4.2.

Circle of Mohr

24

Figure 4.1: Example of an aircraft riveted plate skin [Courtesy of www.romeolima.com] state. Finally a plate can, in combination with the previously mentioned applied normal stresses, also be loaded in uniform shear. This results in a uniformly distributed shear stress state in the plate. The total combination is shown in gure. Please note the particular directions of the applied shear stress components. The combined load cases can be seen in gure 4.2. When these three components act on a plate, a stress analysis can be carried out. Even in case of a plate that has a complex stress distribution due to a certain applied load combination, locally the stress distribution is uniform. Such a small local plate element is called a stress element.

4.2

Circle of Mohr

If a bi-axial stress state and a uniform shear stress are present, the question is what the occurring normal and shear stress would be in any arbitrary direction of the plate. On top of that, one might wonder what the maximum normal and shear stress would be in the plate, and in which direction that one would act. This issue is solved by looking at the force equilibrium in an