FAILURE THEORIES

1. Maximum principal stress theory - Good for brittle materials

According to this theory when the maximum principal stress induced in a
material under complex load condition exceeds the maximum normal strength
in a simple tension test the material fails. So the failure condition can be
expressed as

2. Maximum shear stress theory - Good for ductile materials

According to this theory when the maximum shear strength in actual case
exceeds maximum allowable shear stress in simple tension test the material case.
Maximum shear stress in actual case in represented as

Maximum shear stress in simple tension case occurs at angle 45 with load, so
maximum shear strength in a simple tension case can be represented as

Comparing these 2 quantities one can write the failure condition as

3. Maximum normal strain theory - Not recommended

This theory states that, when the maximum normal strain in actual case is
more than maximum normal strain occurred in simple tension test case the
material fails. The maximum normal strain in actual case is given by

Maximum strain in simple tension test case is given by

So condition of failure according to this theory is

Where E is Young’s modulus of the material

4. Total strain energy theory - Good for ductile material

According to this theory when the total strain energy in actual case
exceeds the total strain energy in simple tension test at the time of failure, the
material fails. The total strain energy in actual case is given by

The total strain energy in simple tension test at time of failure is given by

So failure condition can be simplified as

5. Shear strain energy theory or Distortion energy theory – Highly

recommended
According to this theory when the shear strain energy in the actual case
exceeds shear strain energy in simple tension test at the time of failure the
material fails. Shear strain energy in the actual case is given by

1
𝜎0 = √(𝜎1 − 𝜎2)2 + (𝜎2 − 𝜎3)2 + (𝜎1 − 𝜎3)2
√2

Failure occurs when 𝜎0 ≥ 𝜎𝑢𝑙𝑡

6. Mohr–Coulomb theory - Describing the response of brittle materials such

as concrete, or rubble piles, to shear stress as well as normal stress.

Coulomb's friction hypothesis is used to determine the combination of shear

and normal stress that will cause a fracture of the material. Mohr’s circle is used
to determine which principal stresses that will produce this combination of
shear and normal stress, and the angle of the plane in which this will occur.
According to the principle of normality the stress introduced at failure will be
perpendicular to the line describing the fracture condition. It can be shown that
a material failing according to Coulomb's friction hypothesis will show the
displacement introduced at failure forming an angle to the line of fracture equal
to the angle of friction.
 the failure envelope at any point is defined by the Coulomb law of failure
 𝜎𝑐 = 𝑐 + tan(𝜑) 𝜎𝑛

Where:
𝜎𝑐 = the critical shear stress, or the shear stress at failure
c = the cohesive strength, or the 𝜎𝑠 value on the failure envelope
Where 𝜎𝑛 = 0 (where failure envelope crosses the y-axis)
φ = the angle of internal friction. φ = 90-2θ

tan(𝜑) is known as the coefficient of internal friction

From Mohr's circle we have

𝜎 = 𝜎𝑚 − 𝜏𝑚 sin ∅
Where
𝜎1 − 𝜎3
𝜏𝑚 =
2
𝜎1 + 𝜎3
𝜎𝑚 =
2

and 𝜎1 is the maximum principal stress and 𝜎3 is the minimum principal

stress.
Therefore, the Mohr–Coulomb criterion may also be expressed as
𝜏𝑚 = 𝜎𝑚 sin ∅ + 𝑐 cos ∅

7. OCTAHEDRAL SHEAR STRESS CRITERION

Since hydrostatic stress alone does not cause yielding, we can find a
material plane called the octahedral plane, where the stress state can be
decoupled into dilation strain energy and distortion strain energy1. On the
octahedral plane, the octahedral normal stress solely contributes to the dilation
strain energy and is

𝜎1 + 𝜎2 + 𝜎3
𝜎ℎ =
3
 This is the average of the three principal stresses. For example, if 𝜎1 = 𝜎2 =
𝜎3 = 𝑝where p is the pressure, then 𝜎ℎ = 𝑝.the remaining stain energy in the
state of stress is determined by the octahedral shear stress and is given by
𝜏ℎ =1√(𝜎 2 +(𝜎 −𝜎 )2 +(𝜎 −𝜎 )2
3 1 −𝜎2 ) 2 3 1 3
We expect yielding when the octahedral shear stress is equal to or exceeds a
stress criterion value for failure for a given material, which is the octahedral
stress criterion𝜏ℎ0 :
𝜏ℎ ≥ 𝜏ℎ0
8. Griffith Failure criteria
Griffith proposed this failure criterion for brittle materials. He propose
that a crack will propagate when decrease in elastic strain energy is atleast
equal to the energy required to create new surfaces. This criteria can be used
to determine the tensile stress which will cause a crack of certain size to
propagate as a brittle fracture
The elastic strain energy per unit thickness is equal to
𝑈𝐸 πa2 σ2
=−
E
crack length 2a
2Eγs 1/2
σ=( )
πa

9.MCCLINTOCK WALSH CRITERIA

The McClintock-Walsh modification of Griffith theory is extended

to treat brittle fracture of anisotropic rock. It is suggested that anisotropy is due
primarily to preferred orientation of cracks in rocks and that a satisfactory
mathematical model for fracture analysis is an elastically isotropic medium which
contains a nonrandom array of Griffith cracks. The one array considered in detail
consists of long cracks having a preferred orientation superimposed on a field of
randomly oriented small cracks. Fracture in tension and in compression is
considered. The fracture criterion found for compression resembles a similar
criterion suggested by Jaeger on a somewhat different basis; it predicts behavior
which is in good agreement with observed fracture