# 12.3 Stress, strain, and elastic modulus

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By the end of this section, you will be able to:
• Explain the concepts of stress and strain in describing elastic deformations of materials
• Describe the types of elastic deformation of objects and materials

A model of a rigid body is an idealized example of an object that does not deform under the actions of external forces. It is very useful when analyzing mechanical systems—and many physical objects are indeed rigid to a great extent. The extent to which an object can be perceived as rigid depends on the physical properties of the material from which it is made. For example, a ping-pong ball made of plastic is brittle, and a tennis ball made of rubber is elastic when acted upon by squashing forces. However, under other circumstances, both a ping-pong ball and a tennis ball may bounce well as rigid bodies. Similarly, someone who designs prosthetic limbs may be able to approximate the mechanics of human limbs by modeling them as rigid bodies; however, the actual combination of bones and tissues is an elastic medium.

For the remainder of this chapter, we move from consideration of forces that affect the motion of an object to those that affect an object’s shape. A change in shape due to the application of a force is known as a deformation . Even very small forces are known to cause some deformation. Deformation is experienced by objects or physical media under the action of external forces—for example, this may be squashing, squeezing, ripping, twisting, shearing, or pulling the objects apart. In the language of physics, two terms describe the forces on objects undergoing deformation: stress and strain .

Stress is a quantity that describes the magnitude of forces that cause deformation. Stress is generally defined as force per unit area . When forces pull on an object and cause its elongation, like the stretching of an elastic band, we call such stress a tensile stress    . When forces cause a compression of an object, we call it a compressive stress    . When an object is being squeezed from all sides, like a submarine in the depths of an ocean, we call this kind of stress a bulk stress    (or volume stress ). In other situations, the acting forces may be neither tensile nor compressive, and still produce a noticeable deformation. For example, suppose you hold a book tightly between the palms of your hands, then with one hand you press-and-pull on the front cover away from you, while with the other hand you press-and-pull on the back cover toward you. In such a case, when deforming forces act tangentially to the object’s surface, we call them ‘shear’ forces and the stress they cause is called shear stress    .

The SI unit of stress is the pascal (Pa). When one newton of force presses on a unit surface area of one meter squared, the resulting stress is one pascal:

$\text{one pascal}=1.0\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{Pa}=\frac{1.0\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\text{N}}{1.0\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{m}}^{2}}.$

In the British system of units, the unit of stress is ‘psi,’ which stands for ‘pound per square inch’ $\left({\text{lb/in}}^{2}\right).$ Another unit that is often used for bulk stress is the atm (atmosphere). Conversion factors are

#### Questions & Answers

what is the formula for pressure?
force/area
Kidus
force is newtom
Kidus
and area is meter squared
Kidus
so in SI units pressure is N/m^2
Kidus
In customary United States units pressure is lb/in^2. pound per square inch
Kidus
who is Newton?
scientist
Jeevan
a scientist
Peter
that discovered law of motion
Peter
ok
John
but who is Isaac newton?
John
a postmodernist would say that he did not discover them, he made them up and they're not actually a reality in itself, but a mere construct by which we decided to observe the word around us
elo
how?
Qhoshe
what is a scalar quantity
scalar: are quantity have numerical value
muslim
is that a better way in defining scalar quantity
Peter
thanks
muslim
quantity that has magnitude but no direction
Peter
upward force and downward force lift
upward force and downward force on lift
hi
Etini
hi
elo
hy
Xander
Hello
Jux_dob
hi
Peter
Helo
Tobi
what's the answer? I can't get it
what is the question again?
Sallieu
What's this conversation?
Zareen
what is catenation? and give examples
sununu
How many kilometres in 1 mile
Nessy
1.609km in 1mile
Faqir
what's the si unit of impulse
The Newton second (N•s)
Ethan
what is the s. I unit of current
Amphere(A)
imam
thanks man
Roland
u r welcome
imam
the velocity of a boat related to water is 3i+4j and that of water related to earth is i-3j. what is the velocity of the boat relative to earth.If unit vector i and j represent 1km/hour east and north respectively
what is head to tail rule?
Explain Head to tail rule?
kinza
what is the guess theorem
viva question and answer on practical youngs modulus by streching
send me vvi que
rupesh
a car can cover a distance of 522km on 36 Liter's of petrol, how far can it travel on 14 liter of petrol.
Isaac
yoo the ans is 193
Joseph
whats a two dimensional force
what are two dimensional force?
Where is Fourier Theorem?
what is Boyle's law
Boyle's law state that the volume of a given mass of gas is inversely proportion to its pressure provided that temperature remains constant
Abe
how do I turn off push notifications on this crap app?
Huntergirl
what is the meaning of in.
In means natural logarithm
Elom
is dea graph for cancer caliper experiment using glass block?
Bako
why the ship created in search way?
Mershak