3

Stress Principles

Stress is a measure of force intensity, either within, or on the bounding surface of a body
subjected to loads. It should be noted that in continuum mechanics a body is considered
stress free if the only forces present are those inter-atomic forces required to hold the
body together. And so it follows that the stresses which concern us here are those that
result from the application of forces by an external agent.

3.1

Body and Surface Forces, Mass Density

Two basic types of forces are easily distinguished from one another and are defined as
follows. First, those forces acting on all volume elements, and are distributed throughout
the body, are known as body forces. Gravity and inertia forces are the best known examples.
We designate body forces by the vector symbol bi (force per unit mass), or by the symbol
pi (force per unit volume). Secondly, those forces which act upon, and are distributed
in some fashion over a surface element of the body, regardless of whether that element
is part of the bounding surface, or an arbitrary element of surface within the body, are
called surface forces. These are denoted by the vector symbol fi , and have dimensions
of force per unit area. Forces which occur on the outer surfaces of two bodies pressed
against one another (contact forces), or those which result from the transmission of forces
across an internal surface are examples of this type of force.
Next, let us consider a material body B having a volume V enclosed by a surface
S, and occupying a regular region R0 of physical space. Let P be an interior point of
the body located in the small element of volume V whose mass is m as indicated in
Fig. 3.1. Recall that mass is that property of a material body by virtue of which the body
possesses inertia, that is, the opposition which the body offers to any change in its motion.
We define the average density of this volume element by the ratio
ave =

m
,
V

(3.1)

and the density at point P by the limit of this ratio as the volume shrinks to the point P,
= lim

V0

m
dm
=
.
V
dV

(3.2)

The units of density are kilograms per cubic meter, (kg/m3 ). Notice that the two measures
of body forces, bi having units of Newton per kilogram (N/kg), and pi having units of
Newtons per meter cubed (N/m3 ), are related through the density by the equation
bi = pi

or

b = p .

(3.3)

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