Solid Mechanics-8

Normal Strain
8.1 Normal Strain under axial loading:
In the figure below above consider a prismatic bar with length and constant area of
cross-section acted upon by two equal and opposite forces and .
P

The body is in static equilibrium, but under tension. The tensile stress is given by
=

Application of the load will give rise to increase in the spacing between the adjacent
layer of the molecules. As a result, there will be increase in the length of the bar. Let the
change in the length be denoted by . We expect to be the result of increase in spacing
of all layers. Since greater the value of , there will be more layers which will move apart and
hence we expect to be proportional to . Let be the constant of proportionality
between and . We can then write
=

The term is called the tensile strain.

If the directions of both forces and . are reversed body will be under
compression. The length of the bar will then decrease and hence change in its length will be
and it will be negative. The compressive strain is given by
=

Since is negative will be negative.

8.2 Relation between tensile stress and tensile strain:

It is logical to expect that the tensile stress is related to tensile strain. The relation
between the two quantities is represented by stress-strain diagram. Stress-strain diagram of
low carbon steel is shown in the figure below.

We see from the figure that for small strains, relation between stress and strain is linear. For
this region, we can write
=

The ratio between stress and strain is called the modulus of elasticity and this relation is
called Hookes law. Modulus of elasticity is also called Youngs modulus. One of the
important characteristics of the linear regime (Hookes law regime) is that the deformation of
the material is reversible, i.e. the material regains its original undeformed shape, after the
load is removed. Thus, in this regime, the work done by the load in extending the specimen is
stored in the specimen as elastic energy, which can be made available to do the external
work.
Modulus of elasticity is also called Youngs modulus. Values of Youngs modulus for some
common materials are listed below

Table-1: Elastic moduli of some common materials

Material

Rubber (small strain)

GPa

0.010.1

Material

HDPE

GPa

0.8

Polypropylene

1.52

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

22.7

Nylon

24

Polystyrene, solid

33.5

wood (along grain)

11

Human Cortical Bone[10]

14

Glass-reinforced polyester matrix

17

High-strength concrete

30

Glass

Aluminium

5090

69

Aramid

70112

Brass

100125

Copper (Cu)

117

Material

GPa

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (70/30 fibre/matrix, unidirectional, along grain)]

181

Steel (ASTM-A36)

200

Tungsten (W)

Silicon carbide (SiC)

Tungsten carbide (WC)

400 410

450

450 650

Single-walled carbon nanotube

1,000

Graphene

1,050

Diamond (C)

Carbyne (C)[36]

1050 - 1210

32100

Hookes law is not valid at high values of strains. There is a critical value of strain at
which the law fails. This point is called the yield point and we say that material is yielding to
the applied load. The stress at which the yielding occurs is called yield stress . Normally,
yielding occurs mainly due to motion of the material along slip planes (shear planes). A large
amount of deformation occurs nearly at the same value of the stress. This regime is followed
by strain hardening regime. Motion of the slip planes normally occurs at the grain boundaries.
Such motions cause generation heat generation which causes recrystallization at the grain
boundaries forming smaller grains. This causes better interlocking of grains causing material
to harden. This gives rise to strain hardening regime. Here strain again begins to increase
with stress. This regime continues until the phenomenon called necking occurs as shown in
4

the figure below. Here the weakest section begins to extend at a greater rate compared to the
rest of the material, this results in contraction of the area of cross section. This further
increases the stress and this cycle finally causes failure.

It is important to note that the cone shaped surfaces formed make angle of 45 with
the original surface of the specimen indicating that the failure is mainly due to shear.
The stress at which rupture occurs is denoted by and is called the breaking
strength. On the other hand, the highest stress is observed at the end of the strain hardening
regime and beginning of the necking regime. This stress is denoted by and is called the
ultimate strength of the material.
One of the characteristics of the ductile material is percent elongation at break and is
defined as
Percent elongation at break =

0
0

100

Commonly used carbon steel have yield strength up to 350

Brittle materials differ from the ductile material in the sense that they amorphous (
e.g. glass) and do not have well defined crystal lattice. Their gains are small and irregular
shaped and hence are interlocked well. As a result, they have higher shear strength than
5

tensile strength. The stress strain diagram of a brittle materials differs from that of a ductile
material as seen from the figure below. We do not find any yield stress and the ultimate
strength coincides with the breaking strength

We also see from the picture of the ruptured specimen that ruptured surface is normal to the
load direction, indicating that failure is due to tensile stress and not due to shear stress.
8.3 Example 1: A vertical load is applied at the centre of the upper section of a
homogeneous frustum of a circular cone of height , minimum radius , and maximum
radius . Denoting by the modulus of elasticity of the material and neglecting the effect of
weight, determine the deflection of point .

Solution:

Apex of the cone is taken as the origin, with increasing in downward direction. The
half apex angle of the cone is given by
=

=
=
=
1 1 1 1

Radius of the cone at is given by

=
Axial compressive stress on cross section of the cone is
=

The axial strain at is

=

= 2

Change in the length of a small element at is given by

Hence the total change in the height is given by

7

1
= =

1 2
1
Using the equation = , we can rewrite the previous equation as
=

1 1

=
(

)=
( )
2
2
2
1

( ) =
=