MSE3110 Deformation and

Fracture
Yield criteria
ISSUES TO ADDRESS
☼ Yield criteria
☼ Maximum Shear Stress (Tresca) Criterion
☼ Maximum Distortion Energy (Von Mises)
Criterion
 ILO:
 Understand yield criteria of ductile
metals and
 Apply them for designing components
against plastic yielding (CILOs 1, 4, 5)
 Yield (engineering)
 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.
 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
When does a Material Yield?
It is often difficult to precisely define yielding due
to the wide variety of stress–strain curves
exhibited by real materials. In addition, there are
several possible ways to define yielding.
Typical yield behavior for non-ferrous alloys.
 1: True elastic limit
 2: Proportionality limit
 3: Elastic limit
 4: Offset yield strength
When does a Material Yield?
True elastic limit (1): 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 (2): Up to this amount of
stress, stress is proportional to strain (Hooke's
law), so the stress-strain graph is a straight line,
and the gradient will be equal to the elastic
modulus of the material.
When does a Material Yield?
Elastic limit (yield strength; 3):
 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
 When does a Material Yield?
Offset yield point (proof stress; 4):
 This is the most widely used strength measure
of metals, and is found from the stress-strain
curve as shown in the figure.
 A plastic strain of 0.2% is usually used to
define the offset yield stress, although other
values may be used depending on the
material and the application.
 In some materials there is essentially no linear
region and so a certain value of strain is
defined instead.
 The offset value is given as a subscript, e.g.
Rp0.2=310 MPa.
 Although somewhat arbitrary, this method
 When does a Material Yield?
Upper yield point and lower

t
yield point:

ffec


ge
 Some metals, such as mild steel,

ct
effe

g ei n
reach an upper yield point

i ng
before dropping rapidly to a

ain

in a
i el d
lower yield point.

rs t r

Stra
ial y
Ove
 The material response is linear

Init
up until the upper yield point, (c)
but the lower yield point is used (b)
in structural engineering as a
conservative value. (a)
 Can you recall the reason for the

upper yield point?
• The upper yield point in mild steel
is due to the presence of C and N
as interstitial solute atoms in the Fe
matrix.
• These solute atoms tend to
segregate around the dislocations
in the crystal and can ‘pin’ the
dislocation.
• The effect is known as Cottrell
atmosphere
• Once the dislocation is released
from the solute atoms, y .
• If C or N atoms are allowed to
diffuse, they will ‘find’ dislocation
cores again and the upper yield
point appears again.
Necking – Instability in
Tension

Ideal plastic material

 No strain hardening

 Necking as soon as yielding occurs

Real material
 Undergoes strain hardening

 Load-bearing capacity of deformed region

increases, despite the reduction in area

 Necking occurs when the increase in stress

due to decrease in area is larger than the

increase in load bearing capacity
Necking – Instability in
Tension
Condition for instability
leading to necking is , i.e.
the load, P, reaching a
maximum.

(since volume remains

constant)
Necking – Instability in
Tension

𝜎, 𝜀: true stress, true strain

e: engineering strain

Considère’s construction
 Yield criteria
A yield criterion, often expressed as yield
surface, or yield locus, is a hypothesis
concerning the limit of elasticity under any
combination of stresses.
There are two interpretations of yield criterion:
 one is purely mathematical in taking a statistical
approach
 while other models attempt to provide a
justification based on established physical
principles.
Since stress and strain are tensor qualities, they
can be described on the basis of three principal
 Yield criteria
Principal stresses individually are not sufficient to
calculate the conditions required for the onset of
yield.
The analysis before assumes purely elastic
deformation and while this may be sufficient for
predicting the brittle fracture of the very ideal
material.
Further information is required to predict the
onset of plastic deformation in a ductile
material, as given in the following.
 Yield criteria
Maximum Shear Stress (Tresca) Criterion
A given material is safe as long as the maximum
shear stress applied is below the critical shear
stress of the material.
Maximum Distortion Energy (Von Mises)
Criterion
A component is safe as long as the distortion
energy (energy used in changing shape) per unit
volume is below the critical value.
 Yield criteria
There are other failure criteria such as
 maximum principal stress,
 maximum principal strain,
 maximum strain energy
 etc.
However, they are not used by any engineers
and thus are not introduced here.
Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
Maximum Shear Stress (Tresca) Criterion is
based on the observation that yielding in ductile
metal is caused by slipping or shearing along
certain crystal planes called slip planes.
Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
The essence of the Tresca yield criterion is
based on the understanding that plastic flow
takes place under the action of shear stresses.
The Criterion was proposed when Tresca (the
French scientist Henri Tresca) needed a way of
relating the onset of plastic flow in a complex
loading system to that in a simple loading
system such as tensile test.
 Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
According to this criterion, a given material is
safe as long as the maximum shear stress
applied is below the critical shear stress of the
material.
The critical shear stress is usually taken as half
the yield stress. (You’ll see why in a moment.)
This criterion is suitable for ductile materials
only.
 Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
The critical value is readily found from a tensile
test whence it can be used to predict the onset
of yield in a complex system.
Yielding occurs when the applied stress 1 is the
yield stress y (1 = y).
This gives the critical value used to predict
yielding in the complex system.
 Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
There are of course three “maximum” shear
stresses on the three principal planes in the two
different systems.
The value of each of these maxima is given by
half the difference between the principal stresses
associated with the plane.

The shear
stresses
are given:
 Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
As is seen, the largest of these three maximum
shear stresses is always on the 13 plane if 1 > 2
> 3.
The Tresca criterion
 y is
 1then
 3

2 2

or simply y = 1 - 3
Or,

where σmax and σmin are respectively the maximum and

minimum principal stress components.
 Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
Critical shear stress
Consider an object under a plane stress condition
Region Stress in ascending order tmax Critical condition

I  1   2   3 0 1   3 / 2  1  y
II  2   1   3 0  2   3 / 2  2  y
III  2   3  1  2  1 / 2  2   1  y 2
IV  2   3  1  2  1 / 2  2   1  y
III II
IV I 
 3   2  1  3  1 / 2 O 1
V  1   y V V III
VI  3  1   2  3   2 / 2  2   y V I V II
VII 1   3   2 1   2 / 2  1   2  y

VIII 1   3   2 1   2 / 2  1   2  y
Maximum Shear Stress Criterion
When the critical conditions are
drawn, the previous graph becomes:
σ2
σy

III II

IV I
σ1
-σy VIII σy
V

VI VII

-σy
Tresca–Guest yield surface
in 3D space of principal
stresses
 Von Mises Criterion
Maximum Distortion Energy (Von
Mises) Criterion :
A component is safe as long as the distortion
energy (energy used in changing shape) per unit
volume is below the critical value.
When a material is under the principal stress 1,
2, 3, the distortion energy per unit volume is
given by,1
𝑈 𝑠=
12 𝐺
[ ( 𝜎 1
2 2
− 𝜎 2 ) +( 𝜎 2 − 𝜎 3 ) + ( 𝜎 3 − 𝜎 1 )
2
]

where G is the shear modulus of the material.

 Von Mises Criterion
If a material has a yield stress of y as
determined by a simple tensile test, determine
the critical distortion energy of this material.
Now, s1 = sy; s2 = 0; s3 = 0. Hence,
Using this result, the Von Mises criterion can be
simplified as

2 y  1   2    2   3    3   1 
2 2 2 2

Using a safety factor (S. F.), the Von Mises

criterion becomes

( )
2
𝜎𝑦
= [ ( 𝜎 1 − 𝜎 2) + ( 𝜎 2 − 𝜎 3 ) + ( 𝜎 3 − 𝜎 1 ) ]
2 2 2
2
𝑆.𝐹 .
 Von Mises Criterion
For plane stress condition (say 3 = 0), the criterion
2
becomes an ellipse. 2

y y
Von Mises
criterion
O y 1 O y 1

 Correlates better with actual test data

 More convenient for mathematical analysis and computer
programming.
 It is a more ambitious criterion comparing to the Tresca
criterion. It can be clearly seen when the two criteria are
drawn on the same graph.
Huber–Mises–Hencky yield
surface in 3D space of
principal stresses
Summary
Tresca criteria (Max shear stress)

Von Mises’ criteria (Max distortion

energy)
2 y  1   2    2   3    3   1 
2 2 2 2

2

y

O y 1