3D State of Stress

Rectangular Stress Components

• The stress components may be tabulated in an array form
Stresses Acting on Arbitrary Planes
Let the three mutually perpendicular planes be the x, y and z planes
and let the arbitrary plane be identified by its outward drawn normal
n whose direction cosines are nx, ny and nz or (l,m,n)

Consider a small tetrahedron at P with three of its faces normal

to the coordinate axes, and the inclined face having its normal
parallel to n.
Let h be the perpendicular distance from P to the inclined face.

Let T be the resultant stress vector on face ABC. This can be

resolved into components Tx, Ty, Tz, parallel to the three axes
x, y and z.
 For equilibrium in x direction :

In the limit as h tends to zero, the oblique plane ABC will pass through point P,

This equation shows that the rectangular stress components at P will enable one to determine the stress
components on any arbitrary plane passing through point P
Principal Stresses
Let us assume that there is a plane n with direction cosines nx, ny and nz on which the stress is wholly
normal. Let  be the magnitude of this stress vector. Then we have

Subtracting
• The coefficients of the equation can be written as
In terms of the principal stresses :
 Octahedral Stresses
• A Plane that is equally inclined to the principal axis is called
an octahedral plane
• There are eight such planes
• For such a plane, I = rn = n = 1/√3
• The octahedral normal and shear stresses play a role in
yield criteria for ductile metals

In terms of principal stresses

Mohr Circle for 3D State of Stress
Principal Shear Stresses