider a section of rivet is subjected to equal and opposite force P acting in a direction parallel to
the resisting section. Such forces which are equal and opposite and act tangentially across the
section, causing sliding of particles one over the other, are called shearing forces and corresponding
stress induced in the rivet is called shearing stress.
Consider another example of a Clevis Joint as shown in Figure 6

Figure 6. A rivet in a Clevis Joint subjected to shear

a) Typical clevis joint b) Free body diagram of bolt
c) Free body of section mnqp d) Shear stresses on section mn

It should be noted that the distributions of shear stresses is not uniform across the cross section.
Shear stress will be highest near the center of the section and become zero at the edge. This will be
dealt in greater detail in Unit III.
Direct or simple shear arises in the design of bolts, pins, rivets, keys, welds and glued joints.

(a) Single Shear Joint, Shear Stress = F/A

(b) Double Shear Joint, Shear Stress = F/2A

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

(c) Punching Shear = Punching force / Area

Figure 7. Examples of Single, Double and Punching Shear
(Image taken from Chapter 1, “Mechanics of Materials” by F.D. Beer, E.R. Johnston and J.T. DeWolf)

Concept of complementary shear stresses

Consider an element ABCD from a material subjected to shearing stress () on a faces AB and CD as
shown in the Figure 8 (a), due to equal and opposite forces F applied onto the two faces. Since the
element is in static equilibrium, it is not just the horizontal forces that are in balance, but the moment
also has to be balanced. This unbalanced moment is balanced by counter couple on the two
perpendicular faces BC and AD, as shown in figure 8 (b).

Figure 8. (a) Unbalanced Moments due to Shear

(b) Complementary Shear exists for Moment balance
To understand the existence of complementary shear, consider the following illustration. Suppose
that a material block is divided into a number of rectangular elements, as shown by the full lines of
Figure 9.

Figure 9. Illustration of existence of complimentary shear

(Image and concept taken from Chapter 3, “Strength of Materials and Structures (4th Edn.)”
by John Case, Lord Chilver and Carl Ross – Arnold Publishers, London)
Under the actions of the shearing forces F, which together constitute a couple, the elements will
tend to take up the positions shown by the dotted lines in Figure 9. It will be seen that there is a
tendency for the vertical faces of the elements to slide over each other. Actually the ends of the
elements do not slide over each other in this way, but the tendency to so do shows that the shearing

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 Unit I: Simple Stresses and Strains

stress in horizontal planes is accompanied by shearing stresses in vertical planes perpendicular to

the applied shearing forces. This is true of all cases of shearing action a given shearing stress acting
on one plane is always accompanied by a complementary shearing stress on planes at right angles to
the plane on which the given stress acts.

C) Bearing Stress
A bearing stress, symbolized by the Greek letter sigma σb, is a compressive normal stress that occurs
on the surface of contact between two interacting members. The average normal stress in the
member is obtained by dividing the magnitude of the bearing force F by the area of interest. Bearing
stress for the situation in Figure 10 is
Punching Force P P
b    (5)
Contact Area Ab td
Bolts, pins and rivets create bearing stresses along the surface of contact.

Figure 10. Demonstration of Bearing Stress

(Image taken from Chapter 1, “Mechanics of Materials” by F.D. Beer, E.R. Johnston and J.T. DeWolf)

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