

Willing to learn more about stresses and strains and the various stress-strain relationships based on different material types? Then make sure to read our article on the Stress-Strain curve.

The stress-strain curve provides engineers and designers with important information about material limits and the risk of failure.

There are several types of tests, for example, tensile, compression, and bending tests which lead to material characterization. The stress-strain curve is unique for any material and is typically determined through physical testing. Figure 1: Stress-strain curve for a ductile material Figure 1 demonstrates a typical stress-strain curve of ductile materials. A part made of a ductile material is able to withstand excessive strains before failure. In engineering structural analysis, the most commonly encountered materials are ductile. Talking about materials, it’s worth mentioning the stress-strain curve. Young’s modulus is often expressed in pressure/stress units (Pa or psi). It is a mechanical property of linear elastic solid materials which quantifies how rigid/stiff a material is. This property was named after the British scientist Thomas Young. Where E is a characteristic material constant known as modulus of elasticity, elastic modulus, or simply Young’s modulus. The relationship between stress and strain is: Typical examples are natural frequencies and mode shapes, vibration responses, buckling, fracture/crack propagation, and material fatigue. However, there are other equally important quantities and analysis types. Where L is the undeformed length of the solid element and dL is its relative deformation.ĭeriving the stresses and strains of a given component is the major goal of structural analysis. Strain (ε) is a dimensionless quantity that quantifies the relative deformation of materials under stress. In a solid, stress (σ) is defined as the internal force (F) within the material that opposes any external loading and runs through any given cross-section (A):Īny solid under stress will experience deformation. Stress and strain are two really important quantities when it comes to structural analysis. “Is it going to withstand the loading, or is it going to fail?” Structural Analysis Basic Notions Stress, Strain, and Material Behavior This can be achieved by typically trying to answer the following question: The goal of structural engineers is to analyze all the sub-components but also the structure as a whole. A structure or an assembly may consist of several sub-components.

In the field of solid mechanics, structural analysis is the analysis of the response of a structure and its behavior under certain loading conditions.
