Chapter 1.
Mechanical Properties of Material
1.1. Introduction to strength of Materials
Strength of materials is a branch of engineering that studies how materials behave under stress and
strain. It's also known as mechanics of materials.
In the mechanics of materials, the strength of a material
It is its ability to withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation.
The field of strength of materials deals with forces and deformations that result from their acting on a
material.
Types of Loadings
Loadings refer to the forces or moments acting on a structure. In the strength of materials basics, load
types are categorized as follows:
Tensile Load:
It is a force that stretches or elongates a material. It's a pulling force that's applied externally to a
material.
Example:
Cables: Tensile force is used in cables, such as those used in suspension bridges.
Rubber bands: Stretching a rubber band is an example of tensile stress.
Compressive Load:
It is a force that squeezes or compacts an object by applying inward
pressure. It can cause temporary or permanent changes to the object's
shape.
It is pushing force causing shortening. Example: Columns and beams in buildings.
Shear Load:
A shear load is a force that causes parts of a material to slide past each other.
It's a critical consideration in engineering, especially when designing beams and columns.
Torsional Load:
A torsional load is a twisting force that can be applied to a structure or material.
Torsional loads can cause an uneven distribution of stress across the cross section of a material.
Example: Drive shafts in vehicles.
A bending load
It is a lateral force that causes a material to bend or curve. Bending loads are important in many
engineering fields, including civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineering.
When a load is applied to bend the material, the material experiences a variety of stress across its
whole length. The diagram below illustrates the stress distribution when force is applied from
bottom to top of the material. The concave surfaces, which are bent inward due to the applied
force, experience compressive stress, while the convex surfaces, which are bent outward,
experience tensile stress.
Strength of materials is used for
Predicting material failure
Optimizing designs for durability and performance
Designing safe and resilient structures, and
Ensuring structures can withstand various loads and forces over time
How it's used
Analyzing how materials respond to forces
Understanding fracture, fatigue, and deformation mechanisms
Determining a material's resistance to deformation and cracking
Determining a material's ability to withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation
Key Aspects of Strength of Materials:
Material Properties: Elasticity, plasticity, toughness, and ductility.
In materials science,
o Elasticity refers to a material's ability to return to its original shape after a force is removed.
o Plasticity describes its capacity to undergo permanent deformation without breaking.
o Toughness indicates how much energy a material can absorb before fracturing.
o Ductility is the ability of a material to be stretched or elongated significantly without
breaking; essentially, how much plastic deformation a material can withstand before failure.
Structural Behavior: Analysis of how materials respond to forces.
Failure Prediction: Understanding fracture, fatigue, and deformation mechanisms.
1.2. Normal stress-strain.
Normal stress and strain are forces and deformations that occur perpendicular to the surface of an object.
Normal stress
The force that acts perpendicular to an object's surface
Measured in force per unit area, such as N/m2 or Pascal (Pa)
Tensile stresses are positive, while compressive stresses are negative
Normal strain
The change in length of an object in response to normal stress
Also known as linear strain or elongation
Positive values indicate tensile strain, while negative values indicate
compressive strain
How normal stress and strain relate
When a force acts on an object, it can cause the object to deform by changing its length
The change in length is the strain, and the force that causes the deformation is the stress
The type of stress (tensile or compressive) determines whether the strain is positive or negative
Example 1. Calculate the compressive stress in
the circular piston rod (see figure)
when a force P = 40 N is applied to
the brake pedal. Assume that the
line of action of the force P is
parallel to the piston rod, which has diameter 5 mm. Also, the other
dimensions shown in the figure (50 mm and 225 mm) are measured
perpendicular to the line of action of the force P.
Example 2. A circular aluminum tube of length L = 400 is loaded in compression by forces P (see
figure). The out-side and inside diameters are 60 mm and 50 mm, respectively. A strain
gage is placed on the outside of the bar to measure normal strains in the longitudinal
direction.
(a) If the measured strain is ϵ= 550X 10-6, what is the shortening δ of the bar?
(b) (b) If the compressive stress in the bar is intended to be 40 MPa, what should
be the load P?
Example 3. A steel rod 110 ft long hangs inside a tall tower and holds a 200-pound
weight at its lower end (see figure). If the diameter of the circular rod is 1 /4
inch, calculate the maximum normal stress in the rod, taking into account
the weight of the rod itself.
Short review of application of statics
Statics, in the context of engineering, is a branch of mechanics that studies the behavior of bodies under
forces and torques that result in equilibrium conditions. It analyses forces on objects that are at rest or
moving at a constant velocity.
Statics is used in the analysis of structures, for instance in architectural and structural engineering.
Strength of materials is a related field of mechanics that relies heavily on the application of static
equilibrium.
A body is in equilibrium when subjected to the action of forces. It is known from experience that a body
that was originally at rest stays at rest.
The resultant force is zero if its components are zero.
and
Example 4. Three boxes (weights W1, W2 and W3) are attached to two cables as shown in Fig. below.
The pulleys are frictionless. Calculate the angles α1 and α2 in the equilibrium configuration.
To compute α1, the angle α2 is eliminated by rewriting the equations:
W1 cos α1 = W2 cos α2
W1 sin α1 - W3 = - W2 sin α2
Example 5. Two bars 1 and 2 are attached at A and B to a wall by smooth pins. They are pin-connected
at C and subjected to a weight W. Calculate the forces in the bars.
Answer:
Exercise 1. Fig. below shows a spatial truss loaded by two external forces F at the joints IV and V.
Compute the forces in the members 1-6.
Their solution yields the forces
