MECHANICS OF DEFORMAL BODIES

Topics :

1. Example on Calculation of Principal Stresses and

Directions
2. Orthogonality of Principal Directions
3. Principal Stresses are real.

NAME: B.Dheeraj Kumar

USN:1MS17CSE14-T
 The Principal plane has Direction Cosines as l,m,n and they
should satisfy the set of equations and magnitude is given by .

To determine the principal stresses,the determinant of this equation is

Equated to 0 and solving the obtained equations.

Determinant of =0

Substituting the value of and solving the equations involving

l,m,n by which it gives Direction cosines.

EXAMPLE ON CALCULATION OF PRINCIPAL STRESSES AND

DIRECTIONS
The detailed procedure of calculating the stresses and direction
cosines.
Determine and their directions.

Initially calculate stress invariants,

Where are stress invariants.
and calculating the constants,

Calculating the values of

 can also be calculated as

Principal stresses have been calculated as

Direction of or in other words as should be calculated

Solve the above equations

We will get values as
Check
are orthogonal
Cosine of angle between is given by

Hence , are orthogonal

Proof of principal directions are mutually orthogonal.

PRINCIPAL DIRECTIONS ARE MUTUALLY ORTHOGONAL

Let us consider are principal stresses and directions

cosines of are
Multiplying to equations i,ii,iii respectively and again

multiply to equations iv,v,vi

Subtract and solving the obtain equations
We get,

We get

are mutually perpendicular.

Similarly
are mutually perpendicular.

are mutually perpendicular.

PRINICIPAL STRESSES ARE REAL

Let us consider is the principal stress and corresponding

directional are and is the principal stress and corresponding

directional cosines are and

the equation involving the principal stress

Now for

Multiply respectively to
By solving

This is advantage of tensor notation.

To show that principal stress are real and not having complex
quantities. The characteristic equation is

The roots of this equation are real

Let us assume the roots of this equation are and
consider is real and are complex.
and then

are to be related so that one should be complex

conjugate to the other. must be complex conjugate. Now

the equation
The roots must satisfy this equation.
The direction cosines of and similarly
and the equations are

These equations a and b are real quantities.

It is to expect that are roots of these equations and also

must be complex.

has components as and

So, if we take complex conjugate of ‘a’ , it will be in the form of.

This is the complex conjugate form of equation ‘a’.

Where

Now,

Compare b and a’ ,

are again complex conjugates.

Equation a is multiplied by and b by
We obtain

If we assume that ,this is complex and complex

conjugate of will be
And now substitute the values of In c, we get

The coefficients of can be written as and

the coefficients of complex conjugate can be written as

are real.
Product of should be equal

which gives,

From the above expression we can observe that it will be positive

real value.
From equation c’ ,
(this product is real)

By this we can say that cannot be complex.

So, the roots of the characteristic equation of principal stress are
REAL.

UNSOLVED PROBLEMS
1.Prove that , where ’s are tractions on an

arbitary plane through point P with principal stresses ’s.

2.Determine ’s and ’s for

3.Determine on a plane which is equally inclined with

three axes.

4.Write the stress invariants in terms of .