3.

GENERAL APPROACH TO SOLVING STRESS PROBLEMS

There are two main categories of stress problem, one is called statically determinate and the other
statically indeterminate.
3.1

Statically determinate stress systems

The stresses within a body can be calculated purely from the conditions of equilibrium of the applied
loading and the internal forces.
Solving statically determinate problems

3.2

Draw a free-body diagram of the system (or part of the system) including the known forces
and reactions.
Apply equilibrium conditions to the body: Fi = 0, Mi = 0
In problems where the stress is not constant, consider an element within the system, apply
equilibrium conditions to the element.
Apply stress-strain relation
Statically indeterminate stress systems

If a problem cannot be solved by equilibrium statements alone, it is then described as statically

indeterminate
There are three basic concepts that are essential for the solution of statically indeterminate problems:
a)

Equilibrium

The equations of the equilibrium of forces: external (applied), internal (as a function of stress and strain);
moments and couples.
b)

Compatibility of Displacements

The equations describing the geometry of deformation or compatibility of displacements

c)

Stress-strain relations

Relations between load and deformation /stress and strain e.g. Hookers law.

Worked example1:
1.
A steel strut of rectangular section is made up of two lengths as shown below. The first, 150 mm
long, has breadth 40 mm and depth 50 mm; the second, 100 mm long, is 25 mm square. If E = 220 GN/m2,
calculate the compression of the strut under a load of 100 kN. (0.107 mm)
Solution: this problem concerns the stress in non-uniform cross-sections
Worked example 2
A concrete column is reinforced with steel bars and carries a load of 20 tones, the overall cross-sectional
area of the column is 0.1m2 and the steel reinforcement accounts for 3 per cent of this area. Find the stress
taken by the concrete. If the length of the column is 4 m, how much does it shorten? Take E for steel as
200GNm-2 and E for concrete as 20GNm-2.
20 T

Solution: this is a compound bar problem. Let F, Fs and Fc be the forces carried out by
reinforced concrete, steel bars and concrete respectively:

Fs

Fc