Stress concentration

Stress concentration
A stress concentration (often called stress raisers or stress risers) is
a location in an object where stress is concentrated. An object is
strongest when force is evenly distributed over its area, so a reduction
in area, e.g., caused by a crack, results in a localized increase in stress.
A material can fail, via a propagating crack, when a concentrated stress
exceeds the material's theoretical cohesive strength. The real fracture
strength of a material is always lower than the theoretical value
because most materials contain small cracks or contaminants
(especially foreign particles) that concentrate stress. Fatigue cracks
always start at stress raisers, so removing such defects increases the
fatigue strength.

Internal force lines are denser near the hole

Causes
Geometric discontinuities cause an object to experience a local increase in the
intensity of a stress field. Examples of shapes that cause these concentrations
are cracks, sharp corners, holes, and changes in the cross-sectional area of the
object. High local stresses can cause objects to fail more quickly, so engineers
must design the geometry to minimize stress concentrations.

Prevention

The sharp corner at the brick has acted

as a stress concentrator within the

A counter-intuitive method of reducing one of the worst types of stress
concrete causing it to crack
concentrations, a crack, is to drill a large hole at the end of the crack. The
drilled hole, with its relatively large diameter, causes a smaller stress
concentration than the sharp end of a crack. This is however, a temporary solution that must be corrected at the first
opportune time.

It is important to systematically check for possible stress concentrations caused by cracksthere is a critical crack
length of 2a for which, when this value is exceeded, the crack proceeds to definite catastrophic failure. This ultimate
failure is definite since the crack will propagate on its own once the length is greater than 2a. (There is no additional
energy required to increase the crack length so the crack will continue to enlarge until the material fails.) The origins
of the value 2a can be understood through Griffith's theory of brittle fracture.

Stress concentration

Another methods used to decrease the stress concentration is by creating the fillet at the sharp edges. It gives smooth
flow of stress streamlines. In a threaded component force flow line is bent as it passes from shank portion to threaded
portion as a result stress concentration takes place. To reduce this a small undercut is taken between shank and
threaded portion.

Examples
The term "stress raiser" is used in orthopedics; a focus point of stress on an
implanted orthosis is very likely to be its point of failure.
Classic cases of metal failures due to stress concentrations include metal fatigue
at the corners of the windows of the De Havilland Comet aircraft and brittle
fractures at the corners of hatches in Liberty ships in cold and stressful
conditions in winter storms in the Atlantic Ocean.

Concentration factor for cracks

The maximum stress felt near a crack occurs in the area of lowest radius of
curvature. In an elliptical crack of length
and width
, under an applied
external stress

, the stress at the ends of the major axes is given by:

This orthosis is implanted to support

the femur after a fracture, but the
concentration of stress at its bend
increases the possibility that it may
break under force.

where is the radius of curvature of the crack tip. A stress concentration

factor is the ratio of the highest stress (
) to a reference stress ( ) of the gross cross-section. As the radius
of curvature approaches zero, the maximum stress approaches infinity. Note that the stress concentration factor is a
function of the geometry of a crack, and not of its size. These factors can be found in typical engineering reference
materials to predict the stresses that could otherwise not be analyzed using strength of materials approaches. This is
not to be confused with 'Stress Intensity Factor'.

Concentration factor calculation

There are experimental methods for measuring stress concentration factors including photoelastic stress analysis,
brittle coatings or strain gauges. While all these approaches have been successful, all also have experimental,
environmental, accuracy and/or measurement disadvantages.
During the design phase, there are multiple approaches to estimating stress concentration factors. Several catalogs of
stress concentration factors have been published. Perhaps most famous is Stress Concentration Design Factors by
Peterson, first published in 1953. Finite element methods are commonly used in design today. Theoretical
approaches, using elasticity or strength of material considerations, can lead to equations similar to the one shown
above.
There may be small differences between the catalog, FEM and theoretical values calculated. Each method has
advantages and disadvantages. Many catalog curves were derived from experimental data. FEM calculates the peak
stresses directly and nominal stresses may be easily found by integrating stresses in the surrounding material. The
result is that engineering judgment may have to be used when selecting which data applies to making a design
decision. Many theoretical stress concentration factors have been derived for infinite or semi-infinite geometries
which may not be analyzable and are not testable in a stress lab, but tackling a problem using two or more of these
approaches will allow an engineer to achieve an accurate conclusion.

Stress concentration

References
ESDU64001: Guide to stress concentration data (ISBN 1-86246-279-8)
Pilkey, Walter D, Peterson's Stress Concentration Factors, Wiley, 2nd Ed (1999). ISBN 0-471-53849-3

External links
When Metal Lets Us Down (http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/184271-1.html)
EBI - Medical Glossary (http://www.ebimedical.com/patients/glossary_s.cfm)
Structural Integrity Analysis: Stress Concentration (http://www.kokch.kts.ru/me/t1/
SIA_1_Stress_Concentration.pdf)

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