Chapter two

Simple Strain
2.1 Direct strain ( 𝝐 )

If a bar is subjected to a direct load, and hence a stress, the bar will change in length.
If the bar has an original length L and changes in length by an amount δL, the
strain produced is defined as follows:

strain=(change in length)/(original length)=δL/L

Strain is thus a measure of the deformation of the material and is non-dimensional,

i.e. it has no units; it is simply a ratio of two quantities with the same unit (Fig.
2.1).

Fig. 2.1

2.2 Elastic Materials-Hooke's law

A material is said to be elastic if it returns to its original dimensions when the load
is removed. Since loads are proportional to the stresses they produce, and the
deformations are proportional to the strains, stress is proportional to strain. Hooke's
law, in its simplest form: Stress (σ) ∝ Strain (ϵ)

Stress/Strain = Constant
2.3 Modulus of elasticity - Young’s modulus

Within the elastic limits of materials, i.e. within the limits in which Hooke’s law
applies, it has been shown that

Stress/Strain = Constant

This constant is given the symbol E and termed the modulus of elasticity or
Young’s modulus.

E=Stress/Strain= σ/ϵ= P/A ÷ δL/L

𝐏𝐋
E=
𝐀𝛅𝐋

2.4 Stress-Strain Diagrams

In order to compare the strengths of various materials it is necessary to carry out

some standard form of test to establish their relative properties. One such test is the
standard tensile test in which a circular bar of uniform cross-section is subjected to
a gradually increasing tensile load until failure occurs. Measurements of the change
in length of a selected gauge length of the bar are recorded throughout the loading
operation by means of extensometers and a graph of load against extension or stress
against strain is produced as shown in Fig. 2.2; this shows a typical result for a test
on a mild (low carbon) steel bar; other materials will exhibit different graphs but
of a similar general form.
 Fig. 2.2. Typical tensile test curve for mild steel.

Portion OA: This portion is absolutely straight, where the stress is proportional to
strain and the material obeys Hooke’s law (σ =E ϵ). The value of stress at point A
is called proportional limit.

Portion AB: In this portion, Hook’s law is not obeyed, although the material may
still be elastic. The point B indicates the elastic limit.

Portion BC: In this portion, the metal shows a strain even without increase in
stress and the strain is not fully return when load is removed. C is called upper
yield point.

Portion CD: Yielding start in this portion and there is a drop of stress at the point
D directly after yielding begins at C. The point D is termed as lower yield point.

Portion DE: After yielding has taken place at D, further straining takes place at
this portion by increasing the stress and the stress–strain curve continues to rise
up to the point E. At the point E, the bar begins to form a local neck. The point E
is termed as ultimate tensile stress point (This is also known as the tensile
strength of the material of the bar.)

Portion EF: In this portion, the load is falling off from the maximum and fracture
at F takes place. The point F is termed as fracture or breaking point and the
identical stress is called breaking stress

Note: After yield points, the graph becomes much more shallow and covers a
much greater portion of the strain axis than does the elastic range of the material.
The capacity of a material to allow these large plastic deformations is a measure
of the so-called ductility of the material.

2.5 Ductile and Brittle Materials

It has been observed above that the partially plastic range of the graph of Fig. 2.2
covers a much wider part of the strain axis than does the elastic range. Thus the
extension of the material over this range is considerably in excess of that associated
with elastic loading. The capacity of a material to allow these large extensions, i.e.
the ability to be drawn out plastically, is termed its ductility. Materials with high
ductility are termed ductile materials, members with low ductility are termed brittle
materials. A quantitative value of the ductility is obtained by measurements of the
percentage elongation or percentage reduction in area, both being defined below.

Percentage elongation =
(increase in gauge length to fracture)/ (original gauge length) × 100 %

Percentage reduction in area =

(reduction in cross-sectional area of necked) /(portion original area) × 100 %

While a brittle material is one which exhibits relatively small extensions to
fracture so that the partially plastic region of the tensile test graph is much
reduced.

2.6 Mechanical Properties

The characteristics of the materials which describe their behavior under external
loads are known as Mechanical Properties.

Some mechanical properties are:

1- Elasticity: Elasticity of a material is power of coming back to original position

when the stress or load is removed. The greatest stress that a material can withstand
without permanent distortion is called elastic limit.

2- Plasticity: The plasticity of a material is ability to undergo some permanent

deformation without failure. Plastic deformation will take place only after the
elastic range has been exceeded, beyond (point c). Plasticity is an important
property and widely used in several mechanical processes like forming, shaping,
extruding and many other hot and cold working processes. In general, plasticity
increases with increasing temperature. Due to this property various metals can be
transformed into different products of required shape and size. This conversion into
desired shape and size is effected either by the application of pressure or heat or
both.

3- Ductility: Ductility of a material their enables to draw out into thin wire with
application the load. Ductile material such as mild steel, wires of gold, silver,
copper, aluminium, etc. are drawn by extrusion or by pulling through a hole in a
die due to the ductile property. The ductility decreases with increase of temperature.
The percent elongation and the reduction in area in tension are often used as
empirical measures of ductility.

4- Brittleness: The brittleness of a material is the property of breaking without

much permanent distortion. There are many materials, which break or fail before
much deformation take place, such as glass, cast iron, etc. Therefore, a non-ductile
material is said to be a brittle material. A brittle material should not be considered
as lacking in strength, it is only shows the lack of elasticity. On stress-strain
diagram, these materials don’t have yield point and value of E is small.

5- Strength: It is the resistance offered by a material when subjected to external

loading, so stronger the material can be withstanding with greater the load.
Depending upon the type of load applied the strength can be tensile, compressive,
shear or torsional strength. The maximum stress that any material will withstand
before destruction is called its ultimate strength (point E as shown in Fig. 2.2).

6- Hardness: Hardness is closely related to strength. It is the ability of a material

to resist scratching, abrasion, penetration with apply external load.

7- Stiffness (Rigidity) The resistance of a material to deflection is called stiffness

or rigidity. Steel is stiffer or more rigid than aluminum. Stiffness is measured by
Young’s modulus E. The higher value of the Young’s modulus this mean stiffer
the material. E is the ratio of stress over strain and is given by the slope of line O-
A.

8- Toughness: The toughness of a material is ability to withstand both plastic and

elastic deformations. It is a highly desirable quality for structural and machine parts
to withstand to shock and vibration. Manganese steel, mild steels are tough
materials.

Ex: If a load is suddenly applied to a piece of mild steel and then to a piece of glass
the mild steel will absorb much more energy before failure occurs. Thus, mild steel
is said to be much tougher than a glass.

2.7 Poisson’s ratio

Consider the rectangular bar as shown in Fig. 2.3 subjected to a tensile load.
Under the action of this load, the bar will increase in length by an amount 𝛿𝐿
giving a longitudinal strain in the bar of

𝜹𝑳
𝝐𝑳 =
𝑳

Fig. 2.3

The bar will also exhibit, however, a reduction in dimensions laterally, i.e. its
breadth and depth will both reduce. The associated lateral strains will both be equal,
will be of opposite sense to the longitudinal strain, and will be given by

𝜹𝒃 𝜹𝒅
𝝐𝒍𝒂𝒕 = - =-
𝒃 𝒅
 𝛅𝐝
𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 (− )
′
𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 (𝛎) = = 𝛅𝐋𝐝
𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧
𝐋

Note: For most engineering materials the value of v lies between 0.25 and 0.33.

longitudinal stress 𝛔
longitudinal strain = =
Young's modulus 𝐄

𝜎
lateral strain = 𝑣
𝐸
2.8 Application of Poisson’s ratio to a two-dimensional stress system
A two-dimensional stress system is one in which all the stresses lie within one plane
such as the X-Y plane. Consider, therefore, an element of material subjected to two
stresses at right angles to each other and let both stresses, 𝜎𝑥 and 𝜎𝑦 , be considered
tensile, see Fig. 2.3.

Fig. 2.3. Simple two dimensional system of direct stresses

The following strains will be produced
(a) in the X direction resulting fromσx , ϵx = σx /E.
(b) in the Y direction resulting fromσy , ϵy = σy /E.
(c) in the X direction resulting fromσy , ϵx = - 𝜈(σy /E).
(d) in the Y direction resulting from σx , ϵy = - 𝜈(σx /E).
Strains (c) and (d) being the so-called Poisson’s ratio strain, opposite in sign to
the applied strains, i.e. compressive.

The total strain in the X direction will therefore be given by:

𝛔𝐱 𝛔𝐲 𝟏
𝛜𝐱 = −𝛎 = (𝛔𝐱 − 𝛎𝛔𝐲 )
𝐄 𝐄 𝐄
and the total strain in the Y direction will be:
𝛔𝐲 𝛔𝐱 𝟏
𝛜𝐲 = −𝛎 = (𝛔𝐲 − 𝛎𝛔𝐱 )
𝐄 𝐄 𝐄

2.9 Shear strain

The angle of deformation γ is the shear strain. Shear strain is dimensionless; it has
no units and is measured in radians.

Fig. 2.4. Deformation (shear strain) produced by shear stresses

For materials within the elastic range the shear strain is proportional to the shear
stress producing it,
shear stress 𝜏
= = constant = 𝐺
shear strain 𝛾
The constant G is termed the modulus of rigidity or shear modulus and is directly
comparable to the modulus of elasticity used in the direct stress application. The
term modulus thus implies a ratio of stress to strain in each case.

Example 1
Determine the stress in each section of the bar shown in Fig. 2.5 when subjected to
an axial tensile load of 20 kN. The central section is 30 mm square cross-section;
the other portions are of circular section; their diameters being indicated. What will
be the total extension of the bar? For the bar material E = 210GN/m2

Fig. 2.5.

Solution:

force 𝑃
Stress = =
area 𝐴

20 × 103 80 × 103
Stress in section (1) = 𝜋(20×10−3 )2
= −6
= 63.66MN/m2
𝜋 × 400 × 10
4

20 × 103
Stress in section (2) = −6
= 22.2MN/m2
30 × 30 × 10

20 × 103 80 × 103
Stress in section (3) = 𝜋(15×10−3 )2
= −6
= 113.2MN/m2
𝜋 × 225 × 10
4
Now the extension of a bar can always be written in terms of the stress in the bar
since

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝛔
E = =
𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝛅/𝐋

Example 2
(a) A 25 mm diameter bar is subjected to an axial tensile load of 100 kN. Under
the action of this load, a 200 mm gauge length is found to extend 0.19×10−3 mm.
Determine the modulus of elasticity for the bar material.

(b) In order to reduce weight whilst keeping the external diameter constant, the
bar is bored axially to produce a cylinder of uniform thickness, what is the
maximum diameter of bore possible given that the maximum allowable stress is
240 MN/m2 ? The load can be assumed to remain constant at 100 kN.
(c) What will be the change in the outside diameter of the bar under the limiting
stress quoted in (b)? (E = 210 GN/m2 and v = 0.3).