Structures 1

Strength of Materials
Material Properties
In 1679 Robert Hooke published some observations about springs which are now
known as Hookes Law . Put simplistically, ‘when an elastic body is subject to a force,
the extension is proportional to the force’. Although this is of limited use to engineers
his work was expanded by other scientists and in 1807 Thomas Young lectured on the
subject of elasticity and observed a constant relationship for each material, which
linked stress and strain. He called it the Modulus of Elasticity but it is commonly known
as Young’s Modulus.

Young’s Modulus, E
If we take an elastic material such as mild steel, which will obey Hookes Law, and form
a ‘dog bone’ shaped test piece which is stretched to destruction, we may plot a
graph of stress against strain which would look like the figure below.

The slope of the initial linear region is the Young’s Modulus of Elasticity, which will be a
constant value for each material (at any given temperature and pressure) regardless
of whether the applied force is tension, compression or bending. The initial linear
section of the graph indicates elastic behaviour, where the specimen would return to
its original length if unloaded. The stress at which the material stops behaving
elastically is called the yield stress and locates the limit of proportionality. Loading
beyond this point results in a permanent set (or plastic deflection).

F failure point
stress, f =
A limit of
proportionality

Test piece before loading

yield stress
fy
F F strain hardening

L e

f F e FL
slope, E = = ÷ = e
ε A L Ae strain, ε =
Test piece after failure L

elastic region plastic region

Stress may generally be defined as force divided by area. It is worth noting that stress
is not real, it is merely a convenient concept used by engineers to assess strength.
Strain may generally be defined as extension divided by original length. It is worth
noting that strain is real, we can measure dimensions and use them to derive stress.

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Materials which exhibit a long plastic region (like mild steel) are said to be ductile.
Ductility, or an ability to sustain large strains before failure, is a very useful property
because there will be visible changes in the section of structural elements which warn
of impending failure and therefore aid safety. Materials which are not ductile are said
to be brittle, and would typically suffer strains of less than 5% at failure.

As materials approach failure (at large strains), they often display apparent increases
in strength. This is called strain hardening and results from the reduction in area as the
specimen necks. U sually materials which strain harden will also display reduced
ductility.

Structural elements subject to repetitive stress cycling (loading and unloading) often
fail at stress levels below yield stress. This is due to fatigue cracking which develops at
changes in geometry such as notches, holes and sudden changes in thickness.

It is useful to consider these material properties for a variety of construction materials.

600
high tensile steel

500
mild steel
Stress, f (N/mm )
2

400

300
aluminium
200

100
glass
timber
0
0 5 10
Strain,
15
ε (%)
20 25 30

Poisson’s Ratio, ν
When a material is strained longitudinally, it will also strain laterally. F
This phenomena was first observed by S.D Poisson who named this
material constant after himself. The value of Poisson’s Ratio ranges
from 0.13 for stiff materials like concrete, up to 0.5 for flexible
materials like rubber. b
e
e
Longitudinal strain, ε long =
L
B −b B
Lateral strain, ε lateral = L
b
ε lateral
Poisson’s ratio, ν =
ε long

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Structures 1

Shear Modulus, G
Although the shear modulus will be explored further in the stress analysis section, it is
worth defining this material property. Like the modulus of elasticity, the shear modulus
is a constant value for any particular elastic material.
τ
Shear is a force which distorts shape; in a rectangular structural
element subject to shear, the distorted shape is a
parallelogram.
The resulting shear stresses would cause the element to rotate τ
so there must be complementary shear stresses which balance τ
the forces.
The shear modulus relates the distortion angle γ to the shear γ τ
stress τ. τ
τ τ
The shear modulus, G = (units N/mm2 )
γ
The relationship between modulus of elasticity and shear modulus is;
E
G=
2(1 + ν )

© Jonathan Haynes version 1.0 Page 13 of 259