Theories of Failure

Failure Criteria

Assumption : In a complex loading condition

also, the material has the same capability. This
assumption forms the backbone of Failure
theories.
Concepts of Simple tension test and Principal
stresses are the main 2 prerequisites to
understand the Failure theories effectively.
Failure Criteria
 Maximum Principal stress
theory(Rankine Theory)

According to this theory when the maximum

principal stress induced in a material under complex
load condition reaches the yield or ultimate strength
in a simple tension test, the material fails. So the
failure condition can be expressed as
 Maximum shear stress theory(Guest
Theory or Tresca Theory)
According to this theory when the maximum shear
strength in actual case exceeds maximum allowable
shear stress in simple tension test the material case.
Maximum shear stress in actual case is represented
as

Maximum shear stress in simple tension case occurs

at angle 45 with load, so maximum shear strength in a
simple tension case can be represented
Maximum normal strain theory(St.
Venant’s Theory)
This theory states that, when the maximum
normal strain in actual case is more than
maximum normal strain occurred in simple
tension test case the material fails. The
maximum normal strain in actual case is given
by

Maximum strain in simple tension test case is given by

Total strain energy theory(Haigh’s
Theory)
• According to this theory when the total strain
energy in actual case exceeds the total strain
energy in simple tension test at the time of
failure, the material fails. The total strain
energy in actual case is given by
 Shear strain energy theory(Von
Mises Theory)
According to this theory when the shear strain energy
in the actual case exceeds shear strain energy in simp
le tension test at the time of failure the material fails.
Shear strain energy in the actual case is given by