CE402 – STRENGTH OF MATERIALS

4 UNITS
Strength of materials, also called mechanics of materials, deals with the
behavior of solid objects subject to stresses and strains.

The complete theory began with the consideration of the behavior of one and
two dimensional members of structures, whose states of stress can be
approximated as two dimensional, and was then generalized to three
dimensions to develop a more complete theory of the elastic and plastic
behavior of materials. An important founding pioneer in mechanics of materials
was Stephen Timoshenko.
* The study of strength of materials often refers to various methods of calculating the
stresses and strains in structural members, such as beams, columns, and shafts.

* The methods employed to predict the response of a structure under loading and its
susceptibility to various failure modes takes into account the properties of the
materials such as its yield strength, ultimate strength,Young's modulus, and Poisson's
ratio.

* In addition, the mechanical element's macroscopic properties (geometric properties)

such as its length, width, thickness, boundary constraints and abrupt changes in
geometry such as holes are considered.
Deformation refers to the change in size or shape of an object.

Displacements are the absolute change in position of a point on the object.

Deflection is the relative change in external displacements on an object.

Strain is the relative internal change in shape of an infinitesimally small cube of material
and can be expressed as a non-dimensional change in length or angle of distortion of the
cube.

Types of Deformation:

Permanent deformation is irreversible; the deformation stays even after removal of the
applied forces, while the temporary deformation is recoverable as it disappears after the
removal of applied forces.

Temporary deformation is also called elastic deformation, while the permanent

deformation is called plastic deformation.

Linear deformation – is governed by Hooke’s law

❖ Properties of the Materials
Yield Strength

Ultimate Strength

Young’s Modulus

Poisson's ratio
* The yield strength or yield stress is
a material property and is the stress
corresponding to the yield point at
which the material begins to deform
plastically.

* The yield strength is often used to

determine the maximum
allowable load in a mechanical
component, since it represents the
upper limit to forces that can be
applied without producing
permanent deformation
Yield Strength is the stress a material can withstand without
permanent deformation or a point at which it will no longer return to
its original dimensions (by 0.2% in length). Whereas, Tensile
Strength is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while
being stretched or pulled before failing or breaking.
* Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to
tensile strength (TS), ultimate strength, is the
maximum stress that a material can withstand while
being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle
materials the ultimate tensile strength is close to the
yield point, whereas in ductile materials the ultimate
tensile strength can be higher.

The ultimate tensile strength is usually found by

performing a tensile test and recording the engineering
stress versus strain. The highest point of the stress–
strain curve is the ultimate tensile strength and has units
of stress.

Tensile strengths are rarely used in the design of ductile

members, but they are important in brittle members.
They are tabulated for common materials such as alloys,
composite materials, ceramics, plastics, and wood.
STRESS- STRAIN DIAGRAM NECK

ULTIMATE STRENGTH
Young's modulus E, the Young modulus or the modulus of
elasticity in tension, is a mechanical property that measures the
tensile stiffness of a solid material. It quantifies the relationship
between tensile stress δ (force per unit area) and axial strain ε
(proportional deformation) in the linear elastic region of a
material and is determined using the formula:

Young's moduli are typically so large that they are expressed not
in pascals but in gigapascals (GPa).

Although Young's modulus is named after the 19th-century

British scientist Thomas Young, the concept was developed in STRESS- STRAIN DIAGRAM
1727 by Leonhard Euler. The first experiments that used the
concept of Young's modulus in its current form were performed
by the Italian scientist Giordano Riccati in 1782, pre-dating
Young's work by 25 years. The term modulus is derived from the
Latin root term modus which means measure.
* Poisson's ratio ѵ (nu) is a measure of the Poisson effect, the
deformation (expansion or contraction) of a material in
directions perpendicular to the direction of loading.

Most materials have Poisson's ratio values ranging between 0.0

and 0.5. Soft materials, such as rubber, where the bulk modulus
is much higher than the shear modulus, Poisson's ratio is near
0.5. For open-cell polymer foams, Poisson's ratio is near zero,
since the cells tend to collapse in compression. Many typical
solids have Poisson's ratios in the range of 0.2-0.3. The ratio is
named after the French mathematician and physicist Siméon
Poisson.
In the mechanics of materials, the strength of a material is its ability to
withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation.

The field of strength of materials deals with forces and deformations that result
from their acting on a material. A load applied to a mechanical member will
induce internal forces within the member called stresses when those forces are
expressed on a unit basis.

The stresses acting on the material cause deformation of the material in various
manners including breaking them completely. Deformation of the material is
called strain when those deformations too are placed on a unit basis.
In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity that expresses the
internal forces that neighboring particles of a continuous material exert on each other,
while strain is the measure of the deformation of the material.

* For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting an overhead weight, each particle
in the bar pushes on the particles immediately below it.

* When a liquid is in a closed container under pressure, each particle gets pushed against
by all the surrounding particles. The container walls and the pressure-inducing surface
(such as a piston) push against them in (Newtonian) reaction. These macroscopic forces
are actually the net result of a very large number of intermolecular
forces and collisions between the particles in those molecules.

* Stress is frequently represented by a lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ).

Types of Loadings

Transverse loadings – Forces applied perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of a

member. Transverse loading causes the member to bend and deflect from its
original position, with internal tensile and compressive strains accompanying
the change in curvature of the member. Transverse loading also induces shear
forces that cause shear deformation of the material and increase the transverse
deflection of the member.

Axial loading – The applied forces are collinear with the longitudinal axis of the
member. The forces cause the member to either stretch or shorten.

Torsional loading – Twisting action caused by a pair of externally applied equal

and oppositely directed force couples acting on parallel planes or by a single
external couple applied to a member that has one end fixed against rotation.
Stress ( σ )– Force per unit Area
Uniaxial stress is expressed by
•Compressive stress (or compression) is the stress state caused by an applied load that acts to reduce the
length of the material (compression member) along the axis of the applied load, it is, in other words, a stress
state that causes a squeezing of the material. A simple case of compression is the uniaxial compression
induced by the action of opposite, pushing forces. Compressive strength for materials is generally higher
than their tensile strength. However, structures loaded in compression are subject to additional failure
modes, such as buckling, that are dependent on the member's geometry.

•Tensile stress is the stress state caused by an applied load that tends to elongate the material along the
axis of the applied load, in other words, the stress caused by pulling the material. The strength of structures
of equal cross-sectional area loaded in tension is independent of shape of the cross-section. Materials
loaded in tension are susceptible to stress concentrations such as material defects or abrupt changes in
geometry. However, materials exhibiting ductile behaviour (most metals for example) can tolerate some
defects while brittle materials (such as ceramics) can fail well below their ultimate material strength.

•Shear stress is the stress state caused by the combined energy of a pair of opposing forces acting along
parallel lines of action through the material, in other words, the stress caused by faces of the
material sliding relative to one another. An example is cutting paper with scissors[4] or stresses due to
torsional loading.
Yield Strength & Tensile Strength
➢ Strength of Materials extends the study of forces that was begun in
Engineering Mechanics.
➢ Mechanics – covers the relations between forces acting on rigid bodies; in
Statics. The bodies are in equilibrium, whereas in Dynamics, they are
accelerated but can be put in equilibrium…
➢ In contrast (to Mechanics), Strength of Materials deals with the relations
between externally applied loads and their internal effects on the bodies. The
bodies are no longer assumed to be ideally rigid; the deformations, however
small…
➢ Throughout the subject, we shall study the principles that govern these two (2)
fundamental concepts of Strength and Rigidity.