THEORIESOFELASTICFAILURE

While dealing with the design of structures or machine elements or any component of a particular
machine the physical properties or chief characteristics of the constituent materials are usually found from the
results of laboratory experiments in which the components are subject to thesimplestressconditions.Themost
usualtestisasimpletensiletestinwhichthevalueofstressatyieldorfractureiseasilydetermined.

However,a machine part is generally subjected simultaneously to several different typesofstresses

whoseactions are combined therefore, it is necessarytohavesomebasisfordeterminingthe allowable working
stresses so that failure may not occur. Thus, the function of the theories of elastic failure is to predict from the
behaviorofmaterialsinasimpletensiletestwhenelasticfailurewilloccurunderanyconditionsofappliedstress.
Anumberoftheorieshavebeenproposedforthebrittleandductilematerials.

Strain Energy:
The conceptofstrainenergyisoffundamentalimportance inapplied mechanics.Theapplication
of theload produces strain in the bar. The effect of these strains is toincrease theenergylevel of thebar itself.
Hence a new quantity called strain energy is defined as the energy absorbed by the bar during the loading
process. This strain energy is definedastheworkdonebyloadprovidednoenergyis addedor subtractedinthe
form of heat. Some times strain energy is referred to as internal work to distinguish it from external work W'.
ConsiderasimplebarwhichissubjectedtotensileforceF,havingasmallelementofdimensionsdx,dyanddz.

ThestrainenergyUistheareacoveredunderthetriangle

Athreedimensionstateofstressrespresentedbys
,s
ands
maybethroughtofconsistingoftwodistinctstate
1
2
3
ofstressesi.eDistortionalstateofstress
Deviatoricstateofstressanddilationalstateofstress
Hydrostaticstateofstresses.

Thus,Theenergywhichisstoredwithinamaterialwhenthematerialisdeformedistermedasastrainenergy.
ThetotalstrainenergyU
r
U
=U
+U
T
d
H
U
d is the strain energy due to the Deviatoric state of stress and U
H is the strain energy due to the Hydrostatic
state of stress. Futher, it may be noted that the hydrostatic state of stress results in changeofvolumewhereas
thedeviatoricstateofstressresultsinchangeofshape.

DifferentTheoriesofFailure:
Thesearefivedifferenttheoriesoffailureswhicharegenerallyused
(a)MaximumPrincipalstresstheory(duetoRankine)
(b)Maximumshearstresstheory(GuestTresca)
(c)MaximumPrincipalstrain(Saintvenant)Theory
(d)Totalstrainenergyperunitvolume(Haigh)Theory
(e)ShearstrainenergyperunitvolumeTheory(VonMises&Hencky)
Inallthesetheoriesweshallassume.
s
=stressattheyieldpointinthesimpletensiletest.
Yp
s
, s
, s
1
2
3 the three principal stresses in the three dimensional complex state of stress systems in order of
magnitude.

(a)MaximumPrincipalstresstheory:
Thistheory assume that when the maximum principalstressinacomplexstresssystemreaches theelasticlimit
stressinasimpletension,failurewilloccur.
Thereforethecriterionforfailurewouldbe
s
=s
1
yp
Foratwodimensionalcomplexstresssystems
isexpressedas
1

Wheres
,s
andt
arethestressesintheanygivencomplexstresssystem.
x
y
xy

(b)Maximumshearstresstheory:
This theory states that teh failure can be assumed to occur when the maximum shear stress in the complex
stresssystemisequaltothevalueofmaximumshearstressinsimpletension.
Thecriterionforthefailuremaybeestablishedasgivenbelow:

Forasimpletensioncase

(c)MaximumPrincipalstraintheory:
ThisTheory assumesthatfailureoccurswhenthemaximumstrainforacomplexstateofstresssystembecomes
equalstothestrainatyieldpointinthetensiletestforthethreedimensionalcomplexstateofstresssystem.
Fora3dimensionalstateofstresssystemthetotalstrainenergyU
perunitvolumeinequaltothetotalwork
t
donebythesystemandgivenbytheequation

(d)Totalstrainenergyperunitvolumetheory:
Thetheory assumes that the failure occurs when the total strain energy for a complex state of stresssystemis
equaltothatattheyieldpointatensiletest.
Therefore,
the
failure
criterion
becomes

Itmaybenotedthatthistheorygivesfairbygoodresultsforductilematerials.

(e)Maximumshearstrainenergyperunitvolumetheory:
This theory states that the failure occurs when the maximum shear strain energy component for the complex
stateofstresssystemisequaltothatattheyieldpointinthetensiletest.

Hencethecriterionforthefailurebecomes

Asweknowthatageneralstateofstresscanbebrokenintotwocomponentsi.e,
(i) Hydrostaticstateof stress ( the strain energy associated withthehydrostaticstateofstressis knownasthe
volumetricstrainenergy)
(ii)DistortionalorDeviatoricstateofstress(Thestrainenergyduetothisisknownastheshearstrainenergy)
Asweknowthatthestrainenergyduetodistortionisgivenas

Thisis the distortion strain energy for a complex state of stress, this is tobeequaledtothe maximum distortion
energyinthesimpletensiontest.Inordertogetwemayassumethat one of theprincipalstresssay ( s
1 )
reaches

theyield point ( s
) of thematerial.Thus,putting in above equation s
yp
2 = s
3 = 0wegetdistortionenergyforthe
simpletesti.e