ELASTICITY

Elasticity
Elasticity of Composites
Viscoelasticity
Elasticity of Crystals (Elastic Anisotropy)
Part of

MATERIALS SCIENCE
& AALearners
LearnersGuide
Guide
ENGINEERING
AN INTRODUCTORY E-BOOK

Anandh Subramaniam & Kantesh Balani

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur- 208016
Email: anandh@iitk.ac.in, URL: home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh/E-book.htm

Elasticity: Theory, Applications and Numerics

Martin H. Sadd
Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (2005)

Revise modes of deformation, stress, strain and other basics (click here) before starting this chapter etc.

Let us start with some observations

When you pull a rubber band and release it, the band regains it original length.
It is much more difficult (requires more load) to extend a metal wire as compared to a
rubber string.
It is difficult to extend a straight metal wire; however, if it is coiled in the form of a
spring, one gets considerable extensions easily.
A rubber string becomes brittle when dipped in liquid nitrogen and breaks, when one tries
to extend the same.
A diver gets lift-off using the elastic energy stored in the diving board. If the diving board
is too compliant, the diver cannot get sufficient lift-off.
A rim of metal is heated to expand the loop and then fitted around a wooden wheel (of say
a bullock cart). On cooling of the rim it fits tightly around the wheel.

Click here to know about all the mechanisms by which materials fail

Elasticity
Elastic deformation is reversible deformation- i.e. when load/forces/constraints are released
the body returns to its original configuration (shape and size).
Elastic deformation can be caused by tension/compression or shear forces.
Usually in metals and ceramics elastic deformation is seen at low strains (less than ~10 3).
However, other materials can be stretched elastically to large strains (few 100%).
So elastic deformation should not be assumed to be small deformation!

The elastic behaviour of metals and ceramics is usually linear.

Linear
Elasticity

E.g. Al deformed at small

strains

Non-linear

E.g. deformation of
an elastomer like
rubber

Time dependent aspects of elastic deformation

In normal elastic behaviour (e.g. when small load is applied to a metal wire, causing a strain within elastic limit) it is
assumed that the strain is appears instantaneously.
Similarly when load beyond the elastic limit is applied (in an uniaxial tension test: Slide 7 ), it is
assumed that the plastic strain develops instantaneously. It is further assumed that the load
is applied quasi-statically (i.e. very slowly).
However, in some cases the elastic or plastic strain need not develop instantaneously.
Elongation may take place at constant load with time. These effects are termed Anelasticity
(for time dependent elastic deformation at constant load) and Viscoelasticity.
Creep is one such phenomenon, where permanent deformation takes place at constant load
(or stress). E.g. if sufficient weight is hung at the end of a lead wire at room temperature, it will elongate and finally fail.
Recoverable

Instantaneous

Elastic
Time dependent

Anelasticity

Deformation
Instantaneous
Plastic
Permanent

Time dependent

Viscoelasticity

Atomic model for elasticity

At the atomic level elastic deformation takes place by the deformation of bonds (change
in bond length or bond angle).
Let us consider the stretching of bonds (leading to elastic deformation).
Atoms in a solid feel an attractive force at larger atomic separations and feel a repulsive
force (when electron clouds overlap too much) at shorter separations. (Ofcourse, at very
large separations there is no force felt).
The energy and the force (which is a gradient of the energy field) display functional
behaviour as in the equations below*. This implies under a state of compressive stress the
atoms want to go apart and under tensile stress they want to come closer.

dU
F
dr

A B
U n m
r
r
Attractive

Repulsive

A,B,m,n constants
m>n

nA mB
F n 1 m 1
r
r
A' B'
F p q
r
r

* This is one simple form of interatomic potentials (also called Lennard-Jones potential, wherein m=12 and n=6).

The plots of these

functions is shown
in the next slide

 The plot of the inter-atomic potential and force functions show that at the equilibrium
inter-atomic separation (r0) the potential energy of the system is a minimum and force
experienced is zero.
In reality the atoms are undergoing thermal vibration about this equilibrium position. The
amplitude of vibration increases with increasing temperature. Due to the slight left-right
asymmetry about the minimum in the U-r plot, increased thermal vibration leads to an
expansion of the crystal.

Repulsive

A
B

rn rm
r

r0

r0

Attractive

Force (F)

Potential energy (U)

Repulsive
r0

A' B'
F p q
r
r
r

Attractive
Equilibrium separation between atoms

 Youngs modulus is the slope of the Force-Interatomic spacing curve (F-r curve), at the
equilibrium interatomic separation (r0).
In reality the Elastic modulus is 4th rank tensor (Eijkl) and the curve below captures one
aspect of it.

r0
For displacements around r0 Forcedisplacement curve is approximately linear
THE LINEAR ELASTIC REGION

Youngs modulus (Y / E)
Youngs modulus is proportional to
the ve slope of the F-r curve at r = r0

dF
Y
dr

dF d 2U
Y
2
dr
dr
Stress

Force

Near r0 the red line (tangent to the F-r curve at

r = r0)
coincides with the blue line (F-r) curve

Compression

Tension
strain

Stress-strain curves in the elastic region

Stress-strain curve for an elastomer

Due to efficient
filling of space

Stress

In metals and ceramics the elastic strains (i.e. the strains beyond which plastic deformation
sets in or fracture takes place*) are very small (~10 3). As these strains are very small it
does not matter if we use engineering stress-strain or true stress strain values (these concepts will
be discussed later). The stress-strain plot is linear for such materials.
Polymers (with special reference to elastomers) shown non-linear stress-strain behaviour in
the elastic region. Rotation of the long chain molecules around a C-C bond can cause
tensile elongation. The elastic strains can be large in elastomers (some can even extend a
few hundred percent), but the modulus (slope of the stress-strain plot) is very small.
Additionally, the behaviour of elastomers in compression is different from that in tension.

Tension
T due to uncoiling
of polymer chains
Strain

Compression

T > C

* Brittle ceramics may show no plastic deformation and may fracture after elastic deformation.

Other elastic moduli

We have noted that elastic modulus is a 4th rank tensor (with 81 components in general in
3D). In normal materials this is a symmetric tensor (i.e. it is sufficient to consider one set of
the off-diagonal terms).
In practice many of these components may be zero and additionally, many of them may
have the same value (i.e. those surviving terms may not be independent). E.g. for a cubic
crystal there are only 3 independent constants (in two index condensed notation these are
E11, E12, E44).
For an isotropic material the number of independent constants is only 2. Typically these are
chosen as E and (though in principle we could chose any other two as these moduli are
interrelated for a isotropic material). More explained sooner.
In a polycrystal (say made of grains of cubic crystal), due to average over all orientations,
the material behaves like an isotropic material. More about this discussed elsewhere. Mathematically the isotropic material
properties can be obtained from single crystal properties by Voigt or Reuss averaging.

In tensor notation

E.

ij Eijkl kl

G.
hydrodynamic K . volumetric

E Youngs modulus
G Shear modulus
K Bulk modulus
Poissons ratio

 When a body is pulled (let us assume an isotropic body for now), it will elongate along the
pulling direction and will contract along the orthogonal direction. The negative ratio of the
transverse strain (t) to the longitudinal strain (t) is called the Poissions ratio ().
In the equation below as B1 < B0, the term in square brackets [] in the numerator is ve
and hence, Poissions ratio is a positive quantity (for usual materials). I.e. usual materials
shrink in the transverse direction, when they are pulled.
The value of E, G and for some common materials are in the table (Table-E). Zero and
even negative Possions ratio have been reported in literature. The modulus of materials
expected to be positive, i.e. the material resists deformation and stores energy in the
deformed condition. However, structures and material-structures can display negative
stiffness (e.g. when a thin rod is pushed it will show negative stiffness during bulking
observed in displacement control mode).

B B0 / B0
t
1
L1 L0 / L0
l

t
E
E

G
K
l
2(1 )
3(1 2 )

Initial configuration is
represented by 0 in
subscript

Elastic properties of some common materials

Bonding and Elastic modulus

Materials with strong bonds have a deep potential energy well with a high curvature
high elastic modulus.
Along the period of a periodic table the covalent character of the bond and its strength
increase systematic increase in elastic modulus.
Down a period the covalent character of the bonding in Y.
On heating the elastic modulus decreases: on heating from 0 K M.P there is a decrease
of about 10-20% in modulus (i.e. Youngs modulus is not a sensitive function of T).

Along the period

Li

Be

Cdiamond

Cgraphite

Atomic number (Z)

Youngs Modulus (GN / m2)

11.5

289

440

1140

Down the row

Cdiamond

Si

Ge

Sn

Pb

Atomic number (Z)

14

32

50

82

Youngs Modulus (GN / m2)

1140

103

99

52

16

Anisotropy in the Elastic modulus

What is meant by anisotropy (click here: Slide 13)?

In a crystal the interatomic and inter-planar distance varies with direction this aspect can
be used to intuitively understand the origin of elastic anisotropy. We already know that
linear and planar densities depend on the specific choice (i.e. the [100] direction has different linear
CCP

density as compared to the [111]CCP and similarly, the (100)CCP has a different planar density as compared to (111)CCP).

In a elastically anisotropic material, stretching along certain directions can lead to

shearing.
Elastic anisotropy is especially pronounced in materials with
two kinds of bonds, e.g. in graphite E [10 10] = 950 GPa, E [0001] = 8 GPa
Two kinds of ordering along two directions, e.g. in Decagonal QC
E[100000]E[000001]

How to determine the elastic modulus?

The Youngs modulus (Y) of a isotropic material can be determined from the stress-strain diagram. But, this is
not a very accurate method, as the machine compliance is in series with the specimen compliance. The slope of
the stress-strain curve at any point is termed as the tangent modulus. In the initial part of the s-e curve this
measures the Youngs modulus. Other kinds of mechanical tests can also be used for the measurement of Y.
A better method to measure Y is using wave transmission (e.g. ultrasonic pulse echo transmission technique)
in the material. This is best used for homogeneous, isotropic, non-dispersive material (wherein, the velocity of
the wave does not change with frequency). Common polycrystalline metals, ceramics and inorganic glasses
are best suited to this method. Soft plastics and rubber cannot be characterized by this method due to high
dispersion, attenuation of sound wave and non-linear elastic properties. Porosity and other internal defects can
affect the measurement.
The essence of the ultrasound technique is to determine the longitudinal and shear wave velocity of sound in
the material (symbols: vl vs). Y and Poissons ratio () can be determined using the formulae as below.

Note again that it is not a good idea to calculate Youngs modulus for s-e plot
Peak
Stress

193.
0

MPa

Peak
Load

5.83

kN

v
1 2 t
vl

v
2 2 t
vl

vl2 (1 )(1 2 )
Y
(1 )
density

What is meant by
anisotropy?
Anisotropy implies direction dependence of a given property. An isotropic material has the
same value of a property along all directions.
Neumanns principle states that symmetry of a property will be equal to or greater than the
point group symmetry of the crystal. Cubic crystals (with 4/m 3 2/m) symmetry are
isotropic with respect to optical properties.
Amorphous materials are isotropic. Polycrystalline materials with random orientation of
grains are also isotropic. When such a polycrystalline material is plastically deformed, e.g.
by rolling, the material develops crystallographic texture (preferential orientation of the
grains) and this can lead to anisotropy.
Two important origins of anisotropy are: (i) crystalline, (ii) geometry of sample (shape).
Couple of effects of crystalline anisotropy: (i) if an electric field is applied along a
direction, the current may flow along a different direction; (ii) if a body is pulled, it may
shear in addition to being elongated.

Funda Check

Material dependent

Elastic modulus

Geometry dependent

Stiffness

Property

Elastic modulus in design

In many applications the elastic properties of the material is the main one to be considered.
However, other factors and properties should also be taken into account.
More than the modulus, it is the stiffness, which comes into focus as a design parameter.
Stiffness (as we have noted) of a structure is its ability to resist elastic deformation
(deflection) on loading depends on the geometry of the component. Spring steel (e.g. high carbon
steel with Si, Mn & Cr) will be characterized by its elastic modulus. In the form of the coil the spring (a structure with a certain geometry)
shows more elongation for the same load and stiffness is the relevant property of the spring in design.

In many applications high modulus in conjunction with good ductility should be chosen
(good ductility avoids catastrophic failure in case of accidental overloading)
Covalently bonded materials (e.g. diamond has a high E (1140 GPa)) in spite of their high
modulus are rarely used in engineering applications as they are brittle (poor tolerance to
cracks- for more on this refer to chapter on fracture). Ionic solids are also very brittle.

Ionic solids

NaCl

MgO

Al2O3

TiC

Silica glass

Youngs Modulus (GN / m2)

37

310

402

308

70

METALS
Metals are used in multiple engineering applications due to a combination of properties
they possess: (i) reasonable elastic modulus, (ii) good ductility, (iii) ability to be alloyed
to give good combination of properties, (iv) amenable to many types of fabrication
techniques (casting, forging, extrusion, etc.), (v) good electrical and thermal conductivity,
etc. The main issue with metals is often many of them have poor oxidation and corrosion
resistance and not so good tolerance to high temperatures.
Metals of the First transition series posses a good combination of ductility & modulus
(200 GPa). Second & third transition series have an even higher modulus, but their higher
density is a shortcoming.
POLYMERS
Polymers are light weight and have become universal. However, they have a low modulus
dependent and cannot withstand high temperatures. They have a poor wear resistance as
well.
The nature of secondary bonds (Van der Walls / hydrogen) is responsible for their low
modulus. Further aspects which determine the modulus of polymers are:
(i) presence of bulky side groups,
(ii) branching in the chains
Unbranched polyethylene E = 0.2 GPa,
Polystyrene with large phenyl side group E = 3 GPa,
3D network polymer phenol formaldehyde E = 3-5 GPa
(iii) Extent of cross-linking (more cross-linking give rise to higher stiffness).

Increasing the modulus of a material

The modulus of a metal can be increased by suitable alloying.
E is a structure (microstructure) insensitive property and this implies that grain size,
dislocation density, etc. do not play an important role in determining the elastic modulus of
a material.
One of the important strategies to increase the modulus of a material is by forming a
hyrbrid/composite with an elastically harder (stiffer) material. E.g. TiB 2 is added to Fe to
increase the modulus of Fe.
COMPOSITES
A hard second phase (termed as reinforcement) can be added to a low E material to
increase the modulus of the base material. The second phase can be in the form of
particles, fibres, laminates, etc.
Typically the second phase though harder is brittle and the ductility is provided by the
matrix. If the reinforcement cracks the propagation of the crack is arrested by the matrix.

Laminate
composite

Aligned fiber
composite

Click here to know more about hybrids

Particulate
composite
Hybrids are designed to improve certain properties of monolithic materials

Modulus of a composite
The modulus of the composite is between that of the matrix and the reinforcement.
Let us consider two extreme cases:
(A) isostrain the matrix and the reinforcement (say long fibres) are under identical strain.
(B) isostress the matrix and fibre are under identical stress.
Let the composite be loaded in uniaxial tension and the volume fraction of the fibre be V f
(automatically the volume fraction of the matrix is Vm = (1 Vf)).

Ecisostrain E f V f EmVm
Isostrain

Isostress

1
Ecisostress

Vf

Vm

E f Em

 The modulus of a real composite will lie between these two extremes (usually closer to
isostrain). The modulus of the composite will depend on the shape of the reinforcement and
the nature of the interface (e.g. in a long aligned fibre composite having a perfectly bonded
interface with no slippage will lead to isostrain conditions.
Purely from a modulus perspective, a larger volume fraction will give a higher modulus;
however, ductility and other considerations typically limit the volume fraction of
reinforcement in a composite to about 30%.
Voigt averaging
Under iso-strain conditions [m = f = c]
c
f f
m m
I.e. ~ resistances in series configuration

E E V E V
V f Vm
1

Ec E f Em

Under iso-stress conditions [m = f = c]

I.e. ~ resistances in parallel configuration
Usually not found in practice
Reuss averaging

Ec

in
a
r
t
s
Iso

Iso

Em
A

Ef
ss
e
str

Volume fraction
B

For a given fiber fraction f, the modulii of

various conceivable composites lie between an
upper bound given by isostrain condition
and a lower bound given by isostress condition

Elasticity of Single Crystals and Anisotropy

For small stress, strain is proportional (linearly varies with) strain Hookes law.
The proportionality constants are 4th order (rank) tensors.

Tensor form

Hookes law

ij Cijkl kl

ij Sijkl kl

Number of components of Cijkl (or Sijkl)

in most general case (in practice the number
of components reduces considerably):
2D: 2222 = 16, (i = 1,2)
3D: 3333 = 81 , (i = 1,2,3)

Usage-1

Usage-2

Dimensions

S (or s)

Elastic Compliance constant

Elastic Modulus

(N/m2)1 [stress1]

C (or c)

Elastic Stiffness constant

Elastic Constant (Youngs modulus)

(N/m2) [stress]

What does the existence of these Cijkl components physically mean?

If we apply just one component of stress (say 11), this in general will produce not only 11
but also other components of strain (which other components will depend on symmetry of
the crystal- which we shall consider shortly). A glimpse of this we have already seen (in the
topic on understanding stress and strain) if we pull a cylinder along y-direction, it will contract along the
x-direction 11 exists (apart from elongation in the y-direction 22).
But, this may not be the only other strain produced.
2D

11 C111111 C111212
C1121 21 C1122 22
3D

11 C111111 C111212 C111313

C1121 21 C1122 22 C1133 33
C1131 31 C1132 32 C1133 33

This implies that the body may shear also (12 = 21 exists). This occurs due
to anisotropy in the crystal.
So (in general) a bar: might shear if pulled (in addition to elongating)
may twist if bent (in addition to bending)
may bend if twisted (in addition to twisting).

 We saw that a single stress component 11 may be related to many strains.

Similarly, many stress components may give rise to a single strain (11).

11 S1111 11 S1112 12
2D
S1121 21 S1122 22
There are 4 such equations
(for each component ij)

3D

11

S1111 11 S1112 12 S1113 13

S1121 21 S1122 22 S1123 23
S1131 31 S1132 32 S1133 33

There are 9 such equations

No of independent components of Cijkl and Sijkl

The total number of expected components are: 2D: 2222 = 16, (i = 1,2);
3D: 3333 = 81 , (i = 1,2,3). But, not all of these are independent.
Cijkl = Cijlk (also, Sijkl = Sijlk) Cijkl = Cjikl (also, Sijkl = Sjikl)
only 36 of the 81 components are independent (for even the most general crystal)*.
From energy arguments it can further be seen that: Cijkl = Cklij (also, Sijkl = Sklij)*
of the 36 components only 21 survive (even for the crystal of the lowest symmetry i.e. triclinic crystal).
Given that crystals can have higher symmetry than the triclinic crystal, the number of
independent components of Cijkl (or Sijkl) may be significantly reduced.
All cubic crystals (irrespective of their point group symmetry) have only 3 independent
components of Cijkl (or Sijkl) these are C1111, C1122, C2323.
This is further reduced in the case of isotropic materials to 2 independent constants (C1111,
C1122). Usually, these independent constants are written as E & .
Hence, for second rank tensor properties (like magnetic susceptibility, ij) cubic
crystals are isotropic; but, not for forth rank tensor properties like Elastic
Stiffness.
* The reasoning is postponed for later.

 1011 N/m2
Structure
BCC

DC

NaCl type

C11

C12

C44

Li

0.135 0.114

0.088

8.4

Na

0.074 0.062

0.042

7.2

0.037 0.031

0.019

607

10.20

2.50

4.92

1.3

Si

1.66

0.64

0.80

1.6

Ge

1.30

0.49

0.67

1.7

NaCl

0.485 0.125

0.127

0.7

KCl

0.405 0.066

0.063

0.37

RbCl

0.363 0.062

0.047

0.31

Anisotropy factory (A)

2C44
A
C11 C12

A > 1 <111> direction stiffest

A < 1 <100> direction stiffest