von Mises stress, fatigue,

and failure theory

BME 615
von Mises stress - σv
• In an elastic, isotropic body subjected to 3D
loads, a complex 3 dimensional system of
stresses is developed.
• At any point there are stresses acting in
different directions, and the direction and
magnitude of stresses changes from point to
point.
• The von Mises criterion is a formula for
calculating whether the stress combination at
a given point will cause failure.
• Note: it is based on the behavior of typical
engineering materials and has relatively little
to do with any biological tissue behavior
• People use it because it’s built into FE codes
and gives a single value to map (rather than
mapping each value in a stress tensor
separately)
von Mises stress - σv
• In ductile engineering materials, von
Mises found that, even though no
principal stress exceeds the yield
stress, it is possible for yielding to
result from a combination of stresses.
• The von Mises criterion is a formula for
combining these 3 stresses into an
equivalent stress, which is then
compared to the yield stress of the
material.
• Yield stress is a known property of the
isotropic material, and is usually
considered to be the 1D yield stress.
 von Mises stress - σv
s v = 3× IIs

( ) ( ) (
s xx - s yy + s yy - s zz + (s zz - s xx ) + 6 s xy2 + s yz2 + s zx2 )
2 2 2

sv =
2

(s ) + (s ) ( )
2 2 2
-s2 - s 3 + s 3 - s1
sv = 1 2

2
3s ijs ij
sv = Failure Criterion
2
• Material yielding begins when 2nd
deviatoric stress invariant reaches
critical value (k)
• Independent of first stress
invariant ( does not depend on
hydrostatic component)
von Mises stress - σv

Ellipse is the locus of all

points with the same σν

• This is a poor metric as

a failure criterion for
biological tissues
• Used for convenience
von Mises Stress

6
 Fatigue and Failure
Fatigue Failure
• Strain a better failure parameter than
stress (given by σ/E), not as affected by
porosity

• Strain-N (number of cycles) relationship

plotted, follows power law behavior

Miner’s Rule For bone:

n
Ni n
 1 
Ni
1
i 1 A( / E ) i
B
i 1 N Fi

n - # of different load levels, i = particular load level, Ni - # of load applications at level i,

7
NFi - # of load applications that would cause failure at the ith load level; A&B empirical constants
 Fatigue and Failure
Failure Criteria
• Complex behavior of bone (anisotropic,
asymetric) requires complex failure
criteria for multiaxial loading

• Tsai-Wu criterion used for complex

composite materials, works for bone

Tsai-Wu criterion:
F1 1  F2 2  F2 2  F11 12  F22 22  F33 32  2 F12 1 2 

2 F13 1 3  2 F23 2 3  F44 42  F55 52  F66 62  1

• Mathematically, quadratic, ellipsoidal equation

• Coefficients obtained from uniaxial tension compression, planar shear testing,
biaxial testing in various planes