CHAPTER 3

Stress - Strain Relation

Plane stress problems

The thin plates subject to forces in their plane only, fall under this category of the
problems. Fig. 2.6 shows a typical plane stress problem. In this, there is
Plane Strain Problems
A long body subject to significant lateral forces but very little longitudinal forces falls under this category
of problems. Examples of such problems are pipes, long strip footings, retaining walls, gravity dams, tunnels,
etc. (refer Fig. 2.7). In these problems, except for a small distance at the ends, state of stress is represented by
any small longitudinal strip. The displacement in longitudinal direction (z-direction) is zero in typical strip.
Hence the strain components,
Axi symmetric problems
 Axi-symmetric structures are those which can be generated by rotating a line or curve
about an axis. Cylinders (refer Fig. 2.8) are the common examples of axisymmetric structures. If
such structures are subjected to axisymmetric loadings like uniform internal or external
pressures, uniform self weight or live load uniform over the surface, there exists symmetry about
any axis. The advantage of symmetry may be made use to simplify the analysis.
In these problems cylindrical coordinates can be used advantageously. Because of
symmetry, the stress components are independent of the angular (θ ) coordinate. Hence all
derivatives with respect to θ vanish i.e. in these cases.

Hence there are only four nonzero components. The strain displacement relations for these
components are

Two Dimensional Elements

 We need two dimensional elements to solve two dimensional problems. Common two
dimensional problems in stress analysis are plane stress, plane strain and plate problems. Two
dimensional elements often used is three noded triangular element shown in Fig. 4.2. It has the
distinction of being the first and most used element. These elements are known as Constant
Strain Triangles (CST) or Linear Displacement Triangles.

Six noded and ten noded triangular elements (Fig. 4.3) are also used by the analysts. Six noded
triangular element is known as Linear Strain Triangle (LST) or as Quadratic Displacement
Triangle. Ten noded

triangular elements are known as Quadratic Strain Triangles (QST) or Cubic Displacement
Triangles. One can think of trying the use of still higher order triangular elements like Cubic
Strain Triangles and Quartic Strain Triangles.

Determine the shape functions for the Constant Strain Triangle (CST). Use polynomial functions.

Solution: Figure 5.7 shows a typical CST element. Let the nodal variables be u1, u2, u3, v1, v2 and
v3
i.e.,
From the consideration of compatibility and completeness the following displacement model is
selected.

Where A is the area of triangle with vertices at (x1, y1), (x2, y2) and (x3, y3) i.e., the area of the element.
Iso parametric formulation
We have seen that in the finite element analysis with isoparametric elements, shape
functions are used for defining the geometry as well as displacements. If the shape functions
defining the boundary and displacements are the same, the element is called as isoparametric
element.
Jacobian matrix
It relates derivative of the function in local coordinate system to derivative in global
coordinate system. In case of three dimensional problems it is given by

Element Aspect Ratio

The shape of the element also affects the accuracy of analysis. Defining the aspect ratio
as ratio of largest to smallest size in an element, the conclusion of many researchers is aspect
ratio should be as close to unity as possible. For a two dimensional rectangular element, the
aspect ratio is conveniently defined as length to breadth ratio. To study the effect of aspect ratio
on the accuracy of results, Desai and Abel analyzed a beam with 12 elements of different aspect
ratios as shown in Figs. 10.7 and 10.8 shows the plot of inaccuracy of the displacement verses
the aspect ratio. From this it can be concluded that the aspect ratio closer to unity yields better
results.
Use of symmetry
Wherever there is symmetry in the problem it should be made use. By doing so lot of
memory requirement is reduced or in other words we can use more elements (refined mesh) for
the same capacity of computer memory. When symmetry is to be used, it is to be noted that at
right angles to the line of symmetry displacement is zero.

BEAM ELEMENT
Introduction
Beam element has six degrees of freedom at each node

Beam element is a slender structure

Has uniform cross section.
 The element is unsuitable for structures that have complex geometry, holes, and points of
stress concentration.
The stiffness constant of a beam element is derived by combining the stiffness constants of a
beam under pure bending, a truss element, and a torsion bar.
A beam element can represent a beam in bending, a truss element, and a torsion bar.
In FEA it’s a common practice to use beam elements to represent all or any of these three
loads.

Derivation of Stiffness Equation for a Beam Element Under Pure Bending in 2-D

A beam, under pure bending (without axial loads or torsion loads), has two-degrees of freedom
at any point.
A beam element in pure bending has a total of four degrees of freedom, two at each node.
The size of the stiffness matrix of a beam element has the size 4 x 4.
Stiffness matrix equation is derived using the Stiffness Influence Coefficient Method.
For a two-node beam element, there are two deflections and two rotations, namely, v1, θ1, v2,
and θ2.
Force and influence coefficient relationship is established by setting each of the four
deflection values to unity, with the remaining deflection values equal to zero. The procedure
follows.
Consider a beam element, loaded in such a way that it has the deflection values:

The above deflections can be produced by a combination of load conditions, shown in

figure 4.4. The deflection relationships for loading can be found in any Machine Design
Handbook, and is given as,
Applying these relationships to the beam, we get,

From the above Figures,

 Writing equations (A) through (D) in a matrix form we get,

Using a similar procedure and setting the following deflection

values:
we get,

Similarly, setting vj = 1 and , θj = 1, respectively, and keeping all other deflection values to zero,
we get the final matrix as,

Note that, the first term on the RHS of the above equation is the stiffness matrix and the
second term is the deflection. In the case where deflections are other than unity, the above
equation will provide an element equation for a beam (in bending), which can be written as,
The above equation can be written in a more solution friendly form as,

The above equation is the equation of a beam element, which is under pure bending load (no
axial or torsion loads).
The stiffness matrix is a 4 x 4, symmetric matrix.
Using this equation, we can solve problems in which several beam elements are connected in
an uni-axial direction.
The assembly procedure is identical to the truss elements.
However, if the beam elements are oriented in more than one direction, we will have to first
transform the above equation into a global stiffness matrix equation (analogues to the
procedure used for truss elements).
For a beam element, transformation of a local stiffness matrix into a global equation involves
very complex trigonometric relations.
Worked examples
Example 1