Stress Tensor

Normal Stress

A stress measures the

surface force per unit area.
Elastic for small changes

Compression or tension

x
A

A normal stress acts normal

to a surface.

F
t
A

Shear Stress

Also elastic for small

changes

A shear stress acts parallel

to a surface.

Ideal fluids at rest have no

shear stress.
Solids
Viscous fluids

L
A (goes into screen)

F
t
A

Volume Stress

Fluids exert a force in all

directions.
Same force in all directions

The force compared to the

area is the pressure.

P
V
V
A (surface area)

F
P
A

Surface Force

Any area in the fluid

experiences equal forces
from each direction.
Law of inertia
All forces balanced

Any arbitrary volume in the

fluid has balanced forces.

Force Prism

t (dS1 )

dS1

t ( dS 2 )

Stress vector t at any point

Normal area vectors S form
a triangle

dS 2

dS1 dS 2

t (dS1 dS 2 )

Consider a small prism of

fluid in a continuous fluid.

The stress function is linear.

t (cdS ) ct (dS )

t (dS ) t (dS )

t (dS1 ) t (dS 2 ) t (dS1 dS 2 )

Stress Tensor

Represent the stress

function by a tensor.
Normal vector n = dS
Tij component acts on
surface element

t j ( x , t , dS ) niTij ( x , t )
t j niTij
l pj t p lqi nqTij

The components transform

like a tensor.
Transformation l
Dummy subscript changes

l pj niTip lqi nqTij

lrj l pj niTip lrj lqi nqTij

rp niTip niTir lrj lqi nqTij

nqTqr nq lqi lrjTij

Tqr lqi lrjTij

Symmetric Form

The stress tensor includes

normal and shear stresses.

An ideal fluid has only pressure.

Diagonal normal
Off-diagonal shear

1 12 13
T 21 2 23
31 32 3

Normal stress
Isotropic

Tij P ij

A viscous fluid includes shear.

Symmetric
6 component tensor

Tij T ji

1 12 13
T 12 2 23
13 23 3

Force Density

F T dS

Closed volume with Gauss

law
Outward unit vectors

F T n dS
S

F TdV
V

f S P

The total force is found by

integration.

A force density due to stress

can be defined from the
tensor.
Due to differences in stress
as a function of position

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