Lecture 06

7th November 2022

 Linking Current Lecture With
Previous Lecture
In the previous Lecture, theory of pressure vessels is covered.
During stress analysis, principal stresses are determined. The
stresses are compared and the most significant principal stress is
determined.

To ensure safety of the pressures vessel, you need a failure

theory to predict failure.

In today Lecture, theories of failure would be discussed to

understand how these theories predict failure.

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 Intended Learning Outcomes
Explain and classify the material failure types

Relate simple tension test to multiaxial loading to produce

material failure criteria by Maximum Normal Stress theory

Relate simple tension test to multiaxial loading to produce

material failure criteria by Maximum Shear Stress theory

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 Failure Theories
When an engineer is faced with the problem of design using a
specific material, it becomes important to place an upper limit
on the state of stress that defines the material’s failure.

If the material is ductile, failure is usually specified by the

initiation of yielding, whereas if the material is brittle, it is
specified by fracture.

These modes of failure are readily defined if the member is

subjected to a uniaxial state of stress, as in the case of simple
tension; however, if the member is subjected to biaxial or triaxial
stress, the criterion for failure becomes more difficult to
establish.

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 Failure Theories
No single theory of failure, however, can be applied to a
specific material at all times, because a material may behave in
either a ductile or brittle manner depending on the temperature,
rate of loading, chemical environment, or the way the material is
shaped or formed.

When using a particular theory of failure, it is first necessary to

calculate the normal and shear stress at points where they are the
largest in the member.

Once this state of stress is established, the principal stresses at

these critical points are then determined, since each of the
following theories is based on knowing the principal stress.

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 Types of Failure
Before failure theories are presented, the two general types of
failure are introduced first. The following theories try to predict
failure.

Ductile failure, and

Brittle failure

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Failure Theories

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress

Maximum Shear Stress

Maximum Distortional Energy

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

The theory of failure due to the maximum normal stress is

generally attributed to W. J. M. Rankine.

It is applicable to prediction of failure in brittle materials.

Failure will occur when the magnitude of the major principal

stress reaches that which caused fracture in a simple tension test.

Experiments in uniaxial tension and torsion have corroborated

this theory.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

It was previously stated that brittle materials, such as gray cast
iron, tend to fail suddenly by fracture with no apparent yielding.

In a tension test, the fracture occurs when the normal stress
reaches the ultimate stress. Fig. 10–33a.

Also, brittle fracture occurs in a torsion test due to tension since

the plane of fracture for an element is at 45° to the shear
direction, Fig. 10–33b. The fracture surface is therefore helical
as shown.

Experiments have further shown that during torsion the

material’s strength is somewhat unaffected by the presence of
the associated principal compressive stress being at right angles
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to the principal tensile stress.
 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

Consequently, the tensile stress needed to fracture a specimen

during a torsion test is approximately the same as that needed to
fracture a specimen in simple tension.
According to the maximum-normal-stress theory an actual
machine element made of brittle material and subjected to bi-
axial and/or tri-axial loading will fail / fracture when the
maximum tensile stress, in the material reaches the value of the
maximum normal stress which caused failure / fracture in a
simple tension test / uniaxial loading.
If the material is subjected to plane stress, we require that

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

These equations are shown graphically in Fig. 10–34.

Therefore, if the stress coordinates at a point in the material fall

on the boundary or outside the shaded area, the material is said
to fracture.

Experimentally, it has been found to be in close agreement with

the behavior of brittle materials that have stress–strain diagrams
that are similar in both tension and compression.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

Principal stresses and Moher’s circle

for a pressure vessel

Failure of a pressure vessel

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Normal Stress Theory

Moher’s circle for a torsion bar

Failure of a torsion bar

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Recall that yielding of a material occurs by slippage between

planes oriented at 45° to principal stresses.

This indicates that yielding of a material depends on the

maximum shear stress in the material rather than the maximum
normal stress.

Exactly such a theory was forwarded by H. Tresca to the French

Academy, and therefore bears his name. H. Tresca presented the
theory in 1868.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

According to the maximum-shear-stress theory an actual

machine element made of ductile material and subjected to bi-
axial and/or tri-axial loading will fail / yield when the maximum
shear stress, in the material reaches the value of the maximum
shear stress which caused failure / yielding in a simple tension
test / uniaxial loading.

A simple tension test is performed on the ductile specimen, and

the yield stress is noted.

Plotting Mohr's circle at yield, it could be seen that for a simple

tension test, the maximum shear stress is one half of the yield
stress.
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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

The most common type of yielding of a ductile material such as

steel is caused by slipping, which occurs along the contact
planes of randomly ordered crystals that make up the material.

If we make a specimen into a highly polished thin strip and

subject it to a simple tension test, we can actually see how this
slipping causes the material to yield, Fig. 10–26.

The edges of the planes of slipping as they appear on the surface

of the strip are referred to as Lüder’s lines.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

These lines clearly indicate the slip planes in the strip, which
occur at approximately 45° with the axis of the strip.

The slipping that occurs is caused by shear stress.

To show this, consider an element of the material taken from a

tension specimen, when it is subjected to the yield stress Fig.
10–27a.

The maximum shear stress can be determined by drawing

Mohr’s circle for the element, Fig. 10–27b.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Figure 10-27
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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Figure 10-27

Uniaxial test specimen will fail if

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Furthermore, this shear stress acts on planes that are 45° from
the planes of principal stress, Fig. 10–27c, and these planes
coincide with the direction of the Lüder lines shown on the
specimen, indicating that indeed failure occurs by shear.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Figure 10-27
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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Using this idea, that ductile materials fail by shear, in 1868

Henri Tresca proposed the maximum-shear-stress theory or
Tresca yield criterion.

This theory can be used to predict the failure stress of a ductile

material subjected to any type of loading.

The theory states that yielding of the material begins when the
absolute maximum shear stress in the material reaches the shear
stress that causes the same material to yield when it is subjected
only to axial tension.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

Therefore, to avoid failure, it is required that in the material

must be less than where, is determined from a simple
tension test.

For application, we will express the absolute maximum shear

stress in terms of the principal stresses.

If the two in-plane principal stresses have the same sign, i.e.,
they are both tensile or both compressive, then failure will occur
out of the plane, and from Mohr’s circle, we know that

Or

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

If instead the in-plane principal stresses are of opposite signs, then
failure occurs in the plane, and we can write,

Or

Using these equations and Eq. 10–26, the maximum-shear-

stress theory for plane stress can be expressed for any two
in-plane principal stresses and by the following criteria:

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

A graph of these equations is given in Fig. 10–28.

Clearly, if any point of the material is subjected to plane stress, and

its in-plane principal stresses are represented by a coordinate
plotted on the boundary or outside the shaded hexagonal area
shown in this figure, the material will yield at the point and failure
is said to occur.

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 Failure Theories
Maximum Shear Stress Theory

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 References
R.C. Hibbeler, Mechanics of Materials, 10th edition, ISBN: 0134319656,
Pearson, 2016.
 THANKS
Questions (if any)