Linear Algebra in Mechanics of Materials

Chance Stupack, Quinn Carvalho 05/10/2012

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explain how useful linear algebra is in Mechanics of Materials. Because Mechanics of Materials is such a broad topic our main focus will be on the stresses and strains in an element.

A Brief Overview

Mechanics of materials, also known as strengths of materials, is one of the basic engineering subjects that is essential to being a successful engineer. As you might have guessed by the name, mechanics of materials is concerned with the integrity and design of structures and the materials used to build them. Statics, another basic engineering class, is essential to accurately analyze the structures and forces acting upon them. Linear algebra comes into play in the forces on the structure; you see, all forces have a magnitude and direction and as such can be expressed as vectors. Also, vectors can be used to calculate stresses and strains that would have otherwise been quite laborious to nd. Although linear algebra isnt a required course for most engineering degrees its applications can be found in nearly all.

Statics

Before we begin to calculate the strengths of materials and the stresses and strains acting upon them we must be able to nd the forces that are acting on the structure in question. We do this by using statics. Statics is the study of objects in static equilibrium and the forces that are acting upon them.

2.1

External Forces

All forces that are acting on a structure can be expressed as vectors. The basic external forces that we will be calculating are forces in the x(horizontal) direction, forces in the y (vertical) direction and moments. Forces in the x and y directions are simply as they sound, forces with magnitudes pointing horizontally or straight vertically. Moments however are a little dierent. A moment is the tendency of a force to twist an object around a point. A single force vector can in eect have inuence on one two or all three of these. Because the object is in equilibrium we can say that adding all of the forces acting upon the object will equal to zero, we use this idea to nd unknown forces.

Linear Algebra

In the following subsections we will give a very brief overview of what linear algebra is and how it will be applied.

3.1

RREF

RREF is an acronym for Reduced Row Echelon Form. For a matrix to be in RREF it must satisfy 5 conditions. First, all nonzero values must be located along the diagonal of the matrix. The diagonal of a matrix is the ith row and ith column of a matrix. In this way we will end up only having one nonzero value per column. It is possible to achieve these conditions by performing row 3

operations. Row operations are a series of procedures that we perform on each row of the matrix. There are four basic procedures: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Any row of a matrix may be multiplied or divided by a constant and then any row can be added to or subtracted from by another row. By performing these operations we can convert our matrix to RREF. It is possible to make a matrix by using the leading coecients of the elements of a system of linear equations. RREF is very valuable to us because if we convert this matrix into RREF it will give us the solutions to the linear system of equations. Here is an example of converting a linear system of equations to RREF. Our equations will be 3x + 2y + 4z = 0 5x + 2y + 3z = 3 and 5x + 6y + 4z = 7. We convert this into a 3 4 matrix as shown. 3 2 4 0 H = 5 2 3 3 . 5 6 4 7 Now we will perform row operations on this matrix until it meets the requirements to be considered in RREF. After the row operations are performed the resulting matrix will be as follows. 1 0 0 17/20 H = 0 1 0 53/40 . 0 0 1 13/10 This implies that x = 17/20 y = 53/40 and z = 13/10

3.2

Transformations

A linear transformation is a function, or mapping, that assigns each vector x in Rn to a vector T (x) in Rm . Linear Transformations consist of a matrix being multiplied by a vector to give a new matrix or vector depending on the size of the initial matrix and vector. This resultant matrix or vector is T (x). Transformations are useful to us when calculating plane stress and strain. Here is an example

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4.1

Calculating Plane Stress and Strain

Denitions

Stress is a measure of the average force per unit area of a surface within a body on which internal forces are acting. These forces might include tension, compression, bending, or torsion. There are two types of stresses, direct stress and shear stress. Direct stress tends to change the volume of the body, one example of this would be hydrostatic pressure inside of a pressurized water tank. Shear stress deforms the body without actually changing the overall volume, a truss pushing against the bolt that secures it to the ange would be exerting a 4

shear stress on the bolt. Strain is a measure of the actual deformation that takes place in the body. Unlike stress, strain is dimensionless because it is actually a measure of elongation per unit length. Plane stress and plane strain are a more general state that we use to analyze the stresses and strains on inclined planes. Such as a helical weld along a propane tank.

This is an example of the eects shear stress.

4.2

The Applications

If we know the stresses and strains of a planar section, such as a weld going around the diameter of a propane tank, how would we determine the stresses and strains of a weld that goes around the tank in an angular fashion? We want to nd the stresses and strains at dierent angles within the object because the stresses and strains have dierent values at dierent angles. Also, it can be very valuable if there are two objects attached together, such as two steal beams welded together or two pieces of wood glued together. Not only can knowing these values for dierent orientations show us what forces will be acting on a weld that is already in place but if we know the stresses and strains that will be acting on a weld we can choose the plane that will have the least stress acting upon it for to make our weld.

4.3
4.3.1

Derivation of the Equations

Stress Transformation Equations

First we will solve for the stresses on the inclined plane, x , y , x y . By applying our transformation matrix, which in this case is the rotation matrix R, 5

to the stress tensor matrix T we come up with the equations for the stresses on a plane oriented at an angle . x , y , and xy are the stresses on the original plane. x and y refer to the direct stresses in the x and y directions associated with the object. xy refers to the shear stress associated with the object. R= T = x x y + cos() sin() cos() sin() sin() cos() (1) (2) (3)

xy sin() x sin() y sin() xy cos() sin() cos() xy sin() x sin() =0 y sin() xy cos()

By doing the matrix multiplication in equation (3) we obtain the following: x x y 2xy sin() cos() x cos2 () y sin2 () =0 xy sin () + x sin() cos() y sin() cos() xy cos2 () (4) Now if we do some simplifying of equation (4) we get +
2

x x y

2xy sin() cos() + x cos2 () + y sin2 () (y x ) sin() cos() + xy (cos2 () sin2 ())

(5)

Given that the y axis is plus 90 degrees to the x axis, and we know the equation for x . We can use this knowledge to our advantage to solve y with. y () = x ( + 90) This implies that y = 2xy sin( + 90) cos( + 90) + x cos2 ( + 90) + y sin2 ( + 90) When equation (7) is simplied it becomes y = 2xy sin() cos() + x sin2 () + y cos2 () x = 2xy sin() cos() + x cos2 () + y sin2 () y = 2xy sin() cos() + x sin2 () + y cos2 () x y = (y x ) sin() cos() + xy (cos () sin ())
2 2

(6)

(7)

(8)

Finally we have our three transformation equations for x , y , and x y : (9) (10) (11)

This can be expressed as a vector and a matrix cos2 () sin2 () 2 sin() cos() x x y = sin2 () cos2 () 2 sin() cos() y (12) x y xy sin() cos() sin() cos() cos2 () sin2 () Here is an example of plane stresses when rotated at an angle of . 6

4.3.2

Strain Transformation Equations

Now we will solve for the strains on the inclined plane, x , y and x y . x and y refer to the change of length in the x and y directions whereas x y refers to the change in the angle . We nd the strain transformation equations in the exact same way that we found the stress transformation equations, actually, because they are found in the exact same way we can just substitute x for x , y for x , and nally xy for xy with the exception that because of the when substituting in xy we must multiply it by 1/2 because of the classical denition of shear strain. After substituting these in and simplifying as we did in equations (3) through (11) we attain equations (12) through (14). x = xy sin() cos() + x cos2 () + y sin2 () y = xy sin() cos() + x sin () + y cos () x y = 2(y x ) sin() cos() + xy (cos2 () sin2 ())
2 2

(13) (14) (15)

Another way of obtaining strain equations is by transforming the stress equations into a matrix A and then multiplying it by the strain vector which we will name . cos2 () sin2 () 2 sin() cos() (16) A= sin2 () cos2 () 2 sin() cos() sin() cos() sin() cos() cos2 () sin2 () x = y (17)
xy 2

Given an initial strain, , listed as equation (17) we want to nd the strain if the system is turned some angle . In order to do this we must create a 7

new equation which eliminates the xy /2 and creates x y . In order to do this we rst multiply the original transformation matrix A by B and B 1 to give matrix C : 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 B = 0 1 0 B = 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 BAB 1 = C cos2 () C= sin2 () 2 sin() cos() sin2 () cos2 () 2 sin() cos() sin() cos() sin() cos() cos2 () sin2 ()

(18)

Now if we multiply C by the strain vector we should obtain our resultant strain vector = C

sin() cos() x sin() cos() y xy cos2 () sin2 () (19) x cos2 () y sin2 () xy sin() cos() x y = x sin2 () y cos2 () xy sin() cos() x y 2x sin() cos() 2y sin() cos() xy cos2 () sin2 () (20) Equation (20) takes an initial strain on an object and rotates it degrees. It then provides the distance that the object has been deformed in the x and y directions given as x and y . Although dierent variables are used the following image shows how a plane on a surface can deform from certain stresses acting upon it.

cos2 () x y = sin2 () x y 2 sin() cos()

sin2 () cos2 () 2 sin() cos()

4.4

A Worked Out Stress and Strain Example

For our example we will calculate the plane stresses involved where two pieces of steel are welded together. Our sign convention denes forces causing the object to be in tension positive and forces causing the object to be in compression negative. As we can see from the picture our x = 4.5[M P a] and y = 10[M P a]. Steel has an average Youngs modulus of elasticity of E = 200[GP a] and an average Poissons ratio of = .285 Because it is not dened we will assume that initially there is no shear stress, xy = 0. First we must nd the angle of the plane of which we will be calculating the stresses. For that we just use basic trigonometry. = tan1 ( .1 ) = 21.8o .25

Now we can substitute our values of x , y , xy and in to equation (12) to nd our values of x , y and x y . cos2 (21.8) x y = sin2 (21.8) x y sin(21.8) cos(21.8) sin2 (21.8) cos2 (21.8) sin(21.8) cos(21.8) 2 sin(21.8) cos(21.8) 4.5 2 sin(21.8) cos(21.8) 10 0 cos2 (21.8) sin2 (21.8)

x 2.5 y = 8.0 x y 5.0 This implies that the direct stress in the x direction along the weld is equal to 2.5 [MPa] in compression, the direct stress in the y direction perpendicular to the weld is equal to 8.0 [Mpa] in tension, and the shear stress on the weld is 5.0 [MPa]. Now that we have found the stresses acting on the weld it is time to nd what the strains upon the weld will be. The initial strains are not given to us so we must use what we are given to 9

calculate them. By using Hookes Law for plane stress we can nd the x and y . Hookes Law for plane stress uses Youngs of elasticity, Poissons ratio, and the initial stresses to nd the initial strains. Hookes Law for plane stress is as follows: Ex + Ey = x 2 x Ey + Ex = y 2 y Exy = xy Now our knowledge of Reduced Row-Echelon Form comes into play. As you can see, what we have here is a system of three equations and three unknowns. After we substitute in the known values we can make a matrix using the leading coecients. 200 109 57 109 0 4.1345 106 57 109 200 109 0 9.18775 106 0 0 0 0 Now if we convert this matrix to RREF it will tell us the initial strains on the element. 200 109 RREF 57 109 0 57 109 200 109 0 0 0 0 4.1345 106 1 0 0 9.18775 106 = 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3.675 105 5.6413 105 0

This refers to x = 3.675 105 , y = 5.6413 105 and xy = 0. Now we can substitute these values into equation (19). cos2 (21.8) x y = sin2 (21.8) x y 2 sin(21.8) cos(21.8) sin2 (21.8) cos2 (21.8) 2 sin(21.8) cos(21.8) sin(21.8) cos(21.8) 3.675 105 sin(21.8) cos(21.8) 5.6413 105 0 cos2 (21.8) sin2 (21.8)

x 2.3902 105 y = 4.3565 105 6.4247 105 x y Now we know that with the stresses of 10 [MPa] tension in the y-direction and 4.5 [MPa] compression in the x-direction we have a deformation of 2.3902 5 m [ m ] perpendicular to the weld. 105 [ m m ] along the weld and 4.3565 10

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Conclusion

Linear algebra is not only useful to the specic engineering topic of mechanics of materials but to all of engineering. One might even go as far as to say that linear algebra is as important to an engineer as is calculus. We only showed the importance of linear algebra in our derivation of the stress and strain transformation equations and the usage of RREF but linear algebra can be applied to a number of other topics in engineering as well. Eigenvectors are extremely important when studying trajectories of objects and as such can be quite useful in the design of things from jet engines to satellites. The usage of ordinary dierential equations becomes a necessity in engineering very often and very extensively; equations such as the Bernoulli and Riccati equations, in which linear algebra can come in very handy when solving, are essential for topics such as uid mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer. Finally, the Laplace Transform can be very advantageous for electrical engineers when designing digital control systems. Although there are only a few uses listed here there are a multitude of uses for linear algebra in engineering.

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This picture contains an example of an improperly designed structure. The wind blowing across the Tacoma Narrows bridge caused it to oscillate at its natural frequency and eventually collapse. The study of transformation equations can both help with the study of natural frequencies and as we showed, the stresses involved.

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References
[1] Nicholas J. Salamon. Matrix Methods, Calculators and Computers: Impact on Introductory Mechanics of Materials Courses. TEMPUS Publications. 1997. Web. 15 April 2012 [2] Rohan Abeyaratne. Lecture Notes on The Mechanics of Elastic Solids Rohan Abeyaratne. 1987. Web. 15 March 2012 [3] Brooks/Cole. Typical Problem. 2001. Thomson Learning Inc. Web. 15 March 2012. [4] Paul Dawkins. Linear Transformations. Pauls Online Math Notes. n.p. n.d. 15 March 2012 [5] Strain (materials science). Absolute Astronomy. n.p. n.d. 15 March 2012 [6] Principal Stress Calculator. efunda. n.p. n.d. 15 March 2012 [7] Brooks/Cole. Chapter 7: Analysis of Stress and Strain Thomson Learning Inc. 2001. Web. 15 March 2012 [8] Dr. Mysore Narayanan. Importance of Linear algebra in Engineering Design Methodology Miami University. n.d. 06 May 2012 [9] Sergio Barrachina, Peter Benner, Enrique S. Quintana-Orti. Ecient algorithms for generalized algebraic Bernoulli equations based on the matrix sign function Springer Science + Business Media, LLC . 1 December 2007. 06 May 2012

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