Force

Force is a kind of mechanical action between different

objects, it tends to change the shape, volume or
movement state of the object with a force upon it.

Stresses (1)

Force is a vector quantity, and thus possesses both magnitude

and direction; it can be represented by an arrow whose length
specifies the magnitude and whose orientation specifies the
orientation of the force.
Force = mass acceleration

F
vector

F1

(kg m s-2) [Newton][N]

Unit: Newton
1 Newton = 1 kilogram meter per second squared
scalar (only magnitude)

Surface Forces and Body Forces

F1
F

F2

F2
B

Resolution and resultant of forces

A.A force F be resolved into two components F1 and
F2. B. Two forces F1 and F2 be represented by the
resultant F

Surface forces: the forces acting on the contact

surface between adjacent parts of rock system,
between adjacent blocks or adjacent lithosphere
plates. The contact surface may be or may be
not a visible material boundary. It can be a
imaginary surface inside the object considered.

Nonuniform forces

Body forces

F
a

Body forces: the forces can work at a distance and

depend on the amount of material affected, so, we can
call body forces distant forces. Gravitational force is
an example of body forces. The gravitational force on
a rock body of mass m is
F = mg
where g is the acceleration of gravity. g varies with
depth in the earth and with position on the earths
surface, but for the purpose of structural geology, it is
a constant 9.8m/sec2.

b
Imaginary plane

Uniform forces

x
N=F

F
a

=N/A=F/A

External forces

Uniform
Internal
Forces

Internal forces and stresses

Stress on a plane: internal forces acting on unit area of the

given plane within the considering body.

External
forces

Normal stress and

shear stress

P
m
F

PInternal
Inte rna l fo rc e
forces

Faarea
re a

stress

P dp
=
=p
lim
dF
F 0 F

Stress acting at a point m on a plane n is a vector, it can be

resolved into two components and , is normal to the
plane, called normal stress, is tangential to the plane, called
shear stress.

Magnitude and Units of Stress

Magnitude of stress
Stress = Force / Area, limit Area approaching zero
Units of stress
[ Newton / m2 or a Pascal], or simply say Pa
That is 1 pascal = 1 newton per square meter.
1 newton = 1 kilogram meter per second squared (1 kg m s-2)
A more commonly used unit is the bar or the kilobar,
Where:
1 bar = 105 pascals = 0.1 Mpa (105: 10 to the power 5)

Normal and shear stresses at a fault plane (A) and

a bedding plane during flexural slip folding (B)
(Park,2007)

y
p

z
y

xy=yx
yz=zy
zx=xz

Resolution of stress in two dimensions (A)

and in tree dimensions (B)

Infinitesimal cube

(Park,2007)

Stress components in three dimensions

Nine components of stress at a point in matrix form

(5-2)
xy=yx yz=zy zx=xz , only six stress
x, y ,z
three shear stresses xy , y z, zx

Since

components left: three normal stresses

and

For an arbitrarily chosen set of orthogonal axes x, y, z, six

independent quantities are necessary to specify completely
the state of stress at a point.