Strain rate

Strain rate is the change in strain (deformation) of a material with respect to time.

The strain rate at some point within the material measures the rate at which the distances of adjacent parcels
of the material change with time in the neighborhood of that point. It comprises both the rate at which the
material is expanding or shrinking (expansion rate), and also the rate at which it is being deformed by
progressive shearing without changing its volume (shear rate). It is zero if these distances do not change, as
happens when all particles in some region are moving with the same velocity (same speed and direction)
and/or rotating with the same angular velocity, as if that part of the medium were a rigid body.

The strain rate is a concept of materials science and continuum mechanics, that plays an essential role in the
physics of fluids and deformable solids. In an isotropic Newtonian fluid, in particular, the viscous stress is a
linear function of the rate of strain, defined by two coefficients, one relating to the expansion rate (the bulk
viscosity coefficient) and one relating to the shear rate (the "ordinary" viscosity coefficient).

Contents
Definition
Simple deformations
The strain-rate tensor
Units
Strain rate testing
See also
References
External links

Definition
The definition of strain rate was first introduced in 1867 by American metallurgist Jade LeCocq, who defined it
as "the rate at which strain occurs. It is the time rate of change of strain." In physics the strain rate is generally
defined as the derivative of the strain with respect to time. Its precise definition depends on how strain is
measured.

Simple deformations
In simple contexts, a single number may suffice to describe the strain, and therefore the strain rate. For
example, when a long and uniform rubber band is gradually stretched by pulling at the ends, the strain can be
defined as the ratio between the amount of stretching and the original length of the band:
where is the original length and its length at each time . Then the strain rate will be

where is the speed at which the ends are moving away from each other.

The strain rate can also be expressed by a single number when the material is being subjected to parallel shear
without change of volume; namely, when the deformation can be described as a set of infinitesimally thin
parallel layers sliding against each other as if they were rigid sheets, in the same direction, without changing
their spacing. This description fits the laminar flow of a fluid between two solid plates that slide parallel to
each other (a Couette flow) or inside a circular pipe of constant cross-section (a Poiseuille flow). In those cases,
the state of the material at some time can be described by the displacement of each layer, since an
arbitrary starting time, as a function of its distance from the fixed wall. Then the strain in each layer can be
expressed as the limit of the ratio between the current relative displacement of a nearby
layer, divided by the spacing between the layers:

Therefore, the strain rate is

where is the current linear speed of the material at distance from the wall.

The strain-rate tensor

In more general situations, when the material is being deformed in various directions at different rates, the
strain (and therefore the strain rate) around a point within a material cannot be expressed by a single number,
or even by a single vector. In such cases, the rate of deformation must be expressed by a tensor, a linear map
between vectors, that expresses how the relative velocity of the medium changes when one moves by a small
distance away from the point in a given direction. This strain rate tensor can be defined as the time derivative
of the strain tensor, or as the symmetric part of the gradient (derivative with respect to position) of the velocity
of the material.
With a chosen coordinate system, the strain rate tensor can be represented by a symmetric 3×3 matrix of real
numbers. The strain rate tensor typically varies with position and time within the material, and is therefore a
(time-varying) tensor field. It only describes the local rate of deformation to first order; but that is generally
sufficient for most purposes, even when the viscosity of the material is highly non-linear.

Units
The strain is the ratio of two lengths, so it is a dimensionless quantity (a number that does not depend on the
choice of measurement units). Thus, strain rate is in units of inverse time (such as s−1).

Strain rate testing

Materials can be tested using the so-called epsilon dot ( ) method[1] which can be used to derive viscoelastic
parameters through lumped parameter analysis.

See also
◾ Flow velocity
◾ Strain
◾ Strain gauge
◾ Stress–strain curve
◾ Stretch ratio

References
1. Tirella, Ahluwalia (October 2014). "Strain rate viscoelastic analysis of soft and highly hydrated
biomaterials" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4304325). Journal of Biomedical Materials
Research. 102 (10): 3352–3360. doi:10.1002/jbm.a.34914 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fjbm.a.34914).
PMC 4304325 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4304325). PMID 23946054 (https://www.nc
bi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23946054).

External links
◾ Evolution of Specimen Strain Rate in Split Hopkinson Bar Test (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/
0954406218813386)

◾ Bar Technology for High-Strain-Rate Material Properties (https://sites.google.com/view/rate-split-hopkinso

n-bar)

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This page was last edited on 27 July 2019, at 20:22 (UTC).

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