Strain Parameters http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/structge/strsparm.

htm

Strain Parameters
Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
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Elas c Deforma on
Elas c material deforms under stress but returns to its original size and shape when the stress is released.
There is no permanent deforma on. Some elas c strain, like in a rubber band, can be large, but in rocks it
is usually small enough to be considered infinitesimal.

Many elas c materials obey Hooke's Law behavior: the deforma on is propor onal to the stress. This is
why spring balances work: twice the weight results in twice the deforma on.

For materials, Hooke's Law is wri en as: Stress = E Strain. Alterna vely, the rela onship is some mes
wri en E = Stress/Strain. This is the reverse of the way the law is wri en in most physics texts. In physics,
we can o en apply the stress in a controlled way and we are interested in predic ng the behavior of the
spring, for example, how it oscillates. In materials science and geology, we o en know the strain and want
to know what stress produced it. The two versions are equivalent; the only difference is which side the
constant is wri en on. The constant E is called Young's Modulus. Because strain is dimensionless, Young's
Modulus has the units of pressure or stress, i.e. pascals.

Physical Meaning of Young's Modulus

If strain = 1, stress = E. Thus, Young's Modulus can be considered the stress it would take (theore cally
only!) to result in 100 percent stretching or compression. In reality, most rocks fracture or flow when
deforma on exceeds a few percent, that is, at stresses a few percent of Young's Modulus.

The seismic P- and S-wave veloci es in rocks are propor onal to the square root of E.

For most crystalline rocks, E ranges from 50-150 Gpa, averaging about 100. If we take 100 Gpa as an
average, and consider one bar (100,000 pa) of stress, we have: 105 = 1011 Strain, or Strain = 10-6. Thus,
rocks typically deform elas cally by 10-6 per bar of stress. This is a useful quan ty to remember. Elas c
strain in rocks is ny - even ten kilobars typically results in only one percent deforma on - if the rock
doesn't fail first.

Poisson's Ra o

When a material is fla ened, it tends to bulge out at right angles to the compression direc on. If it's
stretched, it tends to constrict. Poisson's Ra o is defined at the ra o of the transverse strain (at right angles
to the stress) compared to the longitudinal strain (in the direc on of the stress).

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Note that the ra o is that of strains, not dimensions. We would not expect a thin rod to bulge or constrict as
much as a thick cylinder.

For most rocks, Poisson's Ra o, usually represented by the Greek le er nu (ν), averages about 1/4 to 1/3.
Materials with ra os greater than 1/2 actually increase in volume when compressed. Such materials are
called dilatant. Many unconsolidated materials are dilatant. Rocks can become dilatant just before failure
because microcracks increase the volume of the rock. There are a few weird synthe c foams with nega ve
Poisson's Ra os. These materials are light froths whose bubble walls collapse inward under compression.

Shear Modulus

Poisson's Ra o describes transverse strain, so it obviously has a connec on with shear. The Shear
Modulus, usually abbreviated G, plays the same role in describing shear as Young's Modulus does in
describing longitudinal strain. It is defined by G = shear stress/shear strain.

G can be calculated in terms of E and v: G = E/2(1 + ν). Since v ranges from 1/4 to 1/3 for most rocks, K is
about 0.4 E.

Bulk Modulus

The bulk modulus, K, is the ra o of hydrosta c stress to the resul ng volume change, or K =
pressure/volume change.

It's easy to show the rela onship between K, E, and Poisson's ra o (ν). Consider the effects of pressure P
ac ng on a unit cube equally along the x- y- and z-axes. The pressure along the x-axis will cause the cube to
contract longitudinally by an amount P/E. However, it will also bulge to the side by an amount vP/E, in
both the y- and z-direc ons. The net volume change just due to the component in the x-direc on is (1 -
2ν)P/E. The minus sign reflects the fact that the bulging counteracts the volume decrease due to
compression. Similarly, compression along the y- and z- axes produces similar volume changes. The total
volume change is thus 3(1 - 2ν)P/E.

Since K = P/volume change, thus K = E/(3(1 - 2ν)). Since v ranges from 1/4 to 1/3 for most rocks, K ranges
from 2/3E to E.

Physically, K can be considered the stress it would take to result in 100 per cent volume change, except
that's physically impossible and elas c strain rarely exceeds a few percent anyway.

If ν = 1/2, then K becomes infinite - the material is absolutely incompressible. Obviously real solids cannot
be u erly incompressible and therefore cannot have ν = 1/2.

Rela ons Between Elas c Parameters

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There are really only two independent quan es, so if we know any two quan es E, v, G and K, we can
calculate any others. The rela ons are shown below. Find the two known parameters and read across to
find the other two.

Known: E= ν= G= K=
E, ν E ν (E/2)/(1 + ν) (E/3)/(1 - 2ν))
E, G E (E/2G) - 1 G (E/3)/(3 - E/G))
E, K E (1 - E/3K)/2 E/(3 - E/3K) K
G, ν 2G(1 + ν) ν G (2/3)G(1 + ν)/(1 - 2ν)
G, K 12G2/(3K + 4G) (2G - 3K)/(3K + 4G) G K
K, ν 3K(1 - 2ν) ν (3/2)K(1 - 2ν)/(1 + ν) K

Viscous Deforma on
Viscous materials deform steadily under stress. Purely viscous materials like liquids deform under even the
smallest stress. Rocks may behave like viscous materials under high temperature and pressure.

Viscosity is defined by N = (shear stress)/(shear strain rate). Shear stress has the units of force and strain
rate has the units 1/ me. Thus the parameter N has the units force mes me or kg/(m-sec). In SI terms the
units are pascal-seconds. Older literature uses the unit poise; one pascal-second equals ten poises.

Few if any physical parameters show such a tremendous range as viscosity

Material Viscosity Pa-Sec

Hydrogen gas, 15 degrees K 0.0000006
Air, 0 degrees C 0.000017
Liquid Hydrogen 0.00001
Water 0 degrees C 0.0018
Water 100 degrees C 0.0003
Heavy Machine Oil 15 C 0.66
Glycerin, 20 degrees C 1.5
Honey 20 degrees C 1.6
Basalt Lava 1000
Rhyolite Lava 1,000,000
Rock Salt 1014
Marble 1016
Granite, Quartzite 1018 - 1020
Asthenosphere 1019 - 1020
Deep Mantle 1021 - 1022
Shallow Mantle 1023 - 1024

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Viscosity is very dependent on temperature. If it seems that water out of a boiling teake le splashes more
and soaks through clothing more quickly than cold water, that's no illusion. The viscosity of water at 100 C
is only one-third as much as room temperature and one sixth what it is at 0 C. The viscosity of glycerine
drops from 6700 at -40 C to .63 at 30 C, a factor of 10,000 in only 70 degrees.

Note that, strictly speaking, solid rocks aren't viscous. The figures given reflect their flow rates at the
temperatures and pressures typically found during crustal deforma on, and they are highly approximate
and extremely dependent on temperature and pressure. Varia ons by several orders of magnitude are
perfectly possible and commonly seen.

Plas c Deforma on
Plas c material does not flow un l a threshold stress has been exceeded. Plas c flow involves many
different mechanisms at the atomic level and there are many different equa ons for different plas c flow
mechanisms. Plas c flow therefore does not lend itself to neat physical parameters the way elas c and
viscous deforma on do.

Power Law Creep

One of the most common forms of plas c flow is Power-Law Creep, given by the formula:
Strain Rate = C (Stress)n exp(-Q/RT)

Let's take each part of the formula in turn:

C is a scaling constant.
n means that the strain rate increases much faster than stress. Typically n is about 3 but can range from a
bit less than 2 to 8. Recall that with viscous deforma on stress is propor onal to strain rate (n=1). With
power-law creep it's faster: the effec ve viscosity drops with stress.
Q is the ac va on energy required to get crystal disloca ons moving. It's typically 100-300 kilojoules per
mole, some mes up to 500.
R is the Universal Gas Constant that turns up everywhere in physical chemistry. In SI units it equals
8.3144 joules/mole-degree Kelvin.
T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin. As T increases, Q/RT decreases and thus exp(-Q/RT) increases,
though much more slowly than exp(T). At very large T, Q/RT approaches zero and the exponen al term
approaches 1. This does not happen, though, at geologically realis c temperatures.

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The func on Exp(-Q/RT) increases approximately

linearly at first, then very slowly asympto cally
approaches 1. The curves here use geologically realis c
values of Q. At high temperatures the temperature
dependence is weak because rocks are duc le enough
to deform as fast as strain can be applied. Another way
to look at it is that ambient thermal energy is nearly
enough to overcome the ac va on energy barrier.

Power-law creep is given by Strain Rate = C (Stress)n exp(-Q/RT). If n = 1 and Q=0, then we just have Strain
Rate = C (Stress), or in other words viscous flow. Q = 0 means it takes no energy to dislocate atoms; that is,
the material deforms under even the slightest stress. In this case C is just 1/viscosity. However, you can't
simply look up values of C and equate 1/C to viscosity because the other terms in real power-law creep can
be extremely large.

Some everyday materials obey power-law creep or some similar behavior.

Mayonnaise in a jar flows very sluggishly. You can lt the jar on its side without it spilling. On the other
hand, it offers no resistance to a knife and spreads easily on bread. A slight increase in shear stress (applied
by the knife) results in a huge increase in strain rate or, effec vely, a great decrease in viscosity.
Ball-point pen ink has to be viscous enough to stay in place if the pen is put upside-down in a pocket, yet
flow easily through a small orifice as the ball rotates. This is another material whose viscosity drops as
shear stress is applied.

Materials such as these are commonly described as shear-thinning fluids because they become less viscous
with increasing shear stress. However, it's easy to see they behave in a manner similar to power-law creep.

Viscoelas c Combines elas c and viscous behavior. Models of glacio-isostasy frequently assume a
viscoelas c earth: the crust flexes elas cally and the underlying mantle flows viscously.

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Created 23 February 1999, Last Update 26 February 1999
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