ME803

CONTINUUM MECHANICS
FALL 2020
Dr Sana Waheed

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 1

 INTRODUCTION
Instructor: Dr. Sana Waheed
BE + MEng University of Cambridge, UK
PhD Imperial College London, UK

Office: 210E
Email: sana.waheed@smme.nust.edu.pk
Consulting hours: drop-by during office hours/
appointment
Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 2
 INTRODUCTION
My own research interests lie in micromechanics

Dimiduk, D.M., et al. (2005), Size-affected single-slip behavior

of pure nickel microcrystals, Acta Mat. , 53:4065-4077 Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 3
INTRODUCTION
My own research interests lie in computational micromechanics
• Discrete dislocation plasticity
• Crystal plasticity finite element

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 4

COURSE OUTLINE
Course Name: Continuum Mechanics (ME803)
Credit Hours: 03
Tentative Assessment & Grading Policy:
 Assignments ~3 - 15%
 Mid Semester Exam - 35%
 End Semester Exam - 50%

* Ungraded quizzes

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 5

 TEXT BOOKS
▪ M. Lai, E. Krempl, D. Ruben
(2010), Introduction to
Continuum Mechanics, 4th
Ed., Oxford: Elsevier

▪ J. N Reddy (2013), An
Introduction to Continuum
Mechanics, 2nd Ed.,
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press

Both available online Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 6
 HYBRID T&L MODE
• Couse Material will be posted on Microsoft Teams
• (Some) Recorded lectures on YouTube
• Grades on CMS
• All announcements and correspondence on MS Teams

If you need to contact me for anything, you can:

• direct message on Microsoft Teams
• email at sana.waheed@smme.nust.edu.pk
and I will get back to you 7
Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

Join the MS Team using the

team code:
erlg5su

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 8

GENERAL ADVICE
▪ Lectures will start at 5.00 pm
▪ Take your own notes, but lecture slides will be
fairly complete
▪ To listen and practice questions more
important
▪ Ask questions during lecture
▪ Review course material regularly
▪ Plagiarism not tolerated
Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 10
 ME803 Continuum Mechanics
INTRODUCTION 20th Oct, 2020
Dr. Sana Waheed

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 11

 First principles calculations /
Schrodinger’s equation

CONTINUUM MECHANICS
▪ Continuum mechanics deals with the analysis of the
motion and the deformation of materials (solids, liquids
and gases)
▪ By assuming that the medium is a continuous Ignore discrete nature of matter
distribution of mass, disregarding its discrete molecular
structure and imagine it as being without any empty
spaces or gaps.
By experiments/phenomenologically
▪ The continuum theory regards matter as indefinitely
divisible.
▪ Theory of elasticity for solids and theory of dynamics
for liquids and gases.
▪ The continuum theory permits us to define the stress at
a point, a geometric point in space conceived as
occupying no volume, by a mathematical limit like the
definition of the derivative in differential calculus. Assume a continuum medium
Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 12
 CONTINUUM MECHANICS
▪ Stress at a point.
▪ Gives rise to the vast number of theories of beams,
plates and shells, plasticity, fluid mechanics and so on.
▪ The predictions of material behavior based on
continuum mechanics agree closely with what we
experience or observe experimentally over a wide
range of conditions.
▪ There are exceptions: failure due to fatigue cracking,
dislocations, turbulence, phenomena that occur at
atomic length and time scales…
▪ But for the vast majority of engineering problems,
Continuum Mechanics is applicable

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 13

 A SIMPLE EXAMPLE
▪ Consider a bar subjected to a tensile load.
▪ The behavior is characterized by these simple
governing equations, which we are familiar with from
statics and mechanics of materials
▪ But we are in the business of mechanics of bodies with
arbitrary shape, loading, constraints, etc

▪ What is 𝜀 and 𝜎 for this complex case?

▪ How do we formulate our equations of kinematics,
balance laws, and constitutive models here?
The answer is provided by continuum mechanics.

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 14

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: AERODYNAMICS
Governing equations
• Momentum balance (Navier Stokes)
• Turbulence closure conditions
• Mass conservation
• Constitutive relations (gas law?)

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 15

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: NANO/MICROFLUIDICS
Governing equations
• Equilibrium
• Constitutive relations
• Multi-scale methods

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 16

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: STRUCTURAL MECHANICS
Governing equations
• Equilibrium (momentum for vibrations)
• Kinematics (beams, shells, plates)
• Material Models (elasticity, plasticity)

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 17

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: MATERIALS SCIENCE
Governing equations
• Equilibrium
• Constitutive relations
• Multiphysics
• Failure criteria

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 18

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: MACHINE DESIGN
Governing equations
• Equilibrium (momentum for modal analysis)
• Constitutive equations – elasticity/plasticity
• Failure criteria/Fracture Mechanics

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 19

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: BIOMECHANICS
Governing equations
• Equilibrium/Navier Stokes
• Mass conservation
• Constitutive equations
• Growth laws?
• Failure criteria

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 20

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: ACOUSTICS
Governing equations
• Linearized Navier-Stokes equations
• Ideal gas law
• Mass conservation

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 21

 APPLICATIONS OF CONTINUUM
MECHANICS: CLIMATE MODELING
Governing equations
• Momentum balance
• Thermal energy balance
• Mass conservation
• Constitutive eqs for air/water

DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 22

 CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS IN CONTINUUM
MECHANICS
• Coupled problems – multiphysics: e.g.
• Li ion batteries (chemistry/diffusion/mechanical stress)
• Biophysics/mechanics/chemistry - eg mechanotransduction
• New materials – eg hydrogels
• Coupled fluids/solids – blood flow; tissue mechanics

• Deriving/understanding constitutive relations from fundamental physics

• Molecular dynamics
• Multiscale methods – concurrent or global climate model

• Major unresolved fundamental issues

• How to treat kinetics of slow processes at atomic scales or mesoscale?
• Complexity – eg plasticity (dislocations) – or turbulent flow
• Uncertainty – existing models nearly always deterministic; applications
need eg statistics of failures

• Numerical Methods
• Applications….
DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 23
 CONTINUUM MECHANICS
▪ Theory can be divided into two main parts
1. General principles common to all media
2. Constitutive equations defining idealized materials.
▪ The general principles are axioms considered to be self-evident from our
experience with the physical world, such as conservation of mass; the
balance of linear momentum, moment of momentum, and energy; and the
entropy inequality law.
▪ There are two equivalent forms of the general principles
1. Integral form, formulated for a finite volume of material in the
continuum,
2. Field equations for differential volume of material (particles) at every
point of the field of interest.
▪ Field equations are often derived from the integral form. They can also be
derived directly from the free body of a differential volume

Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 24

 CONTINUUM MECHANICS
▪ The second major part of the theory of continuum mechanics concerns the
“constitutive equations” that are used to define idealized materials.
▪ Idealized materials represent certain aspects of the mechanical behaviors of
natural materials
o For example, for many materials, under restricted conditions, the deformation caused by the
application of loads disappears with the removal of the loads. This aspect of material behaviors is
represented by the constitutive equation of an elastic body.
o Under even more restricted conditions, the state of stress at a point depends linearly on the change
of lengths and angles suffered by elements at the point measured from the state where the external
and internal forces vanish. This defines the linearly elastic solid.
o Another example is supplied by the classical definition of viscosity, which is based on the assumption
that the state of stress depends linearly on the instantaneous rates of change of lengths and angles.
Such a constitutive equation defines the linearly viscous fluid.

▪ The mechanical behaviors of real materials vary not only from material to
material but also with different loading conditions for a given material.
▪ This leads to the formulation of many constitutive equations defining the many
different aspects of material behaviors. Dr. Sana Waheed - Fall 2020 - SMME, NUST 25
 COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
• Precisely describe the motion, deformation and forces in a
continuum solid or fluid
• Derive equations of motion and conservation laws for a
continuum solid or fluid
• Identify constitutive models for linear elastic solids
• Solve simple boundary value problems for linearized elasticity
Broader goal:
• Apply these descriptions to solve specific complex problems of
solids or fluids
(eventually allowing us to analyze and design engineering systems)
26
DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST
TENTATIVE COURSE OUTLINE
S. No Topic Week
1 Mathematical preliminaries: 1-2
tensor calculus and index notation
2 Kinematics of deformation: 3-5
strain-displacement equations
3 Kinetics: equilibrium of forces and moments 6-7
Mid Semester Exam 8
4 Conservation laws (mass, momentum, energy) 9
5 Thermodynamics – first and second laws 10
6 Constitutive relations – stress-strain relations 11-12
7 Simple boundary value problems: linear elastic solid 13-14
8 *Simple boundary value problems: Newtonian fluid 15
DR. SANA WAHEED - FALL 2020 - SMME, NUST 27