Stress (mechanics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighbouring particles of a continuous material exert on each other, while strain is the measure of the deformation of the material which is not a physical quantity . For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting an overhead weight, each particle in the bar pushes on the particles immediately below it. When a liquid is in a closed container under pressure, each particle gets pushed against by all the surrounding particles. The container walls and the pressure-inducing surface (such as a piston) push against them in (Newtonian) reaction. These macroscopic forces are actually the net result of a very large number of intermolecular forces and collisions between the particles in those molecules. Stress is frequently represented by a lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ). In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that neighbouring particles of a continuous material exert on each other, while strain is the measure of the deformation of the material which is not a physical quantity . For example, when a solid vertical bar is supporting an overhead weight, each particle in the bar pushes on the particles immediately below it. When a liquid is in a closed container under pressure, each particle gets pushed against by all the surrounding particles. The container walls and the pressure-inducing surface (such as a piston) push against them in (Newtonian) reaction. These macroscopic forces are actually the net result of a very large number of intermolecular forces and collisions between the particles in those molecules. Stress is frequently represented by a lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ). Strain inside a material may arise by various mechanisms, such as stress as applied by external forces to the bulk material (like gravity) or to its surface (like contact forces, external pressure, or friction). Any strain (deformation) of a solid material generates an internal elastic stress, analogous to the reaction force of a spring, that tends to restore the material to its original non-deformed state. In liquids and gases, only deformations that change the volume generate persistent elastic stress. However, if the deformation is gradually changing with time, even in fluids there will usually be some viscous stress, opposing that change. Elastic and viscous stresses are usually combined under the name mechanical stress. Significant stress may exist even when deformation is negligible or non-existent (a common assumption when modeling the flow of water). Stress may exist in the absence of external forces; such built-in stress is important, for example, in prestressed concrete and tempered glass. Stress may also be imposed on a material without the application of net forces, for example by changes in temperature or chemical composition, or by external electromagnetic fields (as in piezoelectric and magnetostrictive materials). The relation between mechanical stress, deformation, and the rate of change of deformation can be quite complicated, although a linear approximation may be adequate in practice if the quantities are small enough. Stress that exceeds certain strength limits of the material will result in permanent deformation (such as plastic flow, fracture, cavitation) or even change its crystal structure and chemical composition. In some branches of engineering, the term stress is occasionally used in a looser sense as a synonym of 'internal force'. For example, in the analysis of trusses, it may refer to the total traction or compression force acting on a beam, rather than the force divided by the area of its cross-section. Since ancient times humans have been consciously aware of stress inside materials. Until the 17th century, the understanding of stress was largely intuitive and empirical; and yet, it resulted in some surprisingly sophisticated technology, like the composite bow and glass blowing. Over several millennia, architects and builders in particular, learned how to put together carefully shaped wood beams and stone blocks to withstand, transmit, and distribute stress in the most effective manner, with ingenious devices such as the capitals, arches, cupolas, trusses and the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals. Ancient and medieval architects did develop some geometrical methods and simple formulas to compute the proper sizes of pillars and beams, but the scientific understanding of stress became possible only after the necessary tools were invented in the 17th and 18th centuries: Galileo Galilei's rigorous experimental method, René Descartes's coordinates and analytic geometry, and Newton's laws of motion and equilibrium and calculus of infinitesimals. With those tools, Augustin-Louis Cauchy was able to give the first rigorous and general mathematical model for stress in a homogeneous medium. Cauchy observed that the force across an imaginary surface was a linear function of its normal vector; and, moreover, that it must be a symmetric function (with zero total momentum). The understanding of stress in liquids started with Newton, who provided a differential formula for friction forces (shear stress) in parallel laminar flow.