H21CEM Civil Engineering Materials

Lecture # 3
Elastic Deformations: Stress-Strain,
Elastic Modulus
Elastic Deformation
Objective:

To understand the concepts of stress and strain and

to discuss elastic deformation of materials.
 Limit State Design in Structural Engineering

A limit state is a condition of a structure beyond which it no longer fulfils

the relevant design criteria, which includes

Ultimate Limit State Strength of materials

To satisfy the ultimate limit state, the structure must not collapse when
subjected to the peak design load for which it was designed.
Serviceability Limit State Stiffness of materials

A structure is deemed to satisfy the serviceability limit state when the

constituent elements do not deflect by more than certain limits laid
down in the building codes.
General Definitions (1)

• Stress - is applied to the material by loading it.

- Force per unit Area.
• Strain - a change of shape – is its response
- Deformation per unit Dimension.
• Stiffness - is the resistance to change of shape that is elastic – the
material will return to its original shape when unloaded.
• Strength - is the resistance to permanent distortion or total failure
• Elastic Deformation - Strain which is fully recoverable when the
material is unloaded.
General Definitions (2)

Stress and Strain are not material properties;

they describe a stimulus and a response.

Stiffness and strength are material properties

which are measured by the elastic modulus (E);
elastic limit (𝜎𝑦 ), and tensile strength (𝜎𝑡𝑠 )
 Load Carrying Components and Structures

Pressure
Vessels

Shafts
 Modes of Loading (1)

(a) – axial tension, (b) – compression , (c) – axial tension on one

side and compression on the opposite side, (d) – torsion
(e) – bi-axial tension or compression
 Mode of loading (2)

The stresses in any small element within an engineering structural

component can always be described by a combination of tension,
compression and shear.
 The link from load to strain
Force Torque Pressure

Causes stress

Causes strain

Is there a predictable relationship between stress and

strain?
Tension or compression – uniaxial load (1)
In compression or tension, the displacement is perpendicular to
the face on which the force acts.

Tensile stress,  =

Tensile strain,  = Change in

length on
loading

Strain is dimensionless
Stress has units of N/m2 (or Pa) but usually quoted in
MN/m2 or Mpa, 106 Pa = 1MPa
Tension or compression – uniaxial load (2)

Force applied normal to surface

Sign convention: “+” for tensile stress;
“-” for compressive stress
Another example of the existence of uniaxial stress

CANTILEVER SUBJECTED TO BENDING FORCE

an axial stress at the

upper/lower surface. The
axial stress varies through the
thickness h.
 Stress
TENSION COMPRESSION SHEAR

Ft a
Shear stress,  = Shear strain,  = b  tan    (in radians)
A
 Shear

The units for shear stress, as before, are MPa . Shear strain is dimensionless
 Hydrostatic pressure (compression)
• Another common state of stress is hydrostatic
pressure on a submerged body.

• This gives rise to an equal compressive force all

around a submerged body e.g. a submarine or fish.

Fish under water

h < 0
Pressure is positive when
they push.
 Bi-axial Tension
• Bi-axial tension:

•A thin walled pressure vessel

y > 0
Pressurized tank • Biaxial Stress Case
x > 0
• Load is from pressure
 Simple compression

Canyon Bridge, Los Alamos, NM

Note: compressive
structure member
Balanced Rock, Arches ( < 0 here)
National Park
 Elastic deformation and Hooke’s Law
If the strain is small during loading it is normally completely
recoverable on unloading the material – termed elastic strain or
elasticity.

In metallic alloys and some other materials strain is proportional to stress

in the elastic region. This is termed linear elasticity and is described as
Hooke's Law.

The constant of proportionality is the elastic modulus.

TENSION =E E is Young's modulus
SHEAR =G G is shear modulus
HYDROSTATIC p=-K K is bulk modulus
Moduli have units of Nm-2 since strain is dimensionless.
Stress-Strain Curve – Brittle Response

Entire response is elastic –

no plastic deformation

Elastic limit not reached

before failure

Elastic modulus
or Young’s modulus
determined
by calculating the slope of
this region
 Ductile Response

Tensile strength is maximum

stress on the curve

Permanent deformation occurs at

stresses beyond the yield strength –
material will not return to its original
shape past this point
 Stress-Strain Curves

Initial portion of curve is approximately

linear and is elastic – the material
returns to its original shape once the
stress is removed

Within the linear elastic region, strain is

proportional to stress - Hooke's Law

E: Young’s modulus
G: shear modulus
K: bulk modulus

23
 TENSION/Compression
Young's modulus

SHEAR
Shear modulus

HYDROSTATIC
Bulk modulus
Moduli have units of N/m2
since strain24is dimensionless
 Poisson’s ratio
• Materials loaded in tension or compression will undergo strains
perpendicular to the direction of the stress in addition to those parallel
to the stress.

• The ratio of lateral or perpendicular strain to axial strain is called

Poisson’s ratio,  . L
 
• The negative sign ensures that  will 
have a positive value since normally
axial and lateral strains have opposite
magnitude. Normally  is in the range
0.25-0.35.
Negative Poisson Ratio Material
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDuR9hHIpZM

• Special relations for isotropic materials:

E E
G K
2(1  ) 3(1  2)
Isotropic materials: having physical properties that do not
vary with direction, uniform composition and property.
Examples : steel , ceramic .
 Linear Elastic Properties - Summary
• Modulus of Elasticity, E:
(also known as Young's modulus)
• Hooke's Law:
σ=Eε
• Poisson's ratio, ν:

Lateral strain = εL
metals: ν ~ 0.33
ceramics: ~0.25
polymers: ~0.40
Units:
E: GPa (109 Pa) or GN/m2
n: dimensionless
 Other Elastic Properties - Summary
 M
• Elastic Shear
modulus, G:
G simple
1  torsion
τ = Gγ test

M
• Elastic Bulk P
modulus, K:
P P
pressure
test: Init.
vol =Vo.
• Special relations for isotropic materials: Vol chg.
= DV
E E
G K
2(1  ) 3(1  2)
YOUNG'S MODULI OF SELECTED MATERIALS AT
ROOM TEMPERATURE (1GNm-2  1kNmm-2)
MATERIAL YOUNG’S MODULUS (GN/m2) or (GPa)
Steels 200-215

Brass and copper alloys 100-130

Aluminium alloys 65-75

Concrete 25-40

Wood (parallel to grain) 10-15

Wood (perp to grain) 0.5-1.0

Polypropylene 0.9

Polyethylene 0.6

Carbon fibre composite 100-200

 Elastic Energy
Consider a bar which is uniaxially stressed so that it has
deformed elastically but within the elastic limit.
Work done in stretching the bar by a small amount dl is given
by
W = Force x Distance = Adl
To find the work done in extending the bar from initial length
l0 to new length l has to be found by integration since  is a
function of the extension or strain. Therefore
Work done =  Adl
l
l0
If we assume that the rod deforms at constant volume, V, then
A0l0 = Al = V
If we call W the work done per unit volume then
1 L
  0  d

W Adl  
AL Lo
If the rod obeys Hooke’s law then we can write that
=E
And so we can substitute for  and carry out the integration
since E is a constant.
We thus get that
W = E2/2 or equivalently /2
Problem
 Summary – Stress and strain
• Materials respond to stress by straining. At low stresses and strains the
deformation is usually elastic, i.e. recoverable
• In some materials, e.g. metals and alloys, the elastic deformation obeys
Hooke’s Law, i.e. strain is proportional to stress
• The constant of proportionality is termed the elastic modulus
• In tension or compression this is known as Young’s modulus and given the
symbol E.  = E
• The elastic modulus is a measure of the stiffness of a material, i.e. its resistance
to flexing under a load
• E varies over many orders of magnitude for different materials and this is due
to differences in the way solid materials are held together at the atomic level
• Tensile testing is used to determine the mechanical properties of many
materials, including the Young’s modulus