University of California at Berkeley

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Engineering 36
J. Lubliner

Stress
Up to now, when we studied contact forces distributed over a surface, we considered only forces that
were normal to the surface and compressive, and we referred to the magnitude of the force per unit area as
pressure. More generally, a force distributed over a surface has an arbitrary orientation with respect to the
the surface, and must be represented by a vector, usually called the traction but sometimes also the stress
vector.
The value of the traction on a surface element around a given point of the body will in general, of course,
depend on the location of the point but also on the orientation of the surface. Imagine yourself pulling
axially on a bar of cross-sectional area A with a force F . At any point in the bar, you would expect the
traction on an area element that perpendicular to the axis of the bar to have an axial direction and be, at
least approximately, of magnitude F/A. But if you consider an area element that is parallel to the axis,
there is no a priori reason why the traction should not be zero.
It follows that, at any point, the traction can be regarded as a function of the unit normal vector n of a
surface element about that point, and we can write it as T(n). Now, if the surface divides the body into two
parts, then the immediately adjoining surface has the orientation n, and the traction there will be T(n).
The law of action and reaction demands that
T(n) = T(n)

(1)

Consider, now, a triangular area element A whose sides are in the yz-, xz- and xy-planes, respectively,
and whose orientation is given by the unit normal vector n = nx i + ny j + nz k. The components nx , ny and
nz are of course the direction cosines of the normal direction to the area element. More over, the projections
of the area element on the yz-, xz- and xy-planes are triangles with the respective areas
Ax = nx A,

Ay = ny A,

Az = nz A.

(2)

If the four triangles can be thought of as constituting a tetrahedron, then the outward unit normal vectors
of the projected triangles are i, j and k, as shown in Figure 1.
y

y
6
p
@
 @

k

@
*n
b @


r
i   b
@
@
p
p - x

b 
 

p  ?
j



Figure 1

T(i) Ax p6
BMB @ T(k) Az
 @ 
B 
: T(n) A
b@ 
B
r @

b
 p
@
@p - x


b 
 
p 


T(j) Ay

z
Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the surface forces acting on the tetrahedron. If the tetrahedron is sufficiently small, then
the effect of body forces (such as gravity) on the equilibrium of the element can be neglected, because such
forces would be proportional to the volume V , which is a higher-order differential than the area A (that
is, in the limit of an infinitesimal element, V /A 0). Consequently the equilibrium of forces is given by
T(n)A + T(i)Ax + T(j)Ay + T(k)Az = 0
In view of Equations (1) and (2), this may be rewritten as
[T(n)A nx T(i) ny T(j) nz T(k)]A = 0,
and since the area A is positive, the quantity in brackets must be zero, that is
T(n) = nx T(i) + ny T(j) + nz T(k).

Finally, special symbols will be given for the components of T(i), T(j) and T(k:
T(i) = xx i + xy j + xz k,
T(j) = yx i + yy j + yz k,
T(k) = zx i + zy j + zz k,
from which it follows that
T(n) = (nx xx + ny yx + nz zx )i + (nx xy + ny yy + nz zy )j + (nx xz + ny yz + nz zz )k.
The components xx , xy etc. are known as stress components or simply as stresses, and the array

xx xy xz
yx yy yz
zx zy zz
is said to represent the stress tensor. The components xx , yy and zz (which are often written as x ,
y and z , respectively) are the normal stresses, while the remaining components (those with unequal
subscripts) are the shear stresses. Note that, with n being the outward normal, a normal stress is positive
if it represents tension and negative if compression. In a fluid at rest, therefore, if the pressure is p then
the normal stresses are all equal to p while the shear stresses are zero. Such a state is known as one of
hydrostatic stress.
It is somewhat easier to visualize stresses in two dimensions than in three. Consider a very small cuboid
(rectangular parallelepiped) with sides x, y, z parallel to the axes. The stresses acting in the x- or
y-direction on the planes that are parallel to the z-axis can be visualized in the xy-plane as in Figure 3:

xx

xy?

yy
6
- yx
6 xy
6xx
y
x
?


yx

?
yy
Figure 3

The directions of the arrows representing the stresses are consistent with these stresses being positive.
The element is assumed to be small enough so that the variation of the stress values through it can be
neglected, so that the resultants of the tractions can be taken as acting at the midpoints of the sides, and
force equilibrium is obviously satisfied. As regards moment equilibrium, the forces due to the stresses xy ,
acting over the area y z, form a counterclockwise couple with moment arm x, and therefore the moment
is xy x y z. Similarly the stresses yx create the clockwise moment yx x y z, and therefore, for
moment equilibrium
xy = yx .
Analogous analyses in the yz- and xz-planes lead to the relations
yz = zy ,

xz = zx .

In words: the shear stresses on two mutually perpendicular planes and acting in mutually perpendicular
directions are equal.
If there is an axis (say the z-axis) such that z (or zz , xz (= zx ) and yz (= zy ) are all zero, then the
state of stress is called plane stress.

If there is an axis (say the x-axis) such that the only nonzero stress component is x (or xx , then the
state of stress is called uniaxial (a special case of plane stress).
If there is a pair of axes (say x and y) such that the only nonzero stress components are xy and yx (and
they are, of course, equal), then the state of stress is called pure shear, another special case of plane stress.
If the components in a state of plane stress are known with respect to a given set of axes (say x and
y), then they can be determined for any other set of axes in the plane by the so-called wedge method
illustrated in Figure 4.
J
J

3
J

3

]
J
JJ
x 
JJ
?
J
xy
J
J
J
yx
?
y
Figure 4

Problems
1. From the force equilibrium of the wedge in Figure 4, show that
= x cos2 + y sin2 + 2xy sin cos ,
= xy (cos2 sin2 ) + (y x ) sin cos .
2. Find the values of and for = 30 , x = 10 kPa, y = 6 kPa, and xy = 4 kPa.
3. Show that if xy = 0 then the maximum value of occurs on planes such that = 45 . Determine
that maximum value in terms of x and y .