Solid Mecahnics-9

Stress Tensor
9.1 Stress: The forces acting on a body are divided into two types, viz. body forces and contact
forces. The body force arises due to external force fields (gravitational, magnetic, electrical etc.)
acting on the body. The do not require material medium for transmission. On the other hand, the
contact forces, as the name suggests, are transmitted through material contact. In the present
discussion we are interested in contact forces.
Consider a point P in a material continuum and visualise an infinitesimal plane region
surrounding P , of area dS and orientation characterised by a unit normal n to the surface. It is

customary to represent area by vector dS dSn .

dS
df n

Let df n be the contact force exerted by the material to the right of dS on the material to the left.

We need to write this force as a function of n for the reason that at a given point, df n varies with
the orientation of the plane.
We define stress at point P by the following equation

df n

tn
dS

Note again that tn is a function of n for the same reason that df n is a function of n .
9.2 Stress tensor: The dependence of the stress on the direction of the surface can be depicted in

compact form by defining stress tensor T such that

t( n ) T .n
The above equation is a tensor equation and hence is valid in any system of coordinates.

We can expand T in terms of Cartesian components as follows

T Tij ei e j
( i, j 1,2,3)
Here we have used index notation where the repeated index represents the sum. In the expanded
form, we can write the above equation as


T T11e1e1 T12e1e2 T13e1e3 T21e2e1 T22e2e2 T23e2e3 T31e3e1 T32e3e2 T33e3e3

There are nine components of the stress tensor.

We can write

t( n ) T .n Tij ei e j nk ek Tij nk ei jk Tik nk ei

where nk are the components of n .

From this we deduce that

t(e1 ) T .e1 Tij ei e j e1 Tij ei j1 Ti1ei

Note that t( e1 ) is the stress acting on plane-23 ( we can also call it plane-1). We can write this as

t(e1 ) Ti1ei T11e1 T21e2 T31e3

T11 is the normal stress, whereas T21 and T31 are the shear stresses. We also note that the second
subscript of the stress tensor component refers to the plane on which the stress acts and the first
subscript, the components of the stress.
9.3 Eulers first law: Consider a material body of volume V enclosed by a surface S .

The Eulers first law is stated as

v
dV

f
dV

S (n )dS
Dt V
V

Here, is the material density, f is the body force per unit mass of the material, v is the velocity
of the material point and

D
is the material derive.
Dt

Eulers law can be viewed as a form of Newtons second law of motion. The term on the
left represents the rate of change of the linear momentum of the body, while the terms on the
right represent the total force acting on the body.
From transport theorem, we have, for any spatial field (scalar, vector or tensor),
2

dV

v dV

Dt V
t

We can use this to rewrite the Eulers first law by substituting v for .

v
V t v v f dV S t(n ) dS

From equation of continuity, we have

v 0
t
Using this equation, we can simplify the first two terms of the Eulers first law

v
v
v
Dv

Here
v v v
v v v v v v
t
t
t
t
Dt
Hence the Eulers first law can be written as

Dv

f
V Dt dV S t(n ) dS

9.4 Equation of motion: We replace tn by T n in the Eulers first law and obtain

Dv

f
dV

T
Dt
S ndS

We now apply Gauss Divergence theorem and write

n
dS

TdV
S

and obtain

Dv

T
dV

0
Dt

Since V is an arbitrary volume, the above equation implies that the integrand of the equation is
zero. Hence we get

Dv

f T
Dt

This is the equation of motion for a continuum.

9.5 Symmetry of stress tensor: To prove the symmetry of stress tensor, start with Eulers
second law (angular momentum balance)


Dv
p Dt
V

f dV p tn dS

We replace tn by T in the Eulers second law and obtain

Dv

f
dV

Dt
S T ndS
V

We apply the divergence theorem to the integrand of the term to the left and obtain

Dv

f
dV

V Dt
V p T dV

Since V is the arbitrary volume, we obtain

Dv
p
f p T
Dt

But from the equation of motion, we have

Dv

f T
Dt
hence we can simplify the previous equation as

p T p T

Now T T, ijj g i , p x k g k

p T x k T, ijj kim g m
Hence


p T x kT ij kim g m g j
Bur since

(1)

we get

x k



p T n x kT ij kim g m g j g n n T ij kim g m g j g n x kT,nij kim g m g j g n
x
x

T in nim g m x kT,nin kim g m

Hence Eq 1 reduces to

x k T, ijj kim g m T in nim g m x k T,nin kim g m

T in nim g m 0

or

or

T in nim 0

Taking m 1, we obtain
T 2n n 21 T 3n n31 0 or T 23 321 T 32 231 0 or T 23 T 32 0

This implies that T 23 T 32 and it can be proved that T 12 T 21 and T 13 T 13 .

4

This proves that the stress tensor is symmetric. This means that out of the nine components, only
six components are independent.
9.6 Matrix representation of stress tensor:
It is convenient to represent stress tensor in the matrix form

T11 T12 T13

T T21 T22 T23
T31 T32 T33

Symmetry dictates that T12 T21 , T23 T32 and T13 T31 .

The equation t( n ) T .n can then be written in the matrix form as

tn 1 T11 T12 T13 n1

t( n ) T .n or tn 2 T21 T22 T23 n2
tn 3 T31 T32 T33 n3

As a special case let n e1 (normal to 23-plane), then

te1 1 T11 T12 T13 1 T11

te1 2 T21 T22 T23 0 T21
te 3 T31 T32 T33 0 T31
1

The vector on the right hand side is the stress vector acting on 23 plane (also called plane -1).
The three terms of the vector are the components along directions 1,2 and 3, respectively. Thus
Tij represents i th component of stress acting on j th plane.

It is customary to denote the normal stress components by symbol i and the shear stress
components by ij . Thus stress matrix can be written as

1 12 13
T 21 2 23
31 32 3

9.7 Example: A stress tensor field has the following value at point (1,1-1)

3 0 0
T 0 2 2 MPa
0 2 5

Find the normal and shear stress at that point on a plane passing the point and having the
equation 2 z1 3z2 5z3 0 .

Solution: Normal to any surface f z1 , z2 , z3 c is given by the vector f z1 , z2 , z3 . In the

present case

f 2 z1 3z2 5z3
Hence

n f 2e1 3e2 5e3
Unit normal is given by

2e1 3e2 5e3

1
2e1 3e2 5e3

4 9 25
38

3 0 0 2
6

1
1

tn T n 0 2 2 3 16
38
38
0 2 5 5
31

In the vector notation

1
6e1 16e2 31e3
tn
38
The normal component of the stress is

1
6e1 16e2 31e3 1 2e1 3e2 5e3 1 12 48 155 215
tn n
38
38
38
38
The normal stress vector will be

215
215
2e1 3e2 5e3
n
38
38 38

Hence the shear stress at that point is

n tn n

1
6e1 16e2 31e3 215 2e1 3e2 5e3 1 202e1 37e2 103e3
38
38 38
38 38

Check that n and n are orthogonal to each other.