Stress is a measure of force per unit area within a body.

It is a body's internal distribution of

force per area that reacts to external applied loads. Stress is often broken down into its shear and
normal components as these have unique physical significance. In short, stress is to force as
strain is to elongation.
Solids, liquids and gases have stress fields. Static fluids support normal stress (hydrostatic
pressure) but will flow under shear stress. Moving viscous fluids can support shear stress
(dynamic pressure). Solids can support both shear and normal stress, with ductile materials
failing under shear and brittle materials failing under normal stress. All materials have
temperature dependent variations in stress related properties, and non-newtonian materials have
rate-dependent variations.

[edit] Stress tensor

Stress is a second-order tensor with nine components, but can be fully described with six
components due to symmetry in the absence of body moments. In N dimensions, the stress tensor
is defined by:

where the dFi are the components of the resultant force vector acting on a small area dA which
can be represented by a vector dAj perpendicular to the area element, facing outwards and with
length equal to the area of the element. In elementary mechanics, the subscripts are often denoted
x, y, z rather than 1,2,3.

Figure 1 Stress tensor

The components
of the stress tensor depend on the orientation of the plane that passes
through the point under consideration, i.e on the viewpoint of the observer. This would lead to
the ridiculous conclusion that the stress on a structure, and hence its proximity to failure,
depends on the viewpoint of the observer. However, every tensor, including stress, has invariants
that do not depend on the choice of viewpoint. The length of a first-order tensor, i.e a vector, is a
simple example. The existence of invariants means that the components seen by one observer are
related, via the tensor transformation relations, to those seen by any other observer. The

transformation relations for a second-order tensor like stress are different from those of a firstorder tensor, which is why it is misleading to speak of the stress 'vector'. Mohr's circle method is
a graphical method for performing stress (or strain) transformations.
When the stress tensor is needed to fully describe the state of stress in a body, it is useful to
break the concept up into smaller parts that have physical significance. In a 1-dimensional
system, such as a uniaxially loaded bar, stress is simply equal to the applied force divided by the
cross-sectional area of the bar (see also pressure). The 2-D or 3-D cases are more complex. In
three dimensions, the internal force acting on a small area dA of a plane that passes through a
point P can be resolved into three components: one normal to the plane and two parallel to the
plane (see Figure 1). The normal component divided by dA gives the normal stress (usually
denoted ), and the parallel components divided by the area dA give shear stresses (denoted or
in elementary textbooks). If the area dA is finite then, strictly, these are average stresses. In the
limit, when dA approaches zero, the stresses become stresses at the point P. In general, stress
varies from point to point and so is a tensor field.

[edit] Stress in one-dimensional bodies

All real objects occupy three-dimensional space. However, if two dimensions are very large or
very small compared to the others, the object may be modelled as one-dimensional. This
simplifies the mathematical modelling of the object. One-dimensional objects include a piece of
wire loaded at the ends and viewed from the side, and a metal sheet loaded on the face and
viewed up close and through the cross section.
For one-dimensional objects, the stress tensor has only one component and is indistinguishable
from a scalar. The simplest definition of stress, = F/A, where A is the initial cross-sectional
area prior to the application of the load, is called engineering stress or nominal stress.
However, when any material is stretched, its cross-sectional area may change by an amount that
depends on the Poisson's ratio of the material. Engineering stress neglects this change in area.
The stress axis on a stress-strain graph is often engineering stress, even though the sample may
undergo a substantial change in cross-sectional area during testing.
True stress is an alternative definition in which the initial area is replaced by the current area. In
engineering applications, the initial area is always known, and so calculations using nominal
stress are generally easier. For small deformation, such as in practical material usage, the
reduction in cross-sectional area is small and the distinction between nominal and true stress is
insignificant; so the change of cross-sectional area could be assumed to be a constant value. This
is not so for the large deformations typical of elastomers and plastic materials when the change
in cross-sectional areas can be significant.
In one dimension, conversion between true stress and nominal (engineering) stress is given by
true = (1 + e)(e),
where e is nominal (engineering) strain, and e is nominal (engineering) stress. The relationship
between true strain and engineering strain is given by

true = ln(1 + e).

In uniaxial tension, true stress is then greater than nominal stress. The converse holds in
compression.
Example: A steel bolt of diameter 5 mm has a cross-sectional area of 19.6 mm2. A load of 50 N
induces a stress (force distributed over the cross section) of = 50/19.6 = 2.55 MPa (N/mm2).
This can be thought of as each square millimeter of the bolt supporting 2.55 N of the total load.
In another bolt with half the diameter, and hence a quarter the cross-sectional area, carrying the
same 50 N load, the stress will be quadrupled (10.2 MPa).
The ultimate tensile strength is a property of a material and is usually determined experimentally
from a uniaxial tensile test. It allows the calculation of the load that would cause fracture. The
compressive strength is a similar property for compressive loads. The yield strength is the value
of stress causing plastic deformation.

[edit] Stress in two-dimensional bodies

Cracks in rock resulting from stress.

All real objects occupy 3-dimensional space. However, if one dimension is very large or very
small compared to the others, the object may be modelled as two-dimensional. This simplifies
the mathematical modelling of the object. Two-dimensional objects include a piece of wire
loaded on the sides and viewed up close and through the cross-section and a metal sheet
loaded in-plane and viewed face-on.
Notice that the same physical, three-dimensional object can be modelled as one-dimensional,
two-dimensional or even three-dimensional, depending on the loading and viewpoint of the
observer.

[edit] Plane stress

Plane stress is a two-dimensional state of stress (Figure 2). This 2-D state models well the state
of stresses in a flat, thin plate loaded in the plane of the plate. Figure 2 shows the stresses on the
x- and y-faces of a differential element. Not shown in the figure are the stresses in the opposite
faces and the external forces acting on the material. Since moment equilibrium of the differential
element shows that the shear stresses on the perpendicular faces are equal, the 2-D state of

stresses is characterized by three independent stress components (x, y, xy). Note that forces
perpendicular to the plane can be abbreviated. For example, x is an abbreviation for xx. This
notation is described further below.

Figure 2 Stresses normal and tangent to faces

See also plane strain.

[edit] Principal stresses in 2-D

Augustin Louis Cauchy was the first to demonstrate that at a given point, it is always possible to
locate two orthogonal planes in which the shear stress vanishes. These planes in which the
normal forces are acting are called the principal planes, while the normal stresses on these planes
are the principal stresses. They are the eigenvalues of the stress tensor and are orthogonal
because the stress tensor is symmetric (as per the spectral theorem). Eigenvalues are invariants
with respect to choice of basis and are the roots of the CayleyHamilton theorem (although the
term 'the' invariants usually means (I1,I2,I3)). Mohr's circle is a graphical method of extracting
the principal stresses in a 2-dimensional stress state. The maximum and minimum principal
stresses are the maximum and minimum possible values of the normal stresses. The maximum
principal stress controls brittle fracture.
The two dimensional Cauchy stress tensor is defined as:

Then principal stresses 1,2 are equal to:

Those formulas have geometrical interpretation in the form of Mohr Circle presented in section
below.

[edit] Mohr's circle

A graphical representation of any 2-D stress state was proposed by Christian Otto Mohr in 1882.
Consider the state of stress at a point P in a body (Figure 2). The Mohr's circle may be
constructed as follows.
1. Draw two perpendicular axes with the horizontal axis representing normal stress, while
the vertical axis the shear stress.
2. Plot the state of stress on the x-plane as the point A, whose abscissa (x value) is the
magnitude of the normal stress, x (tension is positive), and whose ordinate (y value) is
the shear stress (clockwise shear is positive).
3. Mark the magnitude of the normal stress y on the horizontal axis (tension being
positive).
4. Mark the midpoint of the two normal stresses, O (Figure 3).
5. Draw the circle with radius OA, centered at O (Figure 4).
6. A point on the Mohr's circle represents the state of stresses on a particular plane at the
point P. Of special interest are
the points where the circle crosses the horizontal axis, for they represent the magnitudes of the
principal stresses (Figure 5).

Figure 3 Mohr's circle, stage 1

Figure 4 Mohr's circle, stage 2

Figure 5 Mohr's circle, stage 3

Mohr's circle may also be applied to three-dimensional stress. In this case, the diagram has three
circles, two within a third.
Engineers use Mohr's circle to find the planes of maximum normal and shear stresses, as well as
the stresses on known weak planes. For example, if the material is brittle, the engineer might use
Mohr's circle to find the maximum component of normal stress (tension or compression); and for
ductile materials, the engineer might look for the maximum shear stress.

[edit] Stress in three dimensional bodies

[edit] Cauchy's principle

Cauchy enunciated the principle that, within a body, the forces that an enclosed volume imposes
on the remainder of the material must be in equilibrium with the forces upon it from the
remainder of the body.
This intuition provides a route to characterizing and calculating complicated patterns of stress.
To be exact, the stress at a point may be determined by considering a small element of the body
that has an area A, over which a force F acts. By making the element infinitesimally small, the
stress vector is defined as the limit:

Being a tensor, the stress has two directional components: one for force and one for plane
orientation; in three dimensions these can be two forces within the plane of the area A, the shear
components, and one force perpendicular to A, the normal component. Therefore the shear stress
can be further decomposed into two orthogonal force components within the plane. This gives
rise to three total stress components acting on this plane. For example in a plane orthogonal to
the x axis, there can be a normal force applied in the x direction and a combination of y and z in
plane force components.
The considerations above can be generalized to three dimensions. However, this is very
complicated, since each shear loading produces shear stresses in one orientation and normal
stresses in other orientations, and vice versa. Often, only certain components of stress will be
important, depending on the material in question.
The von Mises stress is derived from the distortion energy theory and is a simple way to
combine stresses in three dimensions to calculate failure criteria of ductile materials. In this way,
the strength of material in a 3-D state of stress can be compared to a test sample that was loaded
in one dimension.

[edit] The stress tensor in 3-D

(see also viscosity and Hooke's law for development of the stress tensor in viscous and elastic
materials respectively)
Because the behavior of a body does not depend on the coordinate systems used to measure it,
stress can be described by a tensor. In the absence of body moments, the stress tensor is
symmetric and can always be resolved into the sum of two symmetric tensors:

a mean or hydrostatic stress tensor, involving only pure tension and compression; and
a shear or deviatoric stress tensor, involving only shear stress.

In the case of a fluid, Pascal's law shows that the hydrostatic stress is the same in all directions,
at least to a first approximation, so can be captured by the scalar quantity pressure. Thus, in the

case of a solid, the hydrostatic (or isostatic) pressure p is defined as one third of the trace of the
tensor, i.e., the mean of the diagonal terms.

[edit] Principal stresses in 3-D

The three dimensional Cauchy stress tensor is defined as:

In equilibrium, yx = xy, zx = xz, and zy = yz, so the matrix is effectually symmetric. If not in
equilibrium, other methods - not outlined here - must be used to make it symmetric before
calculations can begin.
To calculate the principal stresses 1,2 and 3 the three invariants of the Cauchy stress tensor
must be calculated:

Then the characteristic equation of 3-D principal stresses is expressed as:

The three roots of this equation are principal stresses 1,2 and 3. When they are found it can be
shown that the three invariants can be expressed in terms of principal stresses:

[edit] Generalized notation

In the generalized stress tensor notation, the tensor components are written ij, where i and j are
in {1;2;3}.
(caution: subscript notation in this section is different from the rest of the article - the order of
subscripts is reversed)

The first step is to number the sides of the cube. When the lines are parallel to a vector base
, then:

the sides perpendicular to

from the center of the cube,

opposite.

are called j and -j; and

points toward the j side, while the -j side is at the

ij is then the component along the i axis that applies on the j side of the cube. (Or in books in the
English language, ij is the stress on the i face acting in the j direction -- the transpose of the
subscript notation herein. But transposing the subscript notation produces the same stress tensor,
since a symmetric matrix is equal to its transpose.)

This generalized notation allows an easy writing of equations of the continuum mechanics, such
as the generalized Hooke's law:

The correspondence with the former notation is thus:

x
y

1
2

z 3
xx 11
xy 12
xz 13
...

[edit] Why is Newtonian stress a symmetric tensor?

The fact that the Newtonian stress is a symmetric tensor follows from some simple
considerations. The force on a small volume element will be the sum of all the stress forces over
the surface area of that element. Suppose we have a volume element in the form of a long bar
with a triangular cross section, where the triangle is a right triangle. We can neglect the forces on
the ends of the bar, because they are small compared to the faces of the bar. Let
area of one face of the bar,
be the area of the other, and
face" of the bar. It can be seen that

be the vector

be the area of the "hypotenuse

Let's say
is the force on area
and likewise for the other faces. Since the stress is by
definition the force per unit area, it is clear that

The total force on the volume element will be:

Let's suppose that the volume element contains mass, at a constant density. The important point
is that if we make the volume smaller, say by halving all lengths, the area will decrease by a
factor of four, while the volume will decrease by a factor of eight. As the size of the volume
element goes to zero, the ratio of area to volume will become infinite. The total stress force on
the element is proportional to its area, and so as the volume of the element goes to zero, the
force/mass (i.e. acceleration) will also become infinite, unless the total force is zero. In other
words:

This, along with the second equation above, proves that the function is a linear vector operator
(i.e. a tensor). By an entirely analogous argument, we can show that the total torque on the
volume element (due to stress forces) must be zero, and that it follows from this restriction that
the stress tensor must be symmetric.

However, there are two fundamental ways in which this mode of thinking can be misleading.
First, when applying this argument in tandem with the underlying assumption from continuum
mechanics that the Knudsen number is strictly less than one, then in the limit
, the
symmetry assumptions in the stress tensor may break down. This is the case of Non-Newtonian
fluid, and can lead to rotationally non-invariant fluids, such as polymers. The other case is when
the system is operating on a purely finite scale, such as is the case in mechanics where Finite
deformation tensors are used.

[edit] Equilibrium conditions

The state of stress as defined by the stress tensor is an equilibrium state if the following
conditions are satisfied:

ij are the components of the tensor, and f 1 , f 2 , and f 3 are the body forces (force per unit
volume).
These equations can be compactly written using Einstein notation in which repeated indices are
summed. Defining
as
the equilibrium conditions are written:

The equilibrium conditions may be derived from the condition that the net force on an
infinitesimal volume element must be zero. Consider an infinitesimal cube aligned with the x1,
x2, and x3 axes, with one corner at xi and the opposite corner at xi + dxi and having each face of
area dA. Consider just the faces of the cube which are perpendicular to the x1 axis. The area
vector for the near face is [ dA,0,0] and for the far face it is [dA,0,0]. The net stress force on
these two opposite faces is

A similar calculation can be carried out for the other pairs of faces. The sum of all the stress
forces on the infinitesimal cube will then be

Since the net force on the cube must be zero, it follows that this stress force must be balanced by
the force per unit volume fi on the cube (e.g., due to gravitation, electromagnetic forces, etc.)
which yields the equilibrium conditions written above.
Equilibrium also requires that the resultant moment on the cube of material must be zero. Taking
the moment of the forces above about any suitable point, it follows that, for equilibrium in the
absence of body moments
.
The stress tensor is then symmetric and the subscripts can be written in either order.