ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

ME2112
Strength of Materials
Prof. Victor Shim

Department of Mechanical Engineering

ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Mechanics of Materials
= “Mechanics of Solids” or “Strength of Materials”
= “Mechanics of Deformable Bodies”
• Rigid-body Statics assumes that the bodies
and structures under consideration do not
deform.
• Mechanics of Materials focuses on:
– relationship between applied loads and
internal forces/stresses generated within the
body (e.g. will the material fail/fracture?)
– deformations induced in the body (e.g. does
the structure bend or twist too much?)
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Review: Rigid body vs Deformable body

External
loads F F3
1

Supports

F2
Consider a supported body under static equilibrium,
subjected to various loads (forces, moments, torques)
P1 P2 P1 P2

Rigid Deformable

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

• To determine what the internal reactions are at any

section within the body, make an imaginary “cut”
through that location and consider equilibrium of either
portion, which is now a free body isolated by the “cut”.
• The internal reactions must balance the applied
(external) loads
Imaginary cut External loads
External loads (forces in this Internal
(forces in this case) F1 reactions
case) F F3
1 F3
F4 Supports
F4 Supports

F2 F2

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

The internal reactions at a section can be resolved into four

basic components.
1. Normal force (normal or 2. Shear force (along or
perpendicular to the cutting plane) parallel to the cutting Vxy
y plane) y
Fxx V
F x
x y
y

x x
z z

3. Bending moment 4. Torque (twist)

y y
M Mxz
x T z
y Txx
y

x x
z z A-5

ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

SIGN CONVENTION for Surfaces and Vector Quantities

Surface – an external surface, or internal surface exposed by an
imaginary cut, is defined by its outward normal; i.e. the unit
vector normal to the surface, and which points outwards.
If this outward normal points in the positive direction of a
coordinate axis, that surface is positive. Conversely, if the
outward normal points in the negative direction of the
coordinate axis, it is a negative surface; i.e. there are positive
and negative x, y and z surfaces. +y surface
–z

–x +x surface
y

x +z surface
z –y
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Forces, Stresses and other Vector Quantities

• If a vector quantity (e.g. force) acting on a positive surface,
points in the positive direction of a coordinate axis, that
quantity is positive.
• Similarly, a quantity acting on a negative surface and which
points in a negative coordinate axis direction is also
considered positive. Any other combination of surface and
direction of vector quantity implies a negative quantity.

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Subscripts on Vector Quantities

• Vector quantities are often denoted by two subscripts – i
and j , e.g. Fij ; the first subscript refers to the surface on
which the quantity acts and the second subscript denotes
the direction of the quantity.
• Hence, Fxy is a force acting on an x-surface but which points
in the y-direction. If the surface is a positive x-surface, but
the force points in the negative y-direction, the force is
negative (refer to preceding Table).
• (This is a commonly-adopted convention, but some books
adopt the opposite definitions for the subscripts – i.e. i
denotes direction and j denotes surface.)

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Illustration of Normal Forces, Shear Forces, Bending

Moments and Torques on Surfaces

Mxy
y
Vxy

M M y
V FF x
V
Fxx
z
x
z Mxx = Txx
Positive
Vxz
surface Negative
surface Mxz

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Stress
(What is this and why is it important ?)
• At any plane (internal surface exposed by an imaginary cut) in
a body subjected to loads, there can be forces, moments and
torques that are the resultant effect of the forces which act on
infinitesimal elements of surface area that make up the total
surface.
• This force per unit area on an infinitesimal areas is called
stress, and generally varies from one point to another in the
plane.
• When the stress at a point exceeds the value that the materials
can withstand, failure (e.g. yielding or fracture) starts at that
location (and can spread, causing the body or structure to fail).

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Stresses at a Point
F not
uniform
P
F
Area
A V

• Consider an imaginary plane in a body, where the force magnitude

and direction vary with location, and consider an arbitrary elemental
area A.
• The force F acting on can be resolved into a normal force P and a
shear force V. The normal and shear stresses at that point are:
normal stress:
shear stress:
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Note that both stress components  and  are present;

therefore both normal and shear stresses must be specified to
define the STATE OF STRESS at any point.
• Consider a point within a body, defined by an infinitesimal 3-D
element of material. For Cartesian coordinates x, y, and z, the
element is a cube with six faces and three orthogonal stress
components on each face.
• Because of equilibrium, there are only 6 components can be
independent. σ yy
y
τyz τyx
τxy
x
z σxx τzy σxx
τzx
τxz
dy
σzz dz
dx
Loads σyy
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Special cases of Stress States

Uniaxial stress – normal σxx σxx

stress along only one axis

yy
τyx
τxy
Two-dimensional – stresses on
xx
two orthogonal surfaces (bi-axial, xx τxy
if there is no shear)
τyx
yy
τyx

Pure shear – no normal components;

shear stresses are complementary τxy τxy
because for equilibrium,
τyx
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Deformation in Material
Engineering Strain – Normal Strain and Shear Strain
• Deformation in a material is quantified by how the lengths and
angles in an element of material change as a result of the
stresses experienced.
• Consider a elemental cube of an elastic material subjected to a
tensile normal stress xx (uniaxial stress on the x-surface in the
x-direction)
dx+ ∆dx
σxx dx

y dz

dy dy- ∆dy

z x σxx

For this type of loading, the length in the x-direction has

changed (increased) by ∆dx, while the lengths in the y- and z-
directions have changed (decreased) by ∆dy and ∆dz. A-14
ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Engineering Normal Strain is defined by the change in length

divided by the original length (a dimensionless number, or %)
Therefore:
Normal strain in the x-direction is:
(positive because there is an elongation of ∆dx)
Normal strain in the y-direction is:
(negative because there is a contraction of ∆dy)
Normal strain in the z-direction is:
(negative because there is a contraction of ∆dz)
Questions:
1. If the normal strain in a bar subjected to an axial load is -0.1
and the final length is 1.8m, what was the bar’s initial length?
2. Will the thickness/width of the bar have increased or
decreased?
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Engineering Shear Strain () is defined by the reduction in

angle from /2 at the corner of the element corresponding to
the origin of the coordinate axes.
C’
D’ D’ D C
D
C
y C’

 B’ 
B
A B A
B’
x

• , where  is the angle after deformation. If  is

acute, then the shear strain  is positive. This is consistent with
a positive shear stress generating a positive shear strain.
•  is negative if  is larger than /2.
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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONSHIPS
(Stress-strain behaviour)
Question: A steel ruler and a plastic ruler have identical
dimensions. They are gripped at one end and a weight is
suspended at the other. (a) Are the stresses in both rulers
identical? (b) Are the strains in both rulers identical?

Consider an elastic material made into cylindrical rods of three

different lengths and cross-sections. Each rod is gradually
stretched by an increasing force and the corresponding extension
measured and plotted. If the material is linearly elastic (a material
that is elastic will return to its original shape when the load is
removed), three load-extension curves will be obtained.

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Lo1
Rod 2
F
Rod 1 Force Rod 3
Lo2
F
F
Rod 2 Rod 1
Lo3
F
Rod 3 Elongation 

If the force F is divided by the cross-sectional area Ao, and the

extension ∆L divided by the original length Lo of each rod, stress
and strain values will be obtained. A plot of stress against strain
will result in one common curve for all three cases, since the
material is the same.

Stress σ Rods 1, 2 and 3

E
Strain ε A-18
ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

• The rods were loaded in uniaxial tension; if the loading

direction is the x-axis, then the stress is xx = F/Ao, and the
engineering normal strain is xx = ∆L/Lo (positive in this case).
• If the rods are made of a linear elastic material, the stress-strain
curve is linear with a slope E = xx/xx known as Young’s
modulus (Thomas Young, 1773-1829).
• (An elastic material is one that returns to its original shape when
the load is removed; e.g. steel, aluminium are linearly elastic if
the stress experienced does not exceed their yield stress.)
• Young’s modulus is a measure of the stiffness of a material.

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

• The normal strain in the (x-) direction of uniaxial loading is

• However, uniaxial loading causes lateral contraction.

• This results in a strain in the other directions of:

• The amount of contraction is related to the strain in the x-

direction by another elastic constant,  – Poisson’s ratio
(=0.25~0.35 for many materials).
If a load is applied in the y- or z- direction instead of the x-
direction, then the strains would be:
• For loading in the y-direction:
• For loading in the z-direction:

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Hooke’s Law (for linear elastic material)

In general, a body will experience multiple loads acting
simultaneously. Hence at any point in the body, there may be
normal stresses (positive or negative) acting along the three
orthogonal axes of the infinitesimal element defining that point.
• Each normal stress acting on its own will produce strains in all
three directions; their magnitudes being governed by E and .
• Therefore, if there are normal stresses in all three directions,
the strains in the three directions would be the superposition
of the strains caused by the individual normal stresses.

These equations relate normal stresses to normal strains. A-21

ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Hooke’s Law for Shear Stresses and Shear Strains

Shear stresses acting at a point will change the angles between
originally perpendicular planes defining the infinitesimal element
of material. For a linear elastic material, the relationship between
shear stress  and shear strain  is:

G is the shear modulus of the material.

N.B. Unlike normal stresses, a shear stress does not cause
shear strains (angular changes) in other directions; e.g. xy does
not generate yz or xz (no “Poisson’s ratio” effect).

The shear modulus is smaller than the Young’s modulus. A-22

ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Example
A 20mm thick bar with a rectangular cross-section is connected to
two thick plates by a 12mm diameter cylindrical pin. An axial load P is
applied to the bar as shown.
Determine the dimensions a and b of the bar cross-section, so that
when P becomes sufficiently large, failure of the cylindrical pin by
shear and failure of the bar by tension as well as shear occur
simultaneously.
a 12mm diameter pin Material properties of the pin and bar
P/2 bar Quantity Pin Bar

20 mm P Young’s 100 GPa 60 GPa

modulus, E
P/2 Shear 38 GPa 23 GPa
Side view
modulus, G
Poisson’s 0.3 0.28
 12 mm ratio, 
Tensile and fp = 120 MPa fb = 60 MPa
compressive
20 mm failure stress
Shear failure fp = 60 MPa fb = 40 MPa
stress
b Front view A-23

ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Solution
Relevant quantities:
Shear failure stress of pin τfp = 60MPa
Tensile failure stress of bar σfb = 60MPa
Shear failure stress of bar τfb= 40MPa b
20 mm

a P
For failure of pin by shear: a
b

Top view of bar

Failure of bar by tension:

Failure of bar by shear:

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Check for compressive crushing of bar material by the pin

Average compressive bearing stress on bar material is:

56.66 MPa < 60 MPa (fb); i.e. bearing stress on bar does not
exceed the compressive failure stress

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Example
a) An NUS lecturer carries out a demonstration using a rectangular
plate made of a linear elastic material, as shown below.
On it, he draws a right-angled isosceles triangle with inclined sides
of length s (corresponding to the dashed lines) before applying an
axial compressive stress o to the left and right ends. When the
stress is applied, the height of the triangle increases to a and the
base decreases to b. Derive expressions for the Young’s modulus
and Poisson’s ratio of the material in terms of o, s, a, and b.

s s a
   

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

Solution
a
s s
(compressive)     x
b
lxo

For uniaxial stress,

Young’s modulus:

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ME2112 – Strength of Materials (Victor Shim)

For Poisson’s ratio:  = –(yy/xx)

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