Theories of

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Failure
Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a
desirable or intended objective, and may be
viewed as the opposite of success. Product
failure ranges from failure to sell the product
to fracture of the product, in the worst cases
leading to personal injury or loss of life

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Catastrophic Failure?

Train wreck at Montparnasse

Station, Paris, France, 1895
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure
Failure
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Criteria
The criteria for failure are heavily dependent on
context of use, and may be relative to a
particular observer or belief system. A situation
considered to be a failure by one might be
considered a success by another.

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Failure or Success?

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
• What is failure?
• Why failure occurred?
• Criteria

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Theories of Failure
• Failure analysis
– Post-mortem
– Why structure fails?
– How can we prevent repeat?

• Design for safety

– Use safety factors

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 How to avoid failure?
• Properties/characteristics of
Material
• Operating conditions
– E.g. Temperature
– Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
• Loading conditions
– Stresses/stress concentration
– Are these stresses meaningful?
Principal stresses?

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Strength of Material

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Static Failure

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Ductile vs Brittle

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Static Failure
So, which stress causes the material to fail?
In general:
Ductile materials are limited by their shear strengths
Brittle materials (εf< 5%) are limited by their tensile
strengths

The next question is, how do we define failure?

Fracture is an obvious answer but yielding can also be
considered as the failure point if it distorts the material
such that the part no longer functions properly

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Stresses produced by Load
• Direct Stress
– Tensile/Compressive
– Bending
• Shear Stress
– Transverse
– Torsion
• Other
– Temperature
– Membrane
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Principal stresses (3-d)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Maximum Principal Stress Theory
When the maximum
principal stress induced in a
material under complex load
condition exceeds the
maximum normal strength
in a simple tension test the
material fails

Good for brittle materials

σ≤σ
1 y

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Kumar Katturaja | CAE Engineer
Maximum Principal Stress Theory

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Maximum Shear Stress Theory
When the maximum shear
strength in actual case
exceeds maximum allowable
shear stress in simple
tension test the material
case.

Good for ductile materials

1 1
𝜎𝜎1 − 𝜎𝜎3 ≤ 𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦
2 2

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Monday, February 1, 2021 MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Kumar Katturaja | CAE Engineer
Maximum Shear Stress

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
 Maximum Principal Strain Theory
When the maximum normal
strain in actual case is more
than maximum normal
strain occurred in simple
tension test case the
material fails

Not recommended
1 1
𝜎𝜎1 − ν𝜎𝜎2 − ν𝜎𝜎3 ≤ 𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦
𝐸𝐸 𝐸𝐸

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Kumar Katturaja | CAE Engineer
Maximum Strain Energy Theory
When the total strain energy
in actual case exceeds the
total strain energy in simple
tension test at the time of
failure, the material fails

Good for ductile material

1 1 2
𝜎𝜎12 + 𝜎𝜎22 + 𝜎𝜎32 − 2ν 𝜎𝜎1 𝜎𝜎2 + 𝜎𝜎2 𝜎𝜎3 + 𝜎𝜎3 𝜎𝜎1 ≤ 𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦
2𝐸𝐸 2𝐸𝐸
Department of Mechanical Engineering
21Analysis and Materials
MEC3076F – Stress
Kumar Katturaja | CAE Engineer
 Maximum Shear Strain Energy
Theory
When the shear strain
energy in the actual case
exceeds shear strain energy
in simple tension test at the
time of failure the material
fails

Highly recommended

2 2 2
𝜎𝜎1 − 𝜎𝜎2 + 𝜎𝜎2 − 𝜎𝜎3 + 𝜎𝜎1 − 𝜎𝜎3 ≤ 2𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦2

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Kumar Katturaja | CAE Engineer
 Coulomb-Mohr Shear Stress Theory
Brittle materials have σyt
σ2
Modified σyt
much higher strength in Coulomb-Mohr

compression than in Simplified

tension. σyc
Coulomb-Mohr
σyt
σ1

Failure envelope based No failure

on Mohr circles σyt

𝜎𝜎1 𝜎𝜎2 Failure by yielding σyc

+ =1
𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦 𝜎𝜎𝑦𝑦𝑦𝑦
Department of Mechanical Engineering
MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
Combination of failure theories

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials
There are

Other theories of failure

Aspects that affect failure

Department of Mechanical Engineering

MEC3076F – Stress Analysis and Materials