Stress–strain curve

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During testing of a material sample, the stress–strain curve is a graphical representation

of the relationship between stress, derived from measuring the load applied on the
sample, and strain, derived from measuring the deformation of the sample, i.e.
elongation, compression, or distortion. The nature of the curve varies from material to
material. The following diagrams illustrate the stress–strain behaviour of typical
materials in terms of the engineering stress and engineering strain where the stress and
strain are calculated based on the original dimensions of the sample and not the
instantaneous values.

[edit] Ductile materials

Fig 1. A stress–strain curve typical of structural steel
1. Ultimate Strength
2. Yield Strength
3. Rupture
4. Strain hardening region
5. Necking region.
A: Apparent stress (F/A0)
B: Actual stress (F/A)

Steel generally exhibits a very linear stress–strain relationship up to a well defined yield
point (figure 1). The linear portion of the curve is the elastic region and the slope is the
modulus of elasticity or Young's Modulus. After the yield point, the curve typically
decreases slightly because of dislocations escaping from Cottrell atmospheres. As
deformation continues, the stress increases on account of strain hardening until it reaches
the ultimate strength. Until this point, the cross-sectional area decreases uniformly
because of Poisson contractions. The actual rupture point is in the same vertical line as
the visual rupture point.

However, beyond this point a neck forms where the local cross-sectional area decreases
more quickly than the rest of the sample resulting in an increase in the true stress. On an
engineering stress–strain curve this is seen as a decrease in the stress. Conversely, if the
curve is plotted in terms of true stress and true strain the stress will continue to rise until
failure. Eventually the neck becomes unstable and the specimen ruptures (fractures).

Less ductile materials such as aluminum and medium to high carbon steels do not have a
well-defined yield point. For these materials the yield strength is typically determined by
the "offset yield method", by which a line is drawn parallel to the linear elastic portion of
the curve and intersecting the abscissa at some arbitrary value (most commonly 0.2%).
The intersection of this line and the stress–strain curve is reported as the yield point.1
[edit] Brittle materials

Stress Strain Curve for Brittle materials

Brittle materials such as concrete and carbon fiber do not have a yield point, and do not
strain-harden which means that the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same.
A most unusual stress-strain curve is shown in the figure. Typical brittle materials like
glass do not show any plastic deformation but fail while the deformation is elastic. One of
the characteristics of a brittle failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to
produce the same shape as the original component as there will not be a neck formation
like in the case of ductile materials. A typical stress strain curve for a brittle material will
be linear. Testing of several identical specimen, cast iron, or soil, tensile strength is
negligible compared to the compressive strength and it is assumed zero for many
engineering applications. Glass fibers have a tensile strength stronger than steel, but bulk
glass usually does not. This is because of the Stress Intensity Factor associated with
defects in the material. As the size of the sample gets larger, the size of defects also
grows. In general, the tensile strength of a rope is always less than sum of the tensile
strength of its individual fibers.

[edit] See also

• Strength of materials
• Tensometer

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Stress

Stress is defined as "force per area".

Stress normal to the plane is usually denoted "normal stress" and can be expressed as

σ = Fn / A (1)

where

σ = normal stress ((Pa) N/m2, psi)

Fn = normal component force (N, lbf)

A = area (m2, in2)

Stress parallel to the plane is usually denoted "shear stress" and can be expressed as

τ = Fp / A (2)

where

τ = shear stress ((Pa) N/m2, psi)

Fp = parallel component force (N, lbf)

A = area (m2, in2)

Strain

Strain is defined as "deformation of a solid due to stress" and can be expressed as

ε = dl / lo = σ / E (3)

where

dl = change of length (m, in)

lo = initial length (m, in)

ε = unitless measure of engineering strain

E = Young's modulus (Modulus of Elasticity) (Pa, psi)

Modulus of Elasticity (Young's Modulus or Tensile Modulus)

Most metals have deformations that are proportional with the imposed loads over a range of loads.
Stress is proportional to load and strain is proportional to deformation expressed by the Hook's law like

E = stress / strain = (Fn / A) / (dl / lo) (4)

where

E = Young's modulus (N/m2) (lb/in2, psi)

Modulus of Elasticity or Young's Modulus are commonly used for metals and metal alloys and
expressed in terms 106 lbf/in2, N/m2 or Pa. Tensile modulus are often used for plastics and expressed
in terms 105 lbf/in2 or GPa

Units
In traditional geology the unit of pressure is the bar, which is about equal to atmospheric
pressure. It is also about equal to the pressure under 10 meters of water. For pressures
deep in the earth we use the kilobar, equal to 1000 bars. The pressure beneath 10 km of
water, or at the bottom of the deepest oceanic trenches, is about 1 kilobar. Beneath the
Antarctic ice cap (maximum thickness about 5 km) the pressure is about half a kilobar at
greatest.

In the SI System, the fundamental unit of length is the meter and mass is the kilogram.
Important units used in geology include:

• Energy: Joule: kg-m2/sec2. Five grams moving at 20 meters per second have an
energy of one joule. This is about equal to a sheet of paper wadded up into a ball
and thrown hard.
• Force: Newton: kg-m/sec2. On the surface of the Earth, with a gravitational
acceleration of 9.8 m/sec2, a newton is the force exerted by a weight of 102 grams
or 3.6 ounces. A Fig Newton weighs about 15 grams; therefore one SI Newton
equals approximately 7 Fig Newtons.
• Pressure: Pascal = Newton/m2 or kg/m-sec2. A newton spread out over a square
meter is a pretty feeble force. Atmospheric pressure is about 100,000 pascals. A
manila file folder (35 g, 700 cm2 area) exerts a pressure of about 5 pascals.

By comparison with traditional pressure units, one bar = 100,000 pascals. One
megapascal (Mpa) equals 10 bars, one Gigapascal (Gpa) equals 10 kilobars.

Using Units in Calculations

The fundamental rule in using units in calculations is that units obey the same algebraic
rules as other quantities

Example: Converting Traditional Density to SI density

Density is conventionally represented as grams per cubic centimeter. How do we

represent density in the SI system?

1 gram/cm3 =
(0.001 kg)/(.01 m)3 =
10-3 kg/10-6 m3 =
1000 kg/m3
Thus, to convert traditional to SI density, multiply by 1000. Thus, 2.7 gm/cm3 = 2700
kg/m3, etc.

Example: Pressure Beneath a Stone Block

What's the pressure beneath a granite block 20 meters long, 15 meters wide and 10 meters
high, with density 2.7 gm/cm3?

First, we find the mass of the block. Mass is volume times density
or 20 x 15 x 10 m3 x 2700 kg/m3 = 8.1 x 106 kg.
Note that we have m3 times kg/m3, and the m3 terms cancel out to leave the correct unit,
kilograms.

Now the force the block exerts is given by mass times acceleration, in this case the
acceleration of gravity, or 9.8 m/sec2.
Thus the force the block exerts is 8.1 x 106 kg x 9.8 m/sec2, or 7.9 x 107 kg-m/sec2.
Referring to the SI units listed above, we see that these are indeed the correct units for
force. The block exerts 7.9 x 107 newtons of force on the ground beneath it.

The pressure the block exerts is force divided by area, or 7.9 x 107 newtons/(20 m x 15
m) = 265,000 pascals (verify that the units are correct). This is only 2.65 bars, the
pressure beneath 27 meters of water. Scuba divers can stand that pressure easily, but
nobody would want to lie under a ten-meter thick slab of rock. This should bother you.

It should be intuitively obvious that the pressure will be the same regardless of the area of
the block. Can you show why this is so?

Conversion Factors

Often students find it hard to decide whether to multiply or divide by a conversion factor.
For example, one meter = 3.28 feet. To convert 150 feet to meters, do you multiply or
divide by 3.28?

If you think of the conversion factor as merely a number, it can be a puzzle. But consider:

1 meter = 3.28 feet. Therefore 1 m/3.28 feet = 1 and 3.28 feet/1 m = 1

Conversion factors are not just numbers, but units too. Every conversion factor, with
units included, equals unity. That part about including units is all-important. So, given a
conversion problem, use the conversion factor to eliminate unwanted units, produce
desired units, or both.

To convert 150 feet to meters, we want to get rid of feet and obtain meters. The
conversion factor is 3.28 feet/1 m. Multiplying gives us 492 feet2/m 2. It's perfectly
correct - it might be a valid part of some other calculation - but not what we need here.
We need to get rid of feet and obtain meters, which means we need meters in the
numerator (upstairs) and feet in the denominator (downstairs).

150 feet x 1m/2.38 feet = 45.7 meters. Feet cancel out, leaving us with only meters.

A more complex example: convert 10 miles per hour to meters per second. Here, none of
the units we want in the final answer are present in the initial quantity. But we know:

• 1 mile = 5280 feet

• 1 meter = 3.28 feet
• 1 hour = 60 minutes
• 1 minute = 60 seconds

We want to get rid of miles and hours and get meters and seconds. So we want our
conversion factors to eliminate miles and hours:

10 mi/hr x (5280 feet/1 mi) x (1 hr/60 min)

Also, we want our end result to be in meters/second so at some point we will have to
have

Something x (1m/3.28 feet) x (1 min/60 sec) This is the only way to get m/sec using the
conversion factors given. We will, of course, have to get rid of the feet and minutes
somehow.

Putting it all together we get

10 mi/hr x (5280 feet/1 mi) x (1 hr/60 min) x (1m/3.28 feet) x (1 min/60 sec) = 4.47
m/sec

Miles cancel, hours cancel, feet cancel, minutes cancel, and we end up with m/sec, just
what we needed.

Some people prefer to use a grid arrangement as shown below:

10 miles 5280 feet 1 m 1 hour 1 min 4.47 m

1 hour 1 mile 3.28 feet 60 min 60 sec = 1 sec
In this example we get rid of miles and feet to get meters first, then we get rid of hours
and minutes to get seconds.

Stress Terms
Stress is defined as force per unit area. It has the same units as pressure, and in fact
pressure is one special variety of stress. However, stress is a much more complex
quantity than pressure because it varies both with direction and with the surface it acts on.

Compression
Stress that acts to shorten an object.
Tension
Stress that acts to lengthen an object.
Normal Stress
Stress that acts perpendicular to a surface. Can be either compressional or
tensional.
Shear
Stress that acts parallel to a surface. It can cause one object to slide over another.
It also tends to deform originally rectangular objects into parallelograms. The
most general definition is that shear acts to change the angles in an object.
Hydrostatic
Stress (usually compressional) that is uniform in all directions. A scuba diver
experiences hydrostatic stress. Stress in the earth is nearly hydrostatic. The term
for uniform stress in the earth is lithostatic.
Directed Stress
Stress that varies with direction. Stress under a stone slab is directed; there is a
force in one direction but no counteracting forces perpendicular to it. This is why
a person under a thick slab gets squashed but a scuba diver under the same
pressure doesn't. The scuba diver feels the same force in all directions.

In geology we never see stress. We only see the results of stress as it deforms materials.
Even if we were to use a strain gauge to measure in-situ stress in the rocks, we would not
measure the stress itself. We would measure the deformation of the strain gauge (that's
why it's called a "strain gauge") and use that to infer the stress.

Strain Terms
Strain is defined as the amount of deformation an object experiences compared to its
original size and shape. For example, if a block 10 cm on a side is deformed so that it
becomes 9 cm long, the strain is (10-9)/10 or 0.1 (sometimes expressed in percent, in this
case 10 percent.) Note that strain is dimensionless.

Longitudinal or Linear Strain

Strain that changes the length of a line without changing its direction. Can be
either compressional or tensional.
Compression
Longitudinal strain that shortens an object.
Tension
Longitudinal strain that lengthens an object.
Shear
Strain that changes the angles of an object. Shear causes lines to rotate.
Infinitesimal Strain
Strain that is tiny, a few percent or less. Allows a number of useful mathematical
simplifications and approximations.
Finite Strain
Strain larger than a few percent. Requires a more complicated mathematical
treatment than infinitesimal strain.
Homogeneous Strain
Uniform strain. Straight lines in the original object remain straight. Parallel lines
remain parallel. Circles deform to ellipses. Note that this definition rules out
folding, since an originally straight layer has to remain straight.
Inhomogeneous Strain
How real geology behaves. Deformation varies from place to place. Lines may
bend and do not necessarily remain parallel.

Terms for Behavior of Materials

Elastic
Material deforms under stress but returns to its original size and shape when the
stress is released. There is no permanent deformation. Some elastic strain, like in
a rubber band, can be large, but in rocks it is usually small enough to be
considered infinitesimal.
Brittle
Material deforms by fracturing. Glass is brittle. Rocks are typically brittle at low
temperatures and pressures.
Ductile
Material deforms without breaking. Metals are ductile. Many materials show both
types of behavior. They may deform in a ductile manner if deformed slowly, but
fracture if deformed too quickly or too much. Rocks are typically ductile at high
temperatures or pressures.
Viscous
Materials that deform steadily under stress. Purely viscous materials like liquids
deform under even the smallest stress. Rocks may behave like viscous materials
under high temperature and pressure.
Plastic
Material does not flow until a threshhold stress has been exceeded.
Viscoelastic
Combines elastic and viscous behavior. Models of glacio-isostasy frequently
assume a viscoelastic earth: the crust flexes elastically and the underlying mantle
flows viscously.