Chapter one

COMPLEX STRESS
 Introduction
From the previous analysis the determination of stress distributions produced separately
by axial load, bending moment, shear force and torsion.
However, in many practical situations some or all of these force systems act
simultaneously so that the various stresses are combined to form complex systems which
may include both direct and shear stresses.
In such cases it is no longer a simple matter to predict the mode of failure of a structural
member.
Therefore in this chapter the stress and strain subjected to complex loading will be
examined.
Plane stress
 The stress conditions that, when analyzing bars in tension and compression, shafts in
torsion, and beams in bending are examples of a state of stress called plane stress.
 Consider an infinitesimal element,

 When the material is in plane stress in the xy plane, only the x and y faces of the element
are subjected to stresses,
 All stresses act parallel to the x and y axis (with ) and is defined by the stress components
().

A normal stress a has a subscript that identifies the face on which the stress acts; for instance,

the stress acts on the x face of the element and the stress acts on the y face of the element.

The sign convention for normal stresses tension is positive and compression is negative.

A shear stress has two subscripts—the first subscript denotes the face on which the stress acts,

and the second gives the direction on that face.

This sign convention for shear stresses is easy to remember,


shear stress is positive when the directions associated with its subscripts are plus-plus

or minus-minus;

The shear stress is negative when the directions are plus-minus or minus-plus.
 The preceding sign convention for shear stresses is consistent with the equilibrium of the element
 The shear stresses on opposite faces of an infinitesimal element must be equal in magnitude and
opposite in direction.
 Hence, according to our sign convention, a positive stress acts upward on the positive face and
downward on the negative face.(see the above fig)
 We also know that shear stresses on perpendicular planes are equal in magnitude and have
directions such that:-
 both stresses point toward, or both point away from, the line of intersection of the faces.
 and are positive in the directions shown in the figure, they are consistent with this observation.
Therefore, we note that
=
 Stresses on Inclined Sections

 we consider a new stress element (Fig. c) that is located at the same point in the material as the
original element (Fig. b).
 However, the new element has faces that are parallel and perpendicular to the inclined direction.
 Associated with this new element are axes x1, y1, and z1, such that the z1 axis coincides with the
z axis and the x1y1 axes are rotated counterclockwise through an angle with respect to the xy
axes.

 The previous conclusions regarding the shear stresses still apply, so that
=
From this equation and the equilibrium of the element, we see that the shear stresses

acting on all four side faces of an element in plane stress are known if we determine

the shear stress acting on any one of those faces

The stress components ( associated with the element are determined after it has

been rotated through an angle θ about the z axes.

The stresses acting on the inclined x1y1 element (Fig. c) can be expressed in terms

of the stresses on the xy element by using equations of equilibrium.

 For this purpose, we choose a wedge-shaped stress element (having an inclined face that

is the same as the x1 face

The other two side faces of the wedge are parallel to the x and y axes.
 Let us denote the area of the left-hand side face (that is, the negative x face) as .
 Then the normal and shear forces acting on that face are and ,
 The forces acting on the left-hand and bottom faces can be resolved into orthogonal
components acting in the x1 and y1 directions.
 Then we can obtain two equations of equilibrium.
 The first equation, obtained by summing forces in the x1 direction, is

 In the same manner, summation of forces in the y1 direction gives

Using the relationship = and also simplifying and rearranging, we obtain the following two
equations:

The above equations give the normal and shear stresses acting on the x1 plane in terms of the
angle u and the stresses sx, sy, and txy acting on the x and y planes
For the special case when θ =0, we note that Eqs give and as expected.
Also, when θ = 90° , the equations give and
 It follows that the forces exerted on the three faces are as shown in Fig. 7.6b.
• Using components along the x’ and y’ axes, we write the following equilibrium equations:

 Solving the first equation for and the second for we have

 Recalling the trigonometric relations

=2
 +

Special cases of plane stress

 Uniaxial stress: if all stresses acting on xy element are zero except for normal stress .

 Pure shear stress: when the element is subjected to shear stress.

 Biaxial stress: in which the xy element is subjected to normal stress in both x and y directions but with out shear.
Case for biaxial stress is the thin walled pressure vessels.
 Principal stress and maximum shear stress


The transformation equations for plane stress show that the normal stresses() and the shear

stresses() vary continuously as the axes are rotated through the angle .

Both the normal and shear stresses reach maximum and minimum values at 90° intervals.

Not surprisingly, these maximum and minimum values are usually needed for design purposes.

Principal stress: The maximum and minimum normal stresses, called the principal stresses,

can be found from the transformation equation for the normal stress ().

By taking the derivative of () with respect to and setting it equal to zero.
We obtain an equation from which we can find the values of at which is a maximum or minimum
The equation for the derivative is

from which we get

The subscript ‘p’ indicates that the angle p defines the orientation of the principal planes, that is, the
planes on which the principal stresses act.
The angle p has two values that differ by 90°, one value between 0 and 90° and the other between 90°
and 180°.
The two values of p are known as the principal angles.
 We can also obtain general formulas for the principal stresses.

 The quantity R is always a positive number and, like the other two sides of the triangle, has
units of stress. From the triangle we obtain two additional relations:

 Now we substitute these expressions for p, and sin p into Eq. (7-4a) and obtain the
algebraically larger of the two principal stresses, denoted by :
 The smaller of the principal stresses, denoted by , may be found from the condition that the
sum of the normal stresses on perpendicular planes is constant

 The preceding formulas for and can be combined into a single formula for the principal
stresses:

 Maximum Shear Stresses: The shear stresses acting on inclined planes are given by the
second transformation equation, taking the derivative of this, with respect to and setting it
'equal to zero.
 The subscript s indicates that the angle , defines the orientation of the planes of maximum
positive and negative shear stresses.
 Comparing Eq. for , with Eq. for shows that
 From this equation we can obtain a relationship between the angles , and .

 This equation shows that the planes of maximum shear stress occur at 45° to the principal
planes

 The corresponding maximum shear stress is obtained by substituting the expressions for
cos 21 and sin 21, into the second transformation equation

 The maximum negative shear stress has the same magnitude but opposite sign.