The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials science as the stress at which a material

begins to deform plastically. Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed. Once the yield point is passed some fraction of the deformation will be permanent and non-reversible. In the three-dimensional space of the principal stresses (1,2,3), an infinite number of yield points form together a yield surface. Knowledge of the yield point is vital when designing a component since it generally represents an upper limit to the load that can be applied. It is also important for the control of many materials production techniques such as forging, rolling, or pressing. In structural engineering, this is a soft failure mode which does not normally cause catastrophic failure or ultimate failure unless it accelerates buckling.

Definition

Typical yield behavior for non-ferrous alloys. 1: True elastic limit 2: Proportionality limit 3: Elastic limit 4: Offset yield strength It is often difficult to precisely define yielding due to the wide variety of stressstrain curves exhibited by real materials. In addition, there are several possible ways to define yielding:[1] True elastic limit The lowest stress at which dislocations move. This definition is rarely used, since dislocations move at very low stresses, and detecting such movement is very difficult. Proportionality limit Up to this amount of stress, stress is proportional to strain (Hooke's law), so the stressstrain graph is a straight line, and the gradient will be equal to the elastic modulus of the material. Elastic limit (yield strength) Beyond the elastic limit, permanent deformation will occur. The lowest stress at which permanent deformation can be measured. This requires a manual load-unload procedure, and the accuracy is critically dependent on equipment and operator skill. For elastomers, such as rubber, the elastic limit is much larger than the proportionality limit. Also, precise strain measurements have shown that plastic strain begins at low stresses.

Yield point The point in the stress-strain curve at which the curve levels off and plastic deformation begins to occur Offset yield point (proof stress) When a yield point is not easily defined based on the shape of the stress-strain curve an offset yield point is arbitrarily defined. The value for this is commonly set at 0.1 or 0.2% of the strain. The offset value is given as a subscript, e.g., Rp0.2=310 MPa. High strength steel and aluminum alloys do not exhibit a yield point, so this offset yield point is used on these materials Upper yield point and lower yield point Some metals, such as mild steel, reach an upper yield point before dropping rapidly to a lower yield point. The material response is linear up until the upper yield point, but the lower yield point is used in structural engineering as a conservative value. If a metal is only stressed to the upper yield point, and beyond, Lders bands can develop. In practice, buckling is characterized by a sudden failure of a structural member subjected to high compressive stress, where the actual compressive stress at the point of failure is less than the ultimate compressive stresses that the material is capable of withstanding. For example, during earthquakes, reinforced concrete members may experience lateral deformation of the longitudinal reinforcing bars. This mode of failure is also described as failure due to elastic instability. Mathematical analysis of buckling makes use of an axial load eccentricity that introduces a moment, which does not form part of the primary forces to which the member is subjected. When load is constantly being applied on a member, such as column, it will ultimately become large enough to cause the member to become unstable. Further load will cause significant and somewhat unpredictable deformations, possibly leading to complete loss of load-carrying capacity. The member is said to have buckled, to have deformed.

In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material. Fatigue occurs when a material is subjected to repeated loading and unloading. If the loads are above a certain threshold, microscopic cracks will begin to form at the surface. Eventually a crack will reach a critical size, and the structure will suddenly fracture. The shape of the structure will significantly affect the fatigue life; square holes or sharp corners will lead to elevated local stresses where fatigue cracks can initiate. Round holes and smooth transitions or fillets are therefore important to increase the fatigue strength of the structure.

Poisson's ratio (), named after Simon Poisson, is the ratio, when a sample object is stretched, of the contraction or transverse strain (perpendicular to the applied load), to the extension or axial strain (in the direction of the applied load).

When a material is compressed in one direction, it usually tends to expand in the other two directions perpendicular to the direction of compression. This phenomenon is called the Poisson effect. Poisson's ratio (nu) is a measure of the Poisson effect. The Poisson ratio is the ratio of the fraction (or percent) of expansion divided by the fraction (or percent) of compression, for small values of these changes. Conversely, if the material is stretched rather than compressed, it usually tends to contract in the directions transverse to the direction of stretching. Again, the Poisson ratio will be the ratio of relative contraction to relative stretching, and will have the same value as above. In certain rare cases, a material will actually shrink in the transverse direction when compressed (or expand when stretched) which will yield a negative value of the Poisson ratio. The Poisson's ratio of a stable, isotropic, linear elastic material cannot be less than 1.0 nor greater than 0.5 due to the requirement that Young's modulus, the shear modulus and bulk modulus have positive values.[1] Most materials have Poisson's ratio values ranging between 0.0 and 0.5. A perfectly incompressible material deformed elastically at small strains would have a Poisson's ratio of exactly 0.5. Most steels and rigid polymers when used within their design limits (before yield) exhibit values of about 0.3, increasing to 0.5 for post-yield deformation (which occurs largely at constant volume.) Rubber has a Poisson ratio of nearly 0.5. Cork's Poisson ratio is close to 0: showing very little lateral expansion when compressed. Some materials, mostly polymer foams, have a negative Poisson's ratio; if these auxetic materials are stretched in one direction, they become thicker in perpendicular directions. Anisotropic materials can have Poisson ratios above 0.5 in some directions. Assuming that the material is stretched or compressed along the axial direction (the x axis in the diagram):

where

is the resulting Poisson's ratio,

is transverse strain (negative for axial tension (stretching), positive for axial compression) is axial strain (positive for axial tension, negative for axial compression).

Young's modulus
Young's modulus is a measure of the stiffness of an elastic material and is a quantity used to characterize materials. In solid mechanics, the slope of the stress-strain curve at any point is called the tangent modulus. The tangent modulus of the initial, linear portion of a stress-strain curve is called Young's modulus, also known as the tensile modulus. It is defined as the ratio of the uniaxial stress over the uniaxial strain in the range of stress in which Hooke's Law holds.[1] It can be experimentally determined from the slope of a stress-strain curve created during tensile tests conducted on a sample of the material. In anisotropic materials, Young's modulus may have different values depending on the direction of the applied force with respect to the material's structure. It is also commonly, but incorrectly, called the elastic modulus or modulus of elasticity, because Young's modulus is the most common elastic modulus used, but there are other elastic moduli measured, too, such as the bulk modulus and the shear modulus. Young's modulus is named after Thomas Young, the 19th century British scientist. However, the concept was developed in 1727 by Leonhard Euler, and the first experiments that used the concept of Young's modulus in its current form were performed by the Italian scientist Giordano Riccati in 1782, predating Young's work by 25 years

Stiffness is the resistance of an elastic body to deformation by an applied force along a given degree of freedom (DOF) when a set of loading points and boundary conditions are prescribed on the elastic body. It is an extensive material property.

Calculations
The stiffness, k, of a body is a measure of the resistance offered by an elastic body to deformation. For an elastic body with a single Degree of Freedom (for example, stretching or compression of a rod), the stiffness is defined as

where F is the force applied on the body is the displacement produced by the force along the same degree of freedom (for instance, the change in length of a stretched spring) In the International System of Units, stiffness is typically measured in newtons per metre. In English Units, stiffness is typically measured in pound force (lbf) per inch. Generally speaking, deflections (or motions) of an infinitesimal element (which is viewed as a point) in an elastic body can occur along multiple Degrees of Freedom (maximum of six Degrees of Freedom at a point). For example, a point on a horizontal beam can undergo both a vertical displacement and a rotation relative to its undeformed axis. When the Degrees of Freedom is M, for example, a M x M matrix must be used to describe the stiffness at the point. The diagonal terms in the matrix are the direct-related stiffnesses (or simply stiffnesses) along the same degree of freedom and the off-diagonal terms are the coupling stiffnesses between two different degrees of freedom (either at the same or different points) or the same degree of freedom at two different points. In industry, the term influence coefficient is sometimes used to refer to the coupling stiffness. It is noted that for a body with multiple Degrees of Freedom, Equation (1) generally does not apply since the applied force generates not only the deflection along its own direction (or degree of freedom), but also those along other directions (or Degrees of Freedom). For example, for a cantilevered beam, the stiffness at its free end is 12*E*I/L^3 rather than 3*E*I/L^3 if calculated with Equation (1). For a body with multiple Degrees of Freedom, to calculate a particular direct-related stiffness (the diagonal terms), the corresponding Degree of Freedom is left free while the remaining Degrees of Freedom should be constrained. Under such a condition, Equation (1) can be used to obtain the direct-related stiffness for the degree of freedom which is unconstrained. The ratios between the reaction forces (or moments) and the produced deflection are the coupling stiffnesses. The inverse of stiffness is compliance, typically measured in units of metres per newton. In rheology it may be defined as the ratio of strain to stress,[1] and so take the units of reciprocal stress, e.g. 1/Pa.

Rotational stiffness

A body may also have a rotational stiffness, k, given by

where M is the applied moment is the rotation In the SI system, rotational stiffness is typically measured in newton-metres per radian. In the SAE system, rotational stiffness is typically measured in inch-pounds per degree. Further measures of stiffness are derived on a similar basis, including: shear stiffness - ratio of applied shear force to shear deformation torsional stiffness - ratio of applied torsion moment to angle of twist

Relationship to elasticity
In general, elastic modulus is not the same as stiffness. Elastic modulus is a property of the constituent material; stiffness is a property of a structure. That is, the modulus is an intensive property of the material; stiffness, on the other hand, is an extensive property of the solid body dependent on the material and the shape and boundary conditions. For example, for an element in tension or compression, the axial stiffness is

where A is the cross-sectional area, E is the (tensile) elastic modulus (or Young's modulus), L is the length of the element. Similarly, the rotational stiffness is

where "I" is the moment of inertia, "n" is an integer depending on the boundary condition (=4 for fixed ends)

For the special case of unconstrained uniaxial tension or compression, Young's modulus can be thought of as a measure of the stiffness of a material.

Use in engineering
The stiffness of a structure is of principal importance in many engineering applications, so the modulus of elasticity is often one of the primary properties considered when selecting a material. A high modulus of elasticity is sought when deflection is undesirable, while a low modulus of elasticity is required when flexibility is needed.

Factor of safety.
Factor of safety (FoS), also known as safety factor (SF), is a term describing the structural capacity of a system beyond the expected loads or actual loads. Essentially, how much stronger the system is than it usually needs to be for an intended load. Safety factors are often calculated using detailed analysis because comprehensive testing is impractical on many projects, such as bridges and buildings, but the structure's ability to carry load must be determined to a reasonable accuracy. Many systems are purposefully built much stronger than needed for normal usage to allow for emergency situations, unexpected loads, misuse, or degradation.

Two definitions of factor of safety

There are two distinct uses of the factor of safety: One as a ratio of absolute strength (structural capacity) to actual applied load. This is a measure of the reliability of a particular design. The other use of FoS is a constant value imposed by law, standard, specification, contract or custom to which a structure must conform or exceed. Careful engineers refer to the first sense (a calculated value) as a factor of safety or, to be explicit, a realized factor of safety, and the second sense (a required value) as a design factor, design factor of safety or required factor of safety, but usage is inconsistent and confusing. The cause of much confusion is that reference books and standards agencies use the term factor of safety differently. Design Codes and Structural and Mechanical engineering textbooks often use the term to mean the fraction of total structural capability over that needed[1][2][3] (first sense). Many undergraduate Strength of Materials books use "Factor of Safety" as a constant value intended to be a minimum target for design[4][5][6] (second sense).

Calculating safety factors

There are several ways to compare the factor of safety for structures. All the different calculations fundamentally measure the same thing, how much extra load beyond what is intended a structure will actually take (or be required to withstand). The difference between the methods is the way in which the values are calculated and compared. Safety factor values can be thought of as a standardized way for comparing strength and reliability between systems. There is a near universal push towards conservatism in the calculation of safety factors, i.e. in the absence of highly accurate data, using the worst case configuration possible to make sure the system is adequate (to err on the side of caution).[citation needed]

Design factor and safety factor

The difference between the safety factor and design factor (design safety factor) is as follows: The safety factor is how much the designed part actually will be able to

withstand. The design factor is what the item is required to be able to withstand. The design factor is defined for an application (generally provided in advance and often set by regulatory code or policy) and is not an actual calculation, the safety factor is a ratio of maximum strength to intended load for the actual item that was designed. This may sound similar, but consider this: Say a beam in a structure is required to have a design factor of 3. The engineer chose a beam that will be able to withstand 10 times the load. The design factor is still 3, because it is the requirement that must be met, the beam just happens to exceed the requirement and its safety factor is 10. The safety factor should always meet or exceed the required design factor or the design is not adequate. Meeting the required design factor exactly implies that the design meets the minimum allowable strength. A high safety factor well over the required design factor sometimes implies "overengineering" which can result in excessive weight and/or cost. In colloquial use the term, "required safety factor" is functionally equivalent to the design factor. For ductile materials (e.g. most metals), it is often required that the factor of safety be checked against both yield and ultimate strengths. The yield calculation will determine the safety factor until the part starts to plastically deform. The ultimate calculation will determine the safety factor until failure. On brittle materials these values are often so close as to be indistinguishable, so is it usually acceptable to only calculate the ultimate safety factor. The use of a factor of safety does not imply that an item, structure, or design is "safe". Many quality assurance, engineering design, manufacturing, installation, and end-use factors may influence whether or not something is safe in any particular situation.

Design load being the maximum load the part should ever see in service.

Margin of safety
Many government agencies and industries (such as aerospace) require the use of a margin of safety (MoS or M.S.) to describe the ratio of the strength of the structure to the requirements. There are two separate definitions for the margin of safety so care is needed to determine which is being used for a given application. One usage of M.S. is as a measure of capacity like FoS. The other usage of M.S. is as a measure of satisfying design requirements (requirement verification). Margin of safety can be conceptualized (along with the reserve factor explained below) to represent how much of the structure's total capacity is held "in reserve" during loading. M.S. as a measure of structural capacity: This definition of margin of safety commonly seen in textbooks[7][8] basically says that if the part is loaded to the maximum load it should ever see in service, how many more loads of the same force can it withstand before failing. In effect, this is a measure of excess capacity. If the margin is 0, the part will not take any additional load before it fails, if it is negative

the part will fail before reaching its design load in service. If the margin is 1, it can withstand one additional load of equal force to the maximum load it was designed to support (i.e. twice the design load).

Margin of Safety = Factor of Safety 1

M.S. as a measure of requirement verification: Many agencies such as NASA[9] and AIAA[10] define the margin of safety including the design factor, in other words, the margin of safety is calculated after applying the design factor. In the case of a margin of 0, the part is at exactly the required strength (the safety factor would equal the design factor). If there is a part with a required design factor of 3 and a margin of 1, the part would have a safety factor of 6 (capable of supporting two loads equal to its design factor of 3, supporting six times the design load before failure). A margin of 0 would mean the part would pass with a safety factor of 3. If the margin is less than 0 in this definition, although the part will not necessarily fail, the design requirement has not been met. A convenience of this usage is that for all applications, a margin of 0 or higher is passing, one does not need to know application details or compare against requirements, just glancing at the margin calculation tells whether the design passes or not. Design Safety Factor = [Provided as requirement]

For a successful design, the realized Safety Factor must always equal or exceed the required Safety Factor (Design Factor) so the Margin of Safety is greater than or equal to zero. The Margin of Safety is sometimes, but infrequently, used as a percentage, i.e., a 0.50 M.S is equivalent to a 50% M.S. When a design satisfies this test it is said to have a "positive margin," and, conversely, a negative margin when it does not.

Reserve factor
A measure of strength frequently used in Europe is the Reserve Factor (RF). With the strength and applied loads expressed in the same units, the Reserve Factor is defined as: RF = Proof Strength / Proof Load RF = Ultimate Strength / Ultimate Load The applied loads have any factors, including factors of safety applied.

Choosing design factors

Appropriate design factors are based on several considerations, such as the accuracy of predictions on the imposed loads, strength, wear estimates, and the environmental effects to which the product will be exposed in service; the consequences of engineering failure; and the cost of over-engineering the component to achieve that factor of safety. For example, components whose failure could result in substantial financial loss, serious injury, or death may use a safety factor of four or higher (often ten). Non-critical components generally might have a design factor of two. Risk analysis, failure mode and effects analysis, and other tools are commonly used. Design factors for specific applications are often mandated by law, policy, or industry standards. Buildings commonly use a factor of safety of 2.0 for each structural member. The value for buildings is relatively low because the loads are well understood and most structures are redundant. Pressure vessels use 3.5 to 4.0, automobiles use 3.0, and aircraft and spacecraft use 1.2 to 3.0 depending on the application and materials. Ductile, metallic materials tend to use the lower value while brittle materials use the higher values. The field of aerospace engineering uses generally lower design factors because the costs associated with structural weight are high (e.g. an aircraft with an overall safety factor of 5 would probably be too heavy to get off the ground). This low design factor is why aerospace parts and materials are subject to very stringent quality control and strict preventative maintenance schedules to help ensure reliability. The usually applied Safety Factor is 1.5, but for pressurized fuselage it is 2.0, and for main landing gear structures it is often 1.25. In aerospace, there are additional requirements. Before and up to Limit Load, the structure may not have failed nor have permanent deformation. In excess of this, plastic deformation is allowed, but failure is not. Reaching the Ultimate Load (usually the Limit Load multiplied by the Safety Factor), the structure is allowed to fail. Civilian aircraft structures are required to meet both Limit Load and Ultimate Load criteria. For loading that is cyclical, repetitive, or fluctuating, it is important to consider the possibility of metal fatigue when choosing factor of safety. A cyclic load well below a material's yield strength can cause failure if it is repeated enough.

Pressure drop is a term used to describe the decrease in pressure from one point in a pipe or tube to another point downstream. "Pressure drop" is the result of frictional forces on the fluid as it flows through the tube. The frictional forces are caused by a resistance to flow. The main factors impacting resistance to fluid flow are fluid velocity through the pipe and fluid viscosity. The flow of any liquid or gas will always flow in the direction of least resistance(less pressure). Pressure drop increases proportional to the frictional shear forces within the piping network. A piping network containing a high relative roughness rating as well as many pipe fittings and joints, tube convergence, divergence, turns, surface roughness and other physical properties will affect the pressure drop. High flow velocities and / or high fluid viscosities result in a larger pressure drop across a section of pipe or a valve or elbow. Low velocity will result in lower or no pressure drop. [1] Pressure Drop can be calculated by 2 values the Reynolds Number, NRe, (determining laminar or turbulent flow) and the relative roughness of the piping, /D. NRe = Dv/ Where D is the pipe diameter in meters, v is the velocity of the flow in meters per second, is the density in kilograms per cubic meter, and is in kilograms per metersecond. The relative roughness of the piping is usually known and then these two values can be cross referenced. Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of water pressure above a geodetic datum.[1][2] It is usually measured as a water surface elevation, expressed in units of length, at the entrance (or bottom) of a piezometer. In an aquifer, it can be calculated from the depth to water in a piezometric well (a specialized water well), and given information of the piezometer's elevation and screen depth. Hydraulic head can similarly be measured in a column of water using a standpipe piezometer by measuring the height of the water surface in the tube relative to a common datum. The hydraulic head can be used to determine a hydraulic gradient between two or more points.

Head" in fluid dynamics

In fluid dynamics, head is a concept that relates the energy in an incompressible fluid to the height of an equivalent static column of that fluid. From Bernoulli's Principle, the total energy at a given point in a fluid is the energy associated with the movement of the fluid, plus energy from pressure in the fluid, plus energy from the height of the fluid relative to an arbitrary datum. Head is expressed in units of height such as meters or feet. The static head of a pump is the maximum height (pressure) it can deliver. The capability of the pump can be read from its Q-H curve (flow vs. height). Head is equal to the fluid's energy per unit weight. Head is useful in specifying centrifugal pumps because their pumping characteristics tend to be independent of the fluid's density. There are four types of head used to calculate the total head in and out of a pump:

Velocity head is due to the bulk motion of a fluid (kinetic energy).

Elevation head is due to the fluid's weight, the gravitational force acting on a column of fluid. Pressure head is due to the static pressure, the internal molecular motion of a fluid that exerts a force on its container. Resistance head (or friction head or Head Loss) is due to the frictional forces acting against a fluid's motion by the container.

Components of hydraulic head

A mass free falling from an elevation (in a vacuum) will reach a speed

when arriving at elevation z=0, or when we rearrange it as a head: where

g is the acceleration due to gravity

is called the velocity head, expressed as a length measurement. In a The term flowing fluid, it represents the energy of the fluid due to its bulk motion. The total hydraulic head of a fluid is composed of pressure head and elevation head.[1][2] The pressure head is the equivalent gauge pressure of a column of water at the base of the piezometer, and the elevation head is the relative potential energy in terms of an elevation. The head equation, a simplified form of the Bernoulli Principle for incompressible fluids, can be expressed as:

where

h is the hydraulic head (Length in m or ft), also known as the piezometric head. is the pressure head, in terms of the elevation difference of the water column
relative to the piezometer bottom (Length in m or ft), and z is the elevation at the piezometer bottom (Length in m or ft) In an example with a 400 m deep piezometer, with an elevation of 1000 m, and a depth to water of 100 m: z = 600 m, = 300 m, and h = 900 m. The pressure head can be expressed as:

where

P is the gauge pressure (Force per unit area, often Pa or psi), is the unit weight of water (Force per unit volume, typically Nm3 or lbf/ft), is the density of the water (Mass per unit volume, frequently kgm3), and g is the gravitational acceleration (velocity change per unit time, often ms2)
Fresh water head
The pressure head is dependent on the density of water, which can vary depending on both the temperature and chemical composition (salinity, in particular). This means that the hydraulic head calculation is dependent on the density of the water within the piezometer. If one or more hydraulic head measurements are to be compared, they need to be standardized, usually to their fresh water head, which can be calculated as:

where is the fresh water head (Length, measured in m or ft), and is the density of fresh water (Mass per unit volume, typically in kgm3)

Hydraulic gradient
The hydraulic gradient is a vector gradient between two or more hydraulic head measurements over the length of the flow path. It is also called the Darcy slope, since it determines the quantity of a Darcy flux, or discharge. A dimensionless hydraulic gradient can be calculated between two piezometers as:

where

i is the hydraulic gradient (dimensionless), dh is the difference between two hydraulic heads (Length, usually in m or ft),
and dl is the flow path length between the two piezometers (Length, usually in m or ft) The hydraulic gradient can be expressed in vector notation, using the del operator. This requires a hydraulic head field, which can only be practically obtained from a numerical model, such as MODFLOW. In Cartesian coordinates, this can be expressed as:

This vector describes the direction of the groundwater flow, where negative values indicate flow along the dimension, and zero indicates no flow. As with any other example in physics, energy must flow from high to low, which is why the flow is in the negative gradient. This vector can be used in conjunction with Darcy's law and a tensor of hydraulic conductivity to determine the flux of water in three dimensions.

Hydraulic head in groundwater

The distribution of hydraulic head through an aquifer determines where groundwater will flow. In a hydrostatic example (first figure), where the hydraulic head is constant, there is no flow. However, if there is a difference in hydraulic head from the top to bottom due to draining from the bottom (second figure), the water will flow downward, due to the difference in head, also called the hydraulic gradient.

Atmospheric pressure
Even though it is convention to use gauge pressure in the calculation of hydraulic head, it is more correct to use total pressure (gauge pressure + atmospheric pressure), since this is truly what drives groundwater flow. Often detailed observations of barometric pressure are not available at each well through time, so this is often disregarded (contributing to large errors at locations where hydraulic gradients are low or the angle between wells is acute.) The effects of changes in atmospheric pressure upon water levels observed in wells has been known for many years. The effect is a direct one, an increase in atmospheric pressure is an increase in load on the water in the aquifer, which increases the depth to water (lowers the water level elevation). Pascal first qualitatively observed these effects in the 17th century, and they were more rigorously described by the soil physicist Edgar Buckingham (working for the USDA) using air flow models in 1907.

Head loss
In any real moving fluid, energy is dissipated due to friction; turbulence dissipates even more energy for high Reynolds number flows. Head loss is divided into two main categories, "major losses" associated with energy loss per length of pipe, and "minor losses" associated with bends, fittings, valves, etc. The most common equation used to calculate major head losses is the DarcyWeisbach equation. Older, more empirical approaches are the Hazen-Williams equation and the Prony equation. For relatively short pipe systems, with a relatively large number of bends and fittings, minor losses can easily exceed major losses. In design, minor losses are usually estimated from tables using coefficients or a simpler and less accurate reduction of minor losses to equivalent length of pipe.