Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Stress and Strain

Direct Stress and Strain
When designing components and a choice of materials has to be made we need to
know how much load a material can support, in relation to its size. A force applied to
a given size of material, defined by the area of the material resisting the force is called
stress.

There are two types of stress direct stress and shear stress.

Direct Stress
Direct stress is similar to a measurement of pressure i.e.

Force
Stress =  = N/m2 or Pa
Area

where “Area” is the resisting area, that area which resists the force.

Force
Stress =  = Resisting Area

For direct stress the resisting area is perpendicular to the applied force. It is not
always obvious what the resisting area is and this will be mentioned later in the
section on shear stress.

For direct stress the forces are either tensile of compressive. Tensile forces tend to
pull the component apart, while compressive forces tend to crush the component.

The theory developed for calculating direct stress makes the following assumptions –
 There are no transverse forces
 That the line of action of the force passes through the centre of the area of
material resisting the force (in practice, normally a reasonable assumption)

Units
Forces or loads are stated in Newtons (N) and the areas are quoted in metres (m2). The
units of stress are therefore N/m2 or Pascals (Pa) which are the same thing.

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Strain
Strain is a measure of the deformation, extension or compression, due to the material
being subjected to a load and is defined by the equation below:

change in length
Strain =  = original length

Units
From the definition , strain = change in length/original length. Thus as the value is a
length, in metres, divided by another length, also in metres, strain is a simple ratio
with no dimensions.

Hookes Law
The diagram below shows the relationship between stress and strain for a metal:

If loads are applied so that the material is working in the linear range, below the limit
of proportionality, then when the load is released the material will return to its
original dimensions. If we work the material outside of its linear range then there will
be some plastic deformation i.e. if the load is released the extension /compression will
not be fully recovered and there will be a measure of permanent set. We only work in
the linear range.

Hookes Law states – “Within the limit of proportionality, the strain is directly
proportional to the stress producing it”.

stress
The gradient of the line, , is referred to as Young’s Modulus of elasticity,
strain
given the symbol E.
stress 
E 
strain 
Young’s modulus is a constant for any given material and can be thought of as a
measure of stiffness and is a useful characteristic of a material, used to access its
performance in given conditions of load.

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

The Confusion Over Units

It is appropriate at this point to discuss units in order to avoid the problems students
have with them.

There are 1000 millimetres in 1 metre. But what the number of square millimetres in a
square metre? Below is a square of area 1 square metre. The sides are each 1 metre in
length and if the area is the length multiplied by the width; area = 1  1 = square
metre.

But each metre is 1000 millimetres, the area is also 1000  1000 square millimetres.
So there are 1000 millimetres in 1 metre but 1000,000 square millimetres in a square
metre. Or re-stating using indices: 1m2 = 1  106 mm3. Therefore:
1mm2 = 1  10–3 m2

For a volume of 1 cubic metre:

The volume = 1  1  1 = 1 m3

If there are 1000mm in 1m, then

Volume = 1000  1000  1000 = 1000,000,000 mm3 = 109 mm3

Similarly for centimetre:

1m = 100cm
1m2 = 0,000 cm2
1 m3 = 1000,000 cm3

Therefore 1cm2 = 10–4 m2

You may find it easier to convert each dimension into metres rather than convert areas
and volumes at the end of a calculation.

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Example 1
A solid bar 40mm square, is acted on by a tensile force of 1kN. What is the stress
acting on the bar?

Solution
We must:
 understand what the resisting area is
 take account of units

force
Stress =
area

Not the force is in kilo Newtons not Newtons and the dimensions are in millimetres
not metres, it is probably best to convert the values into standard units before the
calculations:
Force = 1  103 N

Area = (40  10–3) (40  10–3) = 1600  10–6 = 1.6  10–3 m2

You may need to review notes on the laws of indices.

Review of the laws of multiplying indices with the same bases:

When multiplying, if the bases are the same we add the indices.
Therefore 10–3  10–3 = 10–6.

force 1  10 3
Stress = = = 625000 N/m2
area 1.6  10 3

It would probably be better to convert the answer into units of kN/m2

Stress = 625 kN/m2

Example 2
A pipe has an outside diameter of 50mm and an inside diameter of 45 mm and is
acted on by a tensile force of 50kN. What is the stress acting on the pipe?

Solution
 
Cross-sectional area = (D2 – d2) = (502 – 452) = 373 mm2 = 373  10-6 m2
4 4
force 50  10 3
Stress = = = 134  106 N/m2 = 134  106 Pa = 134 MPa
area 373  10  6

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Example 3
A tensile test specimen has a gauge length of 50 mm. This increases by 0.030 mm
when subject to tensile forces. What is the strain?
change in length 0.030
Strain =  = original length
= = 0.0006 = 0.06%
50

Example 4
Calculate the strain that will be produced by a tensile stress of 10 MPa (MN/m2)
stretching a bar of aluminium alloy with a Young’s modulus of elasticity of 70 GPa.
stress σ
E= =
strain ε
Therefore, transposing the equation -
stress 10  10 6
strain = = = 0.00014 = 0.014%
E 70  10 9

Factor of Safety
A factor of safety is used to ensure that not only does facture not occur but that there
is also no permanent set in components. The factor of safety can be based on the
ultimate tensile stress or yield stress as these a more clearly defined. The factor of
safety is defined -
ultimate tensile load or yield stress
Factor of safety = safe working load or working stress

Considerations for Setting the Factor of Safety

 The nature of the material and the dependably of its specifications.
 The nature of the loading i.e whether statically or dynamically applied. Shock
loads will require a grater factor of safety, alternating loads can cause metal
fatigue.
 The likely rate of deterioration due to wear or corrosion.
 The possibility of defects in manufacture.
 The consequences of failure.

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Shear Stress
A shear force is a load applied to a component such that the area resisting the load is
parallel to the load, as shown in the diagram below –

Shear force F
Shear stress = τ = =
area A

The diagram below shows a typical example of a shear load, caused by twisting a rod-

Example 5
The figure below shows a component that is attached to a vertical surface by means of
adhesive. The area of adhesive in contact with the component is 100 mm 2. The weight
of the component is 30 N. What is the shear stress?

force 30
shear stress = = = 3  105 Pa = 0.3 MPa
area 100  10 6

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Mechanical Principles - Stress 1

Resisting Area

Earlier it was mention that the resisting area used to calculate stress is not always
obvious. Let us now look at an example which highlights this fact.

Example

A punch, 1cm diameter, is used to punch holes in a metal plate, with a force of 20kN.
The metal plate has a maximum shear stress value of 100GPa. What is the greatest
thickness of plate in which holes can be punched?

The way to tackle this problem is to equate the force provided by the punch and the
maximum force the material can withstand before failure:
Force of punch = maximum stress of plate  resisting area

but what is the area of the plate resisting the force, it is the area shown below, shaded:

The resisting area is then circumference of the hole multiplied by the thickness.

Force of punch  cross-sectional area of punch = maximum stress of plate  resisting

area

F  A

F  Dt

F 20  10 3
t = = 0.0064m = 6.4mm
D 100  10 6   1.0  10  2

Factors of Safety
Factors of safety apply to shear stresses just as they do direct stresses. Components
may offer less resistance to shear than direct stress.

Shear Strain
Shear strain is measured in terms of the amount of movement, rotation, of a
component.

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For the material under load in the diagram above –

x
shear strain = γ = y

Relationship between Shear Stress and Shear Strain

Hookes Law applies to shear stresses just as it does to direct stresses. A material
resistance to shear stress is less than that of the resistance to direct stress and the
gradient of a shear stress / shear strain graph is lower, than that of a direct stress /
direct strain. Within the limit of proportionality -
shear stress τ
G= = γ
shear strain
Where G is referred to as the Modulus of Rigidity.

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