Poisson's ratio

Poisson's ratio
Poisson's ratio ( ), named after Simon Poisson, is the ratio, when a sample object is stretched, of the contraction or transverse strain (perpendicular to the applied load), to the extension or axial strain (in the direction of the applied load). When a material is compressed in one direction, it usually tends to expand in the other two directions perpendicular to the direction of compression. This phenomenon is called the Poisson effect. Poisson's ratio (nu) is a measure of the Poisson effect. The Poisson ratio is the ratio of the fraction (or percent) of expansion divided by the fraction (or percent) of compression, for small values of these changes.
Figure 1: A cube with sides of length L of an isotropic linearly elastic material Conversely, if the material is stretched subject to tension along the x axis, with a Poisson's ratio of 0.5. The green cube is rather than compressed, it usually tends to unstressed, the red is expanded in the x direction by due to tension, and contract in the directions transverse to the contracted in the y and z directions by . direction of stretching. Again, the Poisson ratio will be the ratio of relative contraction to relative stretching, and will have the same value as above. In certain rare cases, a material will actually shrink in the transverse direction when compressed (or expand when stretched) which will yield a negative value of the Poisson ratio.

The Poisson's ratio of a stable, isotropic, linear elastic material cannot be less than 1.0 nor greater than 0.5 due to the requirement that Young's modulus, the shear modulus and bulk modulus have positive values.[1] Most materials have Poisson's ratio values ranging between 0.0 and 0.5. A perfectly incompressible material deformed elastically at small strains would have a Poisson's ratio of exactly 0.5. Most steels and rigid polymers when used within their design limits (before yield) exhibit values of about 0.3, increasing to 0.5 for post-yield deformation (which occurs largely at constant volume.) Rubber has a Poisson ratio of nearly 0.5. Cork's Poisson ratio is close to 0: showing very little lateral expansion when compressed. Some materials, mostly polymer foams, have a negative Poisson's ratio; if these auxetic materials are stretched in one direction, they become thicker in perpendicular directions. Anisotropic materials can have Poisson ratios above 0.5 in some directions. Assuming that the material is stretched or compressed along the axial direction (the x axis in the diagram):

where is the resulting Poisson's ratio, is transverse strain (negative for axial tension (stretching), positive for axial compression) is axial strain (positive for axial tension, negative for axial compression).

Poisson's ratio

Cause of Poissons effect

On the molecular level, Poissons effect is caused by slight movements between molecules and the stretching of molecular bonds within the material lattice to accommodate the stress. When the bonds elongate in the direction of load , they shorten in the other directions. This behavior multiplied millions of times throughout the material lattice is what drives the phenomenon.

Length change
For a cube stretched in the x-direction (see figure 1) with a length increase of decrease of in the x direction, and a length in the y and z directions, the infinitesimal diagonal strains are given by:

Integrating the definition of Poisson's ratio:

Solving and exponentiating, the relationship between

and

is found to be:

For very small values of

and

, the first-order approximation yields:

Volumetric change
The relative change of volume V/V due to the stretch of the material can now be calculated. Using : and

Using the above derived relationship between

and

and for very small values of

and

, the first-order approximation yields:

Poisson's ratio

Width change
If a rod with diameter (or width, or thickness) d and length L is subject to tension so that its length will change by L then its diameter d will change by:

Figure 2: Comparison between the two formulas, one for small deformations, another for large deformations

The above formula is true only in the case of small deformations; if deformations are large then the following (more precise) formula can be used:

where is original diameter is rod diameter change is Poisson's ratio is original length, before stretch is the change of length. The value is negative because it decrease with increase of length

Poisson's ratio

Isotropic materials
For a linear isotropic material subjected only to compressive (i.e. normal) forces, the deformation of a material in the direction of one axis will produce a deformation of the material along the other axis in three dimensions. Thus it is possible to generalize Hooke's Law (for compressive forces) into three dimensions:

or

where , , and and are strain in the direction of are stress in the direction of , , and and , and axis axis and for isotropic materials)

is Young's modulus (the same in all directions: is Poisson's ratio (the same in all directions: ,

for isotropic materials)

These equations will hold in the general case which includes shear forces as well as compressive forces, and the full generalization of Hooke's law is given by:

where

is the Kronecker delta and

Orthotropic materials
For orthotropic materials such as wood, Hooke's law can be expressed in matrix form as[2]

where is the Young's modulus along axis is the shear modulus in direction direction . on the plane whose normal is in direction when an extension is applied in

is the Poisson's ratio that corresponds to a contraction in direction

The Poisson's ratio of an orthotropic material is different in each direction (x, y and z). However, the symmetry of the stress and strain tensors implies that not all the six Poisson's ratios in the equation are independent. There are only nine independent material properties; three elastic moduli, three shear moduli, and three Poisson's ratios. The remaining three Poisson's ratios can be obtained from the relations

Poisson's ratio

From the above relations we can see that if

then

. The larger Poisson's ratio (in this case ) is called the minor Poisson's ratio.

) is called the major Poisson's ratio while the smaller one (in this case

We can find similar relations between the other Poisson's ratios. The above stress-strain relation is also often written in the equivalent (transposed) form[3]

Transversely isotropic materials

Transversely isotropic materials have a plane of symmetry in which the elastic properties are isotropic. If we assume that this plane of symmetry is , then Hookes's law takes the form[4]

where

we

have

used

the

plane .

of

symmetry

to

reduce

the

number

of

constants,

i.e.,

The symmetry of the stress and strain tensors implies that

This leaves us with six independent constants rise to a further constraint bewtween and which is

. However, transverse isotropy gives

Therefore, there are five independent elastic material properties two of which are Poisson's ratios. For the assumed plane of symmetry, the larger of and is the major Poisson's ratio. The other major and minor Poisson's ratios are equal.

Poisson's ratio

Poisson's ratio values for different materials

Influences of selected glass component additions on Poisson's ratio of a specific base [5] glass.

material rubber gold saturated clay magnesium titanium copper

poisson's ratio ~ 0.50 0.42 0.400.50 0.35 0.34 0.33

aluminium-alloy 0.33 clay stainless steel steel cast iron sand concrete glass foam cork auxetics 0.300.45 0.300.31 0.270.30 0.210.26 0.200.45 0.20 0.180.3 0.100.40 ~ 0.00 negative