Appendix A

Review of solid mechanics

Contents
A.1 Introduction...............................................................................................
A.2 Concept of stress ......................................................................................
A.3 Equations of equilibrium in a cylindrical system ..............................
A.4 Principal stresses ......................................................................................
A.5 Strain ..........................................................................................................
A.6 Stressstrain relations ..............................................................................
A.7 Elastic plane problems ............................................................................
A.7.1 Plane strain....................................................................................
A.7.2 Plane stress....................................................................................
A.7.3 Stress function formulation ........................................................
A.8 Plasticity.....................................................................................................

A.1 Introduction
In order to understand the equations in pressure vessel design, it is
important to go over some of the basics of solid mechanics. Although it is
essential primarily to learn these concepts developed in the classical
theories of plates and shells, for the sake of completeness we shall include
the concepts of stress, strain, and constitutive relationships and move over
to the theories of elasticity and plasticity.
Before we move on it is important to realize that a body or a structure
like that of a pressure vessel is a deformable one. As such the mechanics of
such a body would involve deformations being set up as a result of a system
of applied forces. The systems of forces that may act on a body are body
forces (acting along the entire volume) and surface forces (acting along the
external surface of the body). Within the domain of body forces in pressure
vessels, we can talk about gravity (dead weight) and seismic loads. As far as
the surface forces are concerned, we can mention fluid pressure which is
what a pressure vessel is primarily designed for. Other surface forces might

Copyright 2005 by CRC Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 include contact forces due to preload in bolted joints. Under the action of
body and surface forces, the body is in equilibrium.

A.2 Concept of stress

If we consider a straight rod of cross-sectional area, A, subjected to a tensile
load, F. There the quantity F/A is called the stress,
. This concept is
generalized to the concept of stress at a point. Let us consider a section of a
body subject to body forces and surface forces. Figure A.1 shows a cutaway
section through the body. This section contains a small area A and is
oriented with an outward normal n.
The internal force F is resolved into a normal component Fn and an
in-plane component Fi. The normal stress and the shear stress are given by

fn

lim
A!0 A

fi
lim A:1
A!0 A

The shear stress may be further resolved into two in-plane components
(orthogonal to each other).
Now consider at each point O in the body of Figure A.2, three mutually
perpendicular planes, the x-plane (or x1), the y-plane (or x2), and the z-plane
(or x3). Across each plane we have a normal component, which for one
plane will be denoted as
11 and the two in-plane components of the shear
as 1,2 and 1,3. Note that the first subscript refers to the plane while the
second refers to the direction of the stress component. Note that for the face
with outward normal in the negative x1 direction (this left face) the
direction of the components 13 and 12 are reversed from that of the

Figure A.1 Normal and shear stresses.

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 Figure A.2 Stress components.

positive x1 face. The force equilibrium for the differential parallelepiped

element leads to

@
1;1 @ 2;1 @ 3;1

0
@x1 @x2 @x3
@ 1;2 @
2;2 @ 3;2
0
@x1 @x2 @x2
@ 1;3 @ 2;3 @
3;3
0 A:3
@x1 @x2 @x3

The moment equilibrium leads to 1,2 2,1, 1,3 3,1, 2,3 3,2.

A.3 Equations of equilibrium in a cylindrical system

Figure A.3 shows a differential element of a rotationally symmetric three-
dimensional body in a cylindrical coordinate system.
The stress tensor in cylindrical coordinate system is given by

2 3

r r rz
4 r
 z 5 A:5
zr z
z

Force equilibrium in the r, , and z directions gives

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 Figure A.3 Stress components in a rotationally symmetric body.

@
r @ z 1 @ r
r 

0
@r @z r @ r
@ r 1 @ r @ z 2 r
0
@r r @ @z r
@ rz 1 @ z @ z 2
z rz
0 A:6
@r r @ @z @z r

For situations involving axial symmetry, r z 0 and z z 0

and there is no dependence on . This gives

@
r @ zr
r 

0
@r @z r
@ rz @
z rz
0 A:7
@r @z r

A.4 Principal stresses

For any plane passing through a point the stress resultant in general
possesses a normal stress component and two shear stress components. We
would like to investigate whether there are planes for which there are no

Copyright 2005 by CRC Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 shear stresses. Such planes are called principal planes, and the normal
stresses along those planes are called principal stresses.
The three principal stresses can be found by solving the following cubic
equation:

3  I
2 II
 III 0 A:8

where

I 
1;1
2;2
3;3

2 2 2
II
1;1
2;2
2;2
3;3
3;3
1;1  1;2  2;3  3;1


1;1 1;2 1;3 A:9



III 2;1
2;2 2;3


3;1 3;2
2;3

I, II, and III are stress invariants, because their values do not change with
the rotations of the frame of reference. If we derive the roots of the Eq. (A.8)
by
1 ;
2 ;
3 , then

I
1
2
3

II
1
2
2
3
3
1

III
1
2
3 A:10

A.5 Strain
If we consider a straight rod of length l and when a load is applied the
length is increased by l. Then the ratio of l/l is called the strain .
Looking at a two-dimensional deformation pattern, for a rectangle ABCD, is
shown in Figure A.4. The two dimensional strain components are defined
as

@u
"1;1
@x1
@v
"2;2
@x2
 
@u @v
1;2 2"1;2 A:11
@x2 @x1

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 Figure A.4 Strain components in two dimensions.

Generalizing the concept to the three-dimensional case, where u, v, and

w are the displacements in x, y, and z directions, the strain tensor
components can be represented as

 
@u 1 @u @v
"1;1 "1;2
@x1 2 @x2 @x1
 
@v 1 @u @w
"1;1 "1;1
@x2 2 @x3 @x1
 
@w 1 @v @w
"1;1 "1;1 A:12
@x3 2 @x3 @x2

In a cylindrical coordinate system the strain components (or strain

displacement relationships) as given by (where ur ; u ; uz are displacements
in r, , and z directions):

 
@ur 1 @ur @u u
"r r 
@r r @ @r r
ur @u 1 @uz
" z
r @z r @
@uz @ur @uz
"z zr A:13
@z @z @r

For an axially symmetric case, we have u 0 and no dependence on .

This gives

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 @ur
"r
r# 0
@r
u
" r
#z 0
r
@w @ur @uz
"z
rz A:14
@z @z @r

Similar to stresses, there are planes along which there are only normal
strains, and no shear strains. Identical relationships such as those derived
for principal stresses in Eqs. (A.8), (A.9), and (A.10) can be obtained for
principal strains.

A.6 Stressstrain relations

For a three-dimensional state of stress, the strain components are related to
stress components by the following relationships. Note these are for the
ideal case of a linear elastic material with isotropy and homogeneity, for
which two material constraints are needed: E, the elastic modulus, and ,
Poissons ratio.

1

"1;1 1;1
 2;2 3;3
E
1

"2;2 
 1;1 3;3
E 2;2
1

"3;3 3;3
 1;1 2;2
E
1
"1;2 
E 1;2
1
"2;3 
E 2;3
1
"1;2  A:15
E 3;1

A.7 Elastic plane problems

This approach is relevant to structures commonly used in pressure vessel
construction. What this means is that the problem can be treated as a two-
dimensional situation, wherein the stress or the strain components at every
point in the body are functions only of the reference coordinates parallel to
that plane. For example, a long, thick-walled cylinder subjected to internal
pressure can be treated as a plane elastic problem.

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 Plane elastic problems can be formulated either as a plane stress or a
plane strain one. For either one, the solutions are usually developed in
terms of a stress function.

A.7.1 Plane strain

A state of plane strain exists with respect to the xy plane when "x,  yz, and
 zx are identically zero and the remaining strain components are functions
of x and y only and are

@u @u @v @u
"x ; " and xy A:16
@x y @y @x @y

It may be shown further that w 0, and u and v are functions of x and y

alone.
The equilibrium equations from (A.3) are then given by

@
x @ xy
0
@x @y
@
xy @
y
0 A:17
@x @y

and
x,
y, and xy are functions of x and y only.

The stressstrain relationship using Eq. (A.15):

1h  i
"x
x  
y
z A:18a
E
1h i
"x
y  
x
z A:18b
E
1h  i
"x
x  
y
z A:18c
E
21 
xy 2"xy xy A:18d
E
21 
xy 2"yz yz A:18e
E
21 
zx 2"zz zx A:18f
E

Note that "z 0,  yz 0 and  zx 0. From Eq. (A.18c) therefore, we have

 

x 
y
z

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 Substituting the above in Eqs. (A.18a) and (A.18b) we have

1
h
i
"x x

x y
E
1
h
i
"y y

x y
E
21

xy xy A:19
E

A.7.2 Plane stress

A state of plane stress exists with respect to xy plane when  x,  yz and  yz
are zero, and  x,  y and  xy are functions of x and y only. The equilibrium
equations are given by (A.17) for the x and y directions. In this case,
however,  x is zero, but  z is nonzero. The strain displacement relations are
the same as Eq. (A.17) with the additional relationship

@w
"z A:20
@z

Further analysis leads to the important result that "z is a linear function
of x and y only.
It turns out that the plane stress assumption, wherein  x,  y and  xy are
independent of z, is good approximation for thin plates subjected to forces
that are uniformly distributed over the thickness of the boundary and are
parallel to the middle plane.
The stressstrain relations for plane stress are given by

1
 9
"x 

y > >
>
E x >
>
>
>
>
1
 >
>
>
"y y

x > =
E
A:21


>>
"z x
y >>
>
>
E >
>

 >
>

 >
>
xy x
y ;
E

A.7.3 Stress function formulation

Manipulating the equilibrium equations and stress displacement equations,
@2 @2
we have for the case of the plane strain (with the notation: r2  :
@x2 @y2

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1 @ @u @v
r2 u 0
1  2
@x @x @y
 
1 @ @u @v
r2 v 0 A:22
1  2
@y @x @y

and for the case of plane stress

 
1  @ @u @v
r2 u 0
1 
@x @x @y
 
2 1 @ @u @v
r v 0 A:23
1  2
@y @x @y

Eqs. (A.22) and (A.23) are known as Naviers equations. We also observe
that replacing
by
/(1
) in the plane stress, Eqs. (A.23) are obtained.
It can be rigorously shown using Eqs. (A.22) and (A.23) that for both
plane stress and plane strain problems, the following relations hold in the
absence of body forces:

r2
x
y 0 A:24

If the stresses can be written down in terms of
(x, y), also known as the
Airy stress function, such that

@2 

x
@y2

@2 

y
@x2
@2 
xy  A:25
@x@y

Eq. (A.24) then reduces to

r2 r2  0

or

r4  0 A:26

where the bi-harmonic operator is given by

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 @4 @2 @4
r4
4
2 2 2 4
@x @x @y @y

A.8 Plasticity
For a bar loaded in tension the stress generally is linear with strain
representing a linear elastic behavior. When the load is removed, the bar
comes back to its original shape without any permanent deformation, thus
depicting an elastic response of the material. Beyond the linear portion of
the stressstrain curve or beyond the proportional limit (typically below the
yield point) the stressstrain relationship is generally nonlinear and the
material progressively moves to the plastic region characterized by a
permanent deformation. It is conceivable to have an elastic material having
nonlinear stressstrain behavior as long as there is no permanent deforma-
tion upon unloading.
Typically the stress for which a permanent strain of 0.002 or 0.2 percent
occurs upon the removal of load is defined as the yield strength. This is also
referred to as 0.2 percent offset yield strength. This is a standard means of
characterizing yield behavior, since quite a few materials do not have a
well-defined material yield, where a marked change from predominantly
elastic to plastic behavior takes place. As the load is progressively increased
for the bar in tension beyond the yield, some materials display strain-
hardening behavior before failure. For some brittle materials, such as cast
iron, the bar in tension breaks without any significant strain hardening. In
either case, the nominal stress at which the material breaks is known as the
ultimate tensile strength, which is the load causing fracture divided by the
original cross-section area. However, the cross-sectional area in most
materials is reduced as the applied load increases. Therefore the true stress
is often larger than the nominal stress, which is based on the original cross-
sectional area. The true stress at fracture is thus considerably higher than
the nominal ultimate tensile strength.
A typical stressstrain curve is shown in Figure A.5. The proportional
limit is indicated as Sp and the yield strength (0.2 percent offset) by Sy; Su
denotes the ultimate strength. It is clear from Figure A.5 that for

 Sp ; " A:27
E

and for

1

> Sp ; " K
n A:28
E

Here, E is the slope of the line shown in dotted lines in Figure A.5, and
referred to as the modulus of elasticity or Youngs modulus. The index n is

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 Figure A.5 Stress vs. strain.

known as the strain hardening exponent and K (as is n) is a material

constant. The behavior represented by Eq. (A.28) is the so-called Ramberg
Osgood relationship. In pressure vessel design, the strain-hardening
exponent is used within the context of simplified inelastic analysis as
indicated in Chapter 9.
Thus far, the discussion has centered on uniaxial tension. Let us see
what happens when the bar in tension is unloaded first and then loaded in
compression. The typical stressstrain curve is represented in Figure A.6.
The loading is initially in tension up to a stress of S1 at which the unloading
process starts and follows a straight line parallel to the elastic curve. Upon
unloading as the strain reaches zero, a tensile strain of "p remains.
Subsequently as the material is loaded in compression, it may yield in

Figure A.6 Bauschinger effect.

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 Figure A.7 Elasticperfect plastic representation.

compression at a compressive stress of Syc. For some materials this

compressive yield strength is lower than the tensile yield strength, a
phenomenon known as the Bauschinger effect. Moreover, the value of Syc is
not clearly defined for a lot of materials. Therefore a concept known as
isotropic hardening is used wherein it is assumed that the yield stress in
compression is the same as that in tension.
The material behavior model that is generally used for pressure vessel
design is the elasticperfectly plastic representation, shown in Figure A.7. In
this model, the assumption of zero strain hardening is employed. This
implies that the material has a lower load carrying capacity than one in
which strain hardening is present. In the simplified model, the proportional
limit, the yield strength, as well as the ultimate strength are identical. This is
of course a very conservative assumption.

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