Faculty of Engineering

Department of Civil Engineering

Course: CE 202-Section 1- “Strength of Materials”

ASSIGNMENT II

Why do we need "stress" and "strain" instead of these forces and

elongations in Mechanics?

By: Davith CHIEN

Semester II
Academic Year: 2021-2022
We have Force and elongation (contraction) in Physics. Why do we need "stress" and "strain"
instead of these forces and elongations in Mechanics?

Since we have been studying Physics, so far we went through some quantities and methodologies,
especially forces and elongation or it is called contraction. Back then, when we were in the course
mechanics, we were instead using other methodological terms such as Stress and Strain.

When we talk about mechanics or mechanical materials, we will be discussing Stress and Strain.
The term Stress is referred to the magnitude of the load that is applied to a particular
cross-sectional surface of an object. Furthermore, stress can be defined as the force that causes
the body’s deformation. When the applied load experiences any materials, the internal force that
is contributed within the body will balance and react to the force applied to the body itself. The
stress contribution within the body can be or cannot be uniform depending on the condition of the
load applied. For instance, when there is a load applied on a bar the pure tension might have
uniform tensile distribution, while the bar in bending condition will have a stress distribution to
the changeable distance which is perpendicular to the normal axis.

However, when we are talking about Strain, it expresses the system of the stress applied. When an
object is exerted by the force, there will be stress occurring within the body of that material, and
that applied stress will cause material deformation. When the strain happens, for example, the bar
that is being stretched in tension is considered as the amount of elongation or contraction of
materials. In other words, we can express the strain by the division of the change length and the
original length. The strain distribution within the body might or might not be uniform in the
complex structures depending on the condition of the load applied in the stress case.