Reference: Mechanics of Materials, R.C.

Hibbeler, 8th Edition

Prepared By: M. Asad Warraich

Torsional Deformation of a Circular Shaft

Torque when applied to any body, tends to twist the member about its
longitudinal axis. Consider a circular shaft as shown:

When a torque T is applied around its longitudinal axis, circles which are marked
on the shaft remain circular. Radial lines remain straight and longitudinal lines get
twisted.

We assume following things:

1. Angle of twist is small
2. Length of shaft remains same
3. Radius does not change

If we fix this shaft at its one end and apply a torque at its other end, dark green
shaded region will skew. In this figure, (x) is known as angle of twist.

Consider a small segment at a distance from the axis of shaft. There are two
faces of the small segment, front face and back face. Deformation causes a
rotation in both of the faces. Back face rotates by angle (x) and front face by
(x)+().

Angle between lines AC and AB was 90o. It has changed to (Angle between AD
and AC). Hence, shear strain is:-

Consider arc BD that is shown in the figure. As we know that

S=r
Put the values from the figure in above formula:
BD = = x
Let x and approach dx and dHence, by comparing above formula

dx/d is constant for the entire cross-section. Above equation tells us that shear
strain varies only with distance . It is zero at point O and maximum at the any
point on the arc BD. dx/dis equal to If we consider the outer fiber of the
element, that is at distance c from the point O when c. At c, is maximum
max. Hence:

Torsion Formula
When a torque is applied to a body, an internal torque is produced in the body.
According to Hookes Law:
G
Shear stress and shear strain varies linearly across the cross-section. Hence, will
be zero at center to maximum max at outer fiber.

Above equation represents the shear-stress distribution over the entire crosssection that depends on the distance .

If we consider an element of area dA at a distance from the center subjected to

a force dF = dA, then torque produced by this force is
dT = dF .
dT = dA)
For entire cross-section:-

Integral depends only on term Integrating this term with respect to dA gives
polar moment of inertia that is equal to J. Polar moment of inertia for solid shaft
can be found by :

Rearranging the integral equation gives:

Angle of Twist
Angle of twist of one end of a shaft with respect to the other end will be derived
in this section. Shaft is assumed to varying circular cross-section. It is further
assumed that material is homogeneous and linear-elastic.
A differential element of thickness dx is taken. As cross-section is varying, internal
resultant torque in the shafts differential element would be T(x). Due to this
torque, disk will twist with angle d. We have already derived following relation:

From above equation:

By Hookes Law:
G
Or
G
Shear stress, from torsion formula, can be expressed as follows:
T(x)J(x)
For shear strain, substituting g in G
T(x)J(x) G
Substituting this equation into following formula:

Hence, above result gives angle of twist as follows:

For entire length, L, of the shaft, we shall integrate above formula from 0 to L.

Usually, formula for angle of twist is taken as follows because material is usually
homogenous.