MM 612 Spring 2020

Tutorial 4: 2D Stress Transformations and Mohr’s Circle

Anirban Patra
Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, IIT Bombay

1. Theory

Given a 2D stress tensor (plane stress) at a material point in the coordinate system (x,y):

  12 
 =  11  .
 12  22 

Figure 1. Stress state at a material point.

The corresponding transformed stresses in a rotated coordinate system (x’,y’) are given as:
  +  22    11 −  22 
 '11 =  n =  11 +  cos ( 2 ) +  12 sin ( 2 )
 2   2 
  +  22    11 −  22 
 '22 =  11 −  cos ( 2 ) −  12 sin ( 2 )
 2   2 
  − 
 '12 =  n = −  11 22  sin ( 2 ) +  12 cos ( 2 ) ,
 2 
where,  is the angle between the coordinate system (x,y) and the rotated coordinate system (x’,y’).
There are different methods to derive these equations. We will learn about them in the following.

MM612 T4
1.1.Mohr’s circle representation of plane stress

This stress tensor can be graphically represented on a Mohr’s circle. The Mohr’s circle (named
after Christian Otto Mohr) provides us a way to graphically transform from one stress state to
another. The above expressions are shown graphically in the Mohr's circle diagram in Figure 2,
where we assume that  11   22 and we adopt the convention that the shear stress pointing
clockwise (counterclockwise) on the element is positive (negative).

Y(y, yx)

V' F' P1
O P2 C

Figure 2. Mohr's circle representation of a plane stress state.

MM612 T4
Properties of the Mohr’s circle are given in the following.

1. Radius of the circle:

 +  22    11 −  22    11 −  22 
2 2 2

R =   n − 11
2
 + n = 
2
 +  12  R = 
2
 +  12
2

 2   2   2 
  +  22 
2. Center of the circle:  11 ,0
 2 
3. The angle (  p ) represents the angle between the current stress state and the principal stress state.
This can be solved by the equation:
2 12  2 12 
 n = 0  tan ( 2 p ) =
1
  p = tan −1  
 11 −  22 2   11 −  22 
4. The values of the principal stresses are given by:
 +  +
 p1 = 11 22 + R ,  p 2 = 11 22 − R
2 2
5. The maximum and minimum values of shear stress are given by:
 p = R

1.2.Stress transformation using rotation tensor

The transformation tensor for a stress state is given by:

 cos  sin  
T = 
 − sin  cos  

The rotated stress tensor is then given by:

 '  '12   cos  sin    11  12  cos  − sin  
 ' = T    T '   11 =  
 '12  '22   − sin  cos    12  22   sin  cos  

1.3.Eigenvalue analysis of stress tensor

We can obtain the principal values of the stress tensor using an Eigenvalues analysis, i.e.,
 −   12 
 −  I = 0  det  11 =0
  12  22 −  
This gives us a quadratic equation for  , whose roots are  p1 and  p 2 , with corresponding
Eigenvectors n1 (n11 , n12 ) and n2 (n12 , n22 ) . The values of the Eigenvectors can be found by solving
the equation:
 11 −  pi  12   ni1  0 
   −    2  =   ; i = 1, 2
 12 22 pi   ni  0 

We will use MATLAB to solve for this in today’s assignment.

MM612 T4
2. Assignment

Create a function MM612A4(sigma) with the file name MM612A4.m. Write all your code in
this file.

Use the 2D plane stress tensor (sigma) as input and perform the following operations:

1. Calculate the principal stress values (sigma_p1) and directions (n1) of this stress state using
Eigenvalue analysis.
2. Verify that the angle between the principal directions is π/2.
3. Construct a Mohr’s circle for the given stress state and represent the above stress state on the
Mohr’s circle using a straight line passing through the center of the circle.
4. Verify from the Mohr’s circle that the values of principal stresses is the same as calculated using
the Eigenvalue analysis.
5. Now calculate the angle (theta_p) between the principal axes and the current stress state.
6. Construct the transformation tensor ( T ) using the equations given in the tutorial. Transform the
current stress state to the principal axes and verify that the obtained stress tensor (sigma_p2) in
the principal axes is the same as obtained using the Eigenvalue analysis.

Pass the following stress tensors as input to your function from the MATLAB command window
to verify your calculations:
100 20  80 25
1 =   MPa,  2 =   MPa
 20 −30  25 30 

Save the plots from the two calculations as plot1.png and plot2.png. Make sure you have
labelled the axes correctly.

At the end of the assignment you should have three files in your folder: MM612A5.m,
plot1.png and plot2.png.

Hints:
(a) Use the function eig in MATLAB to calculate the principal stress values and the
corresponding Eigenvectors. The syntax for eig is: [eigvector, eigvalue] =
eig(tensor).
(b) Use the parametric equation of a circle to construct the Mohr’s circle: x = x0 +
R*cos(theta), y = y0 + R*sin(theta), where (x0,y0) represents the center
of the circle, R is the radius of the circle, and 0 ≤ theta ≤ 2π.
(c) Use the functions acos and atan in MATLAB to compute cos-1 and tan-1 of any value.
All values output are in radians.

MM612 T4