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Deformation (notes)

Deformation refers to the change in size or shape of an object due to applied forces, categorized into elastic and plastic deformation. Elastic deformation allows objects to return to their original shape after the force is removed, while plastic deformation results in permanent change. Key concepts include stress, strain, and Hooke's Law, which describes the proportional relationship between force and extension within the elastic limit.

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10 views

Deformation (notes)

Deformation refers to the change in size or shape of an object due to applied forces, categorized into elastic and plastic deformation. Elastic deformation allows objects to return to their original shape after the force is removed, while plastic deformation results in permanent change. Key concepts include stress, strain, and Hooke's Law, which describes the proportional relationship between force and extension within the elastic limit.

Uploaded by

Shehrbano Jafri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Deformation attributes to the change in the size or shape of something.

Therefore, deformation is any process that changes the shape, size, or volume of an object.
A force can change both the size and shape of a body. This process is called deformation.
Though we will mainly study only elastic deformation, this post covers the basics of
elastic deformation as well as plastic deformation.
The type of deformation that happens is based on the type of stress and some other factors.
To understand deformation, you need to understand some common terms such as stress and
strain.
Stress refers to the amount of force applied over an area. Moreover, the strain is a force
tending to pull or stretch something to an extreme degree.

Elastic Deformation:

In elastic deformation, an object changes its size or shape when a force is applied on it.
However, once the force stops acting on the object, the object returns to its original shape and
position.
Stretching a spring is a form of elastic deformation. You apply a force, and the size of the
spring increases. However, once you stop applying the pulling force, the spring returns to its
original shape.

An object changes its size and shapes during elastic deformation. However, when the applied
force is removed from the object, it returns to its original shape and position.

To understand this, let’s take an example of a spring. When force is applied, it changes its
shape but when the force is removed, the spring returns to its original position.

Mathematically, it is written as
F ∝ x

This formula shows that force is directly proportional to the spring stretch or compression (x).
The more the force is applied, the higher the extension of the object.

It can be written as F = Kx (where k represents constant). This formula is what we know as


“Hooke’s Law”.

The formula you need to know for this topic is F = kx where F refers to force, k refers to
constant and x refers to extension.
Hooke’s law states that the strain in a solid is directly proportional to the applied stress within
the elastic limit (a limit till a solid can be stressed, after that it gets deformed) of that solid.

Plastic Deformation:

In plastic deformation, an object is permanently damaged, and does not return to its original
size or shape even when the force that caused the deformation stops acting on it.
Stretching a spring is elastic deformation. However, you might have noticed that if
you apply a force too large on the spring, and stretch it too much, the spring is permanently
misshaped. Now, it won't return to its original size. This is an example of plastic deformation.

You need to understand this term as it is required by your CIE syllabus. In plastic deformation,
an object is permanently damaged.

The object does not return to its original shape, size or position even when the force stops
acting on it. To elaborate plastic deformation, let’s take an example of a spring.

If you stretch a spring with a lot of force, there will be one point from where it will not return
back to its original position. The spring thus will be deformed (plastic deformation).

When discussing deformation, one commonly used term is elasticity.


Elasticity refers to the ability of an object to resist distorting influence and return back to its
original size, shape or position after the force is removed.
The concept of elasticity is completely opposite to plasticity as discussed above.
When an object faces external resistance, it faces internal resistance that allows the object to
return back to its shape after the force is removed.

This internal resistance is what explains the concept of elasticity.

For a given spring and other elastic objects, the extension is directly proportional to the force
applied. For instance, if the force is doubled, the extension also doubles. This phenomenon
operates until the limit of proportionality is exceeded.

After the limit of proportionality, this does not work as there is no more linear change in the
spring.

The limit of proportionality is the point beyond which Hooke’s law does not work. The elastic
limit of spring the maximum point till that spring can be stretched.

This shows that extension is directly proportional to the load until the limit of proportionality
is reached.

Remember (as discussed above), after the limit of proportionality, the Hooke’s law does not
apply.

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