Strength of

materials

Strength of materials, also called

mechanics of materials, is a subject
which deals with the behavior of solid
objects subject to stresses and strains.
The complete theory began with the
consideration of the behavior of one and
two dimensional members of structures,
whose states of stress can be
approximated as two dimensional, and
was then generalized to three
dimensions to develop a more complete
theory of the elastic and plastic behavior
of materials. An important founding
pioneer in mechanics of materials was
Stephen Timoshenko.

The study of strength of materials often

refers to various methods of calculating
the stresses and strains in structural
members, such as beams, columns, and
shafts. The methods employed to predict
the response of a structure under
loading and its susceptibility to various
failure modes takes into account the
properties of the materials such as its
yield strength, ultimate strength, Young's
modulus, and Poisson's ratio; in addition
the mechanical element's macroscopic
properties (geometric properties), such
as its length, width, thickness, boundary
constraints and abrupt changes in
geometry such as holes are considered.

Definition
In mechanics of materials, the strength
of a material is its ability to withstand an
applied load without failure or plastic
deformation. The eld of strength of
materials deals with forces and
deformations that result from their
acting on a material. A load applied to a
mechanical member will induce internal
forces within the member called stresses
when those forces are expressed on a
unit basis. The stresses acting on the
material cause deformation of the
material in various manners including
breaking them completely. Deformation
of the material is called strain when
those deformations too are placed on a
unit basis. The applied loads may be
axial (tensile or compressive), or
rotational (strength shear). The stresses
and strains that develop within a
mechanical member must be calculated
in order to assess the load capacity of
that member. This requires a complete
description of the geometry of the
member, its constraints, the loads
applied to the member and the
properties of the material of which the
member is composed. With a complete
description of the loading and the
geometry of the member, the state of
stress and of state of strain at any point
within the member can be calculated.
Once the state of stress and strain within
the member is known, the strength (load
carrying capacity) of that member, its
deformations (stiffness qualities), and its
stability (ability to maintain its original
conguration) can be calculated. The
calculated stresses may then be
compared to some measure of the
strength of the member such as its
material yield or ultimate strength. The
calculated deflection of the member may
be compared to a deflection criteria that
is based on the member's use. The
calculated buckling load of the member
may be compared to the applied load.
The calculated stiffness and mass
distribution of the member may be used
to calculate the member's dynamic
response and then compared to the
acoustic environment in which it will be
used.

Material strength refers to the point on

the engineering stressstrain curve
(yield stress) beyond which the material
experiences deformations that will not
be completely reversed upon removal of
the loading and as a result the member
will have a permanent deflection. The
ultimate strength refers to the point on
the engineering stressstrain curve
corresponding to the stress that
produces fracture.

Types of loadings

Transverse loadings Forces applied

perpendicular to the longitudinal axis
of a member. Transverse loading
causes the member to bend and
deflect from its original position, with
internal tensile and compressive
strains accompanying the change in
curvature of the member.[1] Transverse
 loading also induces shear forces that
cause shear deformation of the
material and increase the transverse
deflection of the member.
Axial loading The applied forces are
collinear with the longitudinal axis of
the member. The forces cause the
member to either stretch or shorten.[2]
Torsional loading Twisting action
caused by a pair of externally applied
equal and oppositely directed force
couples acting on parallel planes or by
a single external couple applied to a
member that has one end xed
against rotation.

Stress terms
A material being loaded in a) compression, b) tension,
c) shear.

Uniaxial stress is expressed by

where F is the force [N] acting on an area

A [m2].[3] The area can be the
undeformed area or the deformed area,
depending on whether engineering
stress or true stress is of interest.
Compressive stress (or compression) is
the stress state caused by an applied
load that acts to reduce the length of
the material (compression member)
along the axis of the applied load, it is
in other words a stress state that
causes a squeezing of the material. A
simple case of compression is the
uniaxial compression induced by the
action of opposite, pushing forces.
Compressive strength for materials is
generally higher than their tensile
strength. However, structures loaded
in compression are subject to
additional failure modes, such as
buckling, that are dependent on the
member's geometry.
Tensile stress is the stress state
caused by an applied load that tends
to elongate the material along the axis
of the applied load, in other words the
stress caused by pulling the material.
The strength of structures of equal
cross sectional area loaded in tension
is independent of shape of the cross
section. Materials loaded in tension
are susceptible to stress
concentrations such as material
defects or abrupt changes in
geometry. However, materials
exhibiting ductile behavior (most
metals for example) can tolerate some
defects while brittle materials (such as
 ceramics) can fail well below their
ultimate material strength.
Shear stress is the stress state caused
by the combined energy of a pair of
opposing forces acting along parallel
lines of action through the material, in
other words the stress caused by
faces of the material sliding relative to
one another. An example is cutting
paper with scissors[4] or stresses due
to torsional loading.

Strength terms

Mechanical properties of materials

include the yield strength, tensile
strength, fatigue strength, crack
resistance, and other characteristics.[5]
Yield strength is the lowest stress that
produces a permanent deformation in
a material. In some materials, like
aluminium alloys, the point of yielding
is difcult to identify, thus it is usually
dened as the stress required to cause
0.2% plastic strain. This is called a
0.2% proof stress.[6]
Compressive strength is a limit state of
compressive stress that leads to
failure in a material in the manner of
ductile failure (innite theoretical yield)
or brittle failure (rupture as the result
of crack propagation, or sliding along
a weak plane see shear strength).
Tensile strength or ultimate tensile
strength is a limit state of tensile stress
that leads to tensile failure in the
manner of ductile failure (yield as the
rst stage of that failure, some
hardening in the second stage and
breakage after a possible "neck"
formation) or brittle failure (sudden
breaking in two or more pieces at a
low stress state). Tensile strength can
be quoted as either true stress or
engineering stress, but engineering
stress is the most commonly used.
Fatigue strength is a measure of the
strength of a material or a component
under cyclic loading,[7] and is usually
more difcult to assess than the static
strength measures. Fatigue strength is
quoted as stress amplitude or stress
range ( ), usually
at zero mean stress, along with the
number of cycles to failure under that
condition of stress.
Impact strength is the capability of the
material to withstand a suddenly
applied load and is expressed in terms
of energy. Often measured with the
Izod impact strength test or Charpy
impact test, both of which measure the
impact energy required to fracture a
sample. Volume, modulus of elasticity,
distribution of forces, and yield
strength affect the impact strength of
a material. In order for a material or
object to have a high impact strength
the stresses must be distributed
 evenly throughout the object. It also
must have a large volume with a low
modulus of elasticity and a high
material yield strength.[8]

Strain (deformation) terms

Deformation of the material is the

change in geometry created when
stress is applied (as a result of applied
forces, gravitational elds,
accelerations, thermal expansion,
etc.). Deformation is expressed by the
displacement eld of the material.[9]
Strain or reduced deformation is a
mathematical term that expresses the
trend of the deformation change
among the material eld. Strain is the
 deformation per unit length.[10] In the
case of uniaxial loading the
displacements of a specimen (for
example a bar element) lead to a
calculation of strain expressed as the
quotient of the displacement and the
original length of the specimen. For 3D
displacement elds it is expressed as
derivatives of displacement functions
in terms of a second order tensor (with
6 independent elements).
Deflection is a term to describe the
magnitude to which a structural
element is displaced when subject to
an applied load.[11]

Stressstrain relations


Basic static response of a specimen under tension

Elasticity is the ability of a material to

return to its previous shape after
stress is released. In many materials,
the relation between applied stress is
directly proportional to the resulting
strain (up to a certain limit), and a
graph representing those two
quantities is a straight line.

The slope of this line is known as

Young's modulus, or the "modulus of
elasticity." The modulus of elasticity can
be used to determine the stressstrain
relationship in the linear-elastic portion
of the stressstrain curve. The linear-
elastic region is either below the yield
point, or if a yield point is not easily
identied on the stressstrain plot it is
dened to be between 0 and 0.2% strain,
and is dened as the region of strain in
which no yielding (permanent
deformation) occurs.[12]

Plasticity or plastic deformation is the

opposite of elastic deformation and is
dened as unrecoverable strain.
Plastic deformation is retained after
the release of the applied stress. Most
 materials in the linear-elastic category
are usually capable of plastic
deformation. Brittle materials, like
ceramics, do not experience any
plastic deformation and will fracture
under relatively low strain, while
ductile materials such as metallics,
lead, or polymers will plasticly deform
much more before a fracture initiation.

Consider the difference between a carrot

and chewed bubble gum. The carrot will
stretch very little before breaking. The
chewed bubble gum, on the other hand,
will plastically deform enormously
before nally breaking.
Design terms
Ultimate strength is an attribute related
to a material, rather than just a specic
specimen made of the material, and as
such it is quoted as the force per unit of
cross section area (N/m2). The ultimate
strength is the maximum stress that a
material can withstand before it breaks
or weakens.[13] For example, the ultimate
tensile strength (UTS) of AISI 1018 Steel
is 440 MN/m2. In general, the SI unit of
stress is the pascal, where 1 Pa = 1
N/m2. In Imperial units, the unit of stress
is given as lbf/in or pounds-force per
square inch. This unit is often
abbreviated as psi. One thousand psi is
abbreviated ksi.

A factor of safety is a design criteria that

an engineered component or structure
must achieve. , where
FS: the factor of safety, R: The applied
stress, and UTS: ultimate stress (psi or
N/m2)[14]

Margin of Safety is also sometimes used

to as design criteria. It is dened MS =
Failure Load/(Factor of Safety
Predicted Load) 1.

For example, to achieve a factor of

safety of 4, the allowable stress in an
AISI 1018 steel component can be
calculated to be =
440/4 = 110 MPa, or = 110106 N/m2.
Such allowable stresses are also known
as "design stresses" or "working
stresses."

Design stresses that have been

determined from the ultimate or yield
point values of the materials give safe
and reliable results only for the case of
static loading. Many machine parts fail
when subjected to a non steady and
continuously varying loads even though
the developed stresses are below the
yield point. Such failures are called
fatigue failure. The failure is by a fracture
that appears to be brittle with little or no
visible evidence of yielding. However,
when the stress is kept below "fatigue
stress" or "endurance limit stress", the
part will endure indenitely. A purely
reversing or cyclic stress is one that
alternates between equal positive and
negative peak stresses during each cycle
of operation. In a purely cyclic stress, the
average stress is zero. When a part is
subjected to a cyclic stress, also known
as stress range (Sr), it has been
observed that the failure of the part
occurs after a number of stress reversals
(N) even if the magnitude of the stress
range is below the materials yield
strength. Generally, higher the range
stress, the fewer the number of reversals
needed for failure.

Failure theories

There are four failure theories: maximum

shear stress theory, maximum normal
stress theory, maximum strain energy
theory, and maximum distortion energy
theory. Out of these four theories of
failure, the maximum normal stress
theory is only applicable for brittle
materials, and the remaining three
theories are applicable for ductile
materials. Of the latter three, the
distortion energy theory provides most
accurate results in majority of the stress
conditions. The strain energy theory
needs the value of Poisson's ratio of the
part material, which is often not readily
available. The maximum shear stress
theory is conservative. For simple
unidirectional normal stresses all
theories are equivalent, which means all
theories will give the same result.

Maximum Shear stress Theory This

theory postulates that failure will
occur if the magnitude of the
maximum shear stress in the part
exceeds the shear strength of the
material determined from uniaxial
testing.
Maximum normal stress theory This
theory postulates that failure will
occur if the maximum normal stress in
the part exceeds the ultimate tensile
stress of the material as determined
from uniaxial testing. This theory deals
with brittle materials only. The
maximum tensile stress should be
less than or equal to ultimate tensile
stress divided by factor of safety. The
magnitude of the maximum
compressive stress should be less
than ultimate compressive stress
divided by factor of safety.
Maximum strain energy theory This
theory postulates that failure will
occur when the strain energy per unit
volume due to the applied stresses in
a part equals the strain energy per unit
volume at the yield point in uniaxial
testing.
Maximum distortion energy theory
This theory is also known as shear
energy theory or von Mises-Hencky
theory. This theory postulates that
failure will occur when the distortion
energy per unit volume due to the
applied stresses in a part equals the
distortion energy per unit volume at
the yield point in uniaxial testing. The
total elastic energy due to strain can
be divided into two parts: one part
causes change in volume, and the
other part causes change in shape.
 Distortion energy is the amount of
energy that is needed to change the
shape.
Fracture mechanics was established
by Alan Arnold Grifth and George
Rankine Irwin. This important theory is
also known as numeric conversion of
toughness of material in the case of
crack existence.
Fractology was proposed by Takeo
Yokobori because each fracture laws
including creep rupture criterion must
be combined nonlinearly.

A material's strength is dependent on its

microstructure. The engineering
processes to which a material is
subjected can alter this microstructure.
The variety of strengthening
mechanisms that alter the strength of a
material includes work hardening, solid
solution strengthening, precipitation
hardening, and grain boundary
strengthening and can be quantitatively
and qualitatively explained.
Strengthening mechanisms are
accompanied by the caveat that some
other mechanical properties of the
material may degenerate in an attempt to
make the material stronger. For example,
in grain boundary strengthening,
although yield strength is maximized
with decreasing grain size, ultimately,
very small grain sizes make the material
brittle. In general, the yield strength of a
material is an adequate indicator of the
material's mechanical strength.
Considered in tandem with the fact that
the yield strength is the parameter that
predicts plastic deformation in the
material, one can make informed
decisions on how to increase the
strength of a material depending its
microstructural properties and the
desired end effect. Strength is expressed
in terms of the limiting values of the
compressive stress, tensile stress, and
shear stresses that would cause failure.
The effects of dynamic loading are
probably the most important practical
consideration of the strength of
materials, especially the problem of
fatigue. Repeated loading often initiates
brittle cracks, which grow until failure
occurs. The cracks always start at stress
concentrations, especially changes in
cross-section of the product, near holes
and corners at nominal stress levels far
lower than those quoted for the strength
of the material.

See also
Creep (deformation)
Deformation mechanism map
Dynamics
Fatigue (material)
Forensic engineering
 Fracture mechanics
Fracture toughness
List of materials
properties#Mechanical properties
Material selection
Molecular diffusion
Specic strength
Statics
Universal testing machine

References
1. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.210.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
2. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.7.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
3. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.5.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
4. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp.910.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
5. Kokcharov I. Strength of Structural
Materials
http://www.kokch.kts.ru/me/t3/SIA_3_Mec
hanical_Properties.pdf
6. Mechanics of Materials (5th ed.). p.52.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
7. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.60.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
8. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp.693
696. ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
9. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.47.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
10. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.49.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
11. R. C. Hibbeler (2009). Structural
Analysis (7 ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.
p.305. ISBN978-0-13-602060-8.
12. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp.53
56. ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
13. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. pp.27
28. ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.
14. Beer & Johnston (2006). Mechanics of
Materials (5th ed.). McGraw Hill. p.28.
ISBN978-0-07-352938-7.

Further reading
Fa-Hwa Cheng, Initials. (1997).
Strength of material. Ohio: McGraw-
Hill
Mechanics of Materials, E.J. Hearn
Alrevi, Ivo. Strength of Materials I.
Tehnika knjiga, 1995. ISBN953-172-
010-X.
Alrevi, Ivo. Strength of Materials II.
Tehnika knjiga, 1999. ISBN953-6168-
85-5.
Ashby, M.F. Materials Selection in
Design. Pergamon, 1992.
Beer, F.P., E.R. Johnston, et al.
Mechanics of Materials, 3rd edition.
McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN0-07-248673-
2
Cottrell, A.H. Mechanical Properties of
Matter. Wiley, New York, 1964.
Den Hartog, Jacob P. Strength of
Materials. Dover Publications, Inc.,
1961, ISBN0-486-60755-0.
Drucker, D.C. Introduction to Mechanics
of Deformable Solids. McGraw-Hill,
1967.
Gordon, J.E. The New Science of Strong
Materials. Princeton, 1984.
Groover, Mikell P. Fundamentals of
Modern Manufacturing, 2nd edition.
John Wiley & Sons,Inc., 2002. ISBN0-
471-40051-3.
Hashemi, Javad and William F. Smith.
Foundations of Materials Science and
Engineering, 4th edition. McGraw-Hill,
2006. ISBN0-07-125690-3.
Hibbeler, R.C. Statics and Mechanics of
Materials, SI Edition. Prentice-Hall,
2004. ISBN0-13-129011-8.
Lebedev, Leonid P. and Michael J.
Cloud. Approximating Perfection: A
Mathematician's Journey into the World
of Mechanics. Princeton University
Press, 2004. ISBN0-691-11726-8.
Chapter 10 Strength of Elastomers ,
A.N. Gent, W.V. Mars, In: James E.
Mark, Burak Erman and Mike Roland,
Editor(s), The Science and Technology
of Rubber (Fourth Edition), Academic
Press, Boston, 2013, Pages 473-516,
ISBN9780123945846, 10.1016/B978-
0-12-394584-6.00010-8
Mott, Robert L. Applied Strength of
Materials, 4th edition. Prentice-Hall,
2002. ISBN0-13-088578-9.
Popov, Egor P. Engineering Mechanics
of Solids. Prentice Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, N. J., 1990. ISBN0-13-279258-3.
Ramamrutham, S. Strength of
Materials.
Shames, I.H. and F.A. Cozzarelli.
Elastic and inelastic stress analysis.
Prentice-Hall, 1991. ISBN1-56032-686-
7.
Timoshenko S. Strength of Materials,
3rd edition. Krieger Publishing
Company, 1976, ISBN0-88275-420-3.
Timoshenko, S.P. and D.H. Young.
Elements of Strength of Materials, 5th
edition. (MKS System)
 Davidge, R.W., Mechanical Behavior of
Ceramics, Cambridge Solid State
Science Series, (1979)
Lawn, B.R., Fracture of Brittle Solids,
Cambridge Solid State Science Series,
2nd Edn. (1993)
Green, D., An Introduction to the
Mechanical Properties of Ceramics,
Cambridge Solid State Science Series,
Eds. Clarke, D.R., Suresh, S., Ward,
I.M.Babu Tom.K (1998)

External links
Failure theories
Case studies in structural failure
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