Principal Stresses

Maximum Shear Stress

Mohr's Circle Consider the traction vector on the x-face as shown. For this
In this stack we will investigate additional features of stress. entire stack we will make an important limitation on our
To go straight to any of the topics listed above, click on the stress state, namely that it is 2-Dimensional. (This makes it
corresponding text. Choose "Stack Contents" from the possible to generate useful results without relying on results
"Navigation" menu to return to this page at any time. from linear algebra, which not all students have taken.) The
traction vector shown lies in the x-y plane, and we will
change the orientation of the block by rotating about the
z-axis only.

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We know that the traction vector on a given surface

depends on the orientation of the surface. We might
ask if we can find an orientation such that the traction
vector is parallel to the normal.

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 In this case it appears we have found such an
orientation. Note that for this orientation there
is no shear component.

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The normal component, σx', is equal in

magnitude to the traction vector and the
shear vanishes. Such stress components
are very important since they turn out to
be the maximum and minimum normal
components, and so we give them a special
name: Principal Stresses.
To calculate such stress components it is
necessary to determine the proper block By definition, the principal stresses occur on planes for which the shear
orientation. For this we will need the stress vanishes. Therefore, we can use this equation to solve for the θ for
stress transformation equation for shear. which τx'y' = 0.

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 The algebra is not difficult, and we can
obtain the relation between the principal
We now can calculate the orientation of the
orientation angle and the basic stress
principal plane, but we still need to
components as shown.
determine the corresponding stresses. For
this purpose we will use the remaining
stress transformation relations.

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These are the stress transformation equations from before.

We now need to do a little algebra…

First we add these two relations.

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 We can simplify the right hand side by
factoring. This can be simplified further to this
result. Let's clean up a little and see
what this means.

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This result states that regardless of the orientation of the stress

block, the sum of the normal components does not change. Since this
quantity does not vary with our point of view, we call it an invariant.
Such quantities are very important, since they provide a means of
capturing the important features of a physical quantity without …but those of you with a background in linear algebra might recognize this as the
reference to any particular coordinate system. For vectors, the determinant of the 2x2 matrix of the stress components. The relation above could be
important invariant is the length. For stress tensors there are actually verified by direct substitution into the transformation equations, but the algebra
three invariants, but in two dimensions we only need to use two of would get rather involved.
them. The first invariant is what we just calculated; the second we We can use these two invariants to find the principal stresses. In particular we
will state without proof… substitute the principal stress expressions on the left hand side.

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 We can simplify the above into a simple
By definition, we know that the shear stress is system of two equations and two unknowns.
zero in the principal directions.

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These equations can be solved for the unknowns, σ1

and σ2, in terms of the known quantities σx, σy, and τxy.
We substitute equation (i) into
equaiton (ii).

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 We now have a single equation for σ1. We can expand this
equation to put it into a recognizable form.
This is a standard quadratic equation.

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The solution can be obtained from the quadratic formula.

In fact, it turns out we get both σ1 and σ2 from this
quadratic equation.
Let's clean up a little and look at our result.

After reducing the term under the square root, we arrive at

what we have been persuing: an equation for calculating
principal stresses in terms of the basic stress components.

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 We have seen how to calculate
the principal normal stresses, but
what about maximum/minimum
Together with our previous equation for the principal shear stress?
direction, this provides a general means for calculating
principal stress information. It is not difficult to show that
the term in the square root is always positive, so it turns out
that for any stress state, we can find principal stresses and
directions; i.e. directions for which the shear stress vanishes.

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To determine a way of calculating the maximum shear stress in

terms of a given set of basic components,σx, σy, and τxy , we
begin with the stress transformation equation for shear.
Since this transformation equation can be used with respect to any
original coordinate system, we choose the principal system as our
reference system without loss of generality. This makes our
calculations easy; we just need to remember that any angle
measurements are made with respect to the principal axes rather
than the original x-y system. Thus, we introduce theta hat to
account for the necessary offset.

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 We already know from earlier work how to find the maximum of
something times the sine of 2 times an angle. This leads us to the
expression for the maximum shear above. We still need to express
this result in terms of σx, σy, and τxy, however. This can be done by means of our earlier relation between the principal
stresses and σx, σy, and τxy. Substituting this into the maximum shear
equation above gives the desired result.

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An alternative method for determining

principal stresses, the maximum shear stress
and the principal directions is to construct a
plot of all the stress component combinations
for a given set of σx, σy, and τxy. The
resulting plot is a circle as shown, called
Mohr's circle after Otto von Mohr, who first
Voilá! published these ideas.

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 To construct Mohr's circle for a given set of stresses,
Once the circle is constructed, it is simple
σx, σy, and τxy, we begin by laying out a set of axes as
to read off the maximum and minimum
shown. The only trick is to note that the shear axis
normal and shear stresses directly.
points down, not up. This is an arbitrary convention
The main advantages of Mohr's circle
that makes some later results come out a little easier.
are its pictorial nature and the fact that
you do not need to remember a bunch of
equations to construct it.

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… and then σy and τyx. We now need to

Next, we use the fact that the normal and shear components construct the appropriate circle passing
for every orientation lie on the circle, and so we plot the points through these points.
we know: first σx and τxy…

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 Given the diameter, it is
For Mohr's circle, points that correspond to faces straightforward to
90° apart (such as the x- and y-faces we have construct the circle.
plotted here) lie 180° apart on the circle. That is,
the two points we have plotted can be connected
to form the diameter of the circle.

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Now that we have the circle, we need The center of the circle is denoted
only simple geometry to obtain the desired σavg, and can be computed directly
information. Essentially we need the from the figure.
center and radius of the circle, from which
we can extract any other required
quantity.

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 We now need to compute the radius of
This gives the location of the circle's the circle, which as we saw earlier is equal
center (note the relation to the first to τmax. We can calculate this using
invariant we discussed earlier). simple right triangle relations.

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Substituting for σavg and taking

Using the Pythagorean theorem for the triangle shown gives the square root of both sides
the relation above. leads to this result. This is the
same result we arrived at earlier
for maximum shear stress.

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 We now need to calculate σ1 and σ2 as shown. Given the
center and radius of the circle, this is quite simple to do. We have this simple result.

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To determine the orientation angle

This equation can be determined from
corresponding to the principal stresses, we
the triangle shown. The direction of
use the relation shown on the figure. Note
the angle is as shown on the figure.
the factor of 2.

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 Although the equations below were
determined using Mohr's circle, in practice
it is easier to simply start from scratch
each time, and to use the numerical values
in the problem to construct the circle and
calculate the geometric properties.

Stress Transformation Examples

Problem solving techniques are best illustrated using an example

problem, as presented in a the stack "Stress Transformation Examples".
The important ideas from this stack are the basic notions of principal
stresses, maximum shear stresses, and Mohr's circle being a plot of
displaying the complete set of stress component/orientation combinations.

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