Chapter 5

Failure
Resulting from
Static Loading

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Copyright The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

- Strength is a property or characteristic of a mechanical element. This property

results from the material identity, the treatment and processing incidental to
creating its geometry, and the loading, and it is at the controlling or critical
location. In addition to considering the strength of a single part, we must be
cognizant that the strengths of the mass-produced parts will all be somewhat
different from the others in the collection or ensemble because of variations in
dimensions, machining, forming, and composition.
- A static load is a stationary force or couple applied to a member. To be
stationary, the force or couple must be unchanging in magnitude, point or points
of application, and direction. A static load can produce axial tension or
compression, a shear load, a bending load, a torsional load, or any combination of
these. To be considered static, the load cannot change in any manner.

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Failure Resulting from Static Loading

- In this chapter we consider the relations between strength and static loading in
order to make the decisions concerning material and its treatment, fabrication,
and geometry for satisfying the requirements of functionality, safety, reliability,
competitiveness, usability, manufacturability, and marketability.
- Failure can mean a part has separated into two or more pieces; has become
permanently distorted, thus ruining its geometry; has had its reliability
downgraded; or has had its function compromised, whatever the reason. A
designer speaking of failure can mean any or all of these possibilities.
- In this chapter our attention is focused on the predictability of permanent
distortion or separation.

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Failure of machine components

Failure of a truck drive

shaft spline due to
corrosion fatigue.

Impact failure of a lawn mower blade

driver hub. The blade impacted a
surveying pipe marker.

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Failure of machine components

Failure of an overhead-pulley retaining bolt on a weightlifting

machine. A manufacturing error caused a gap that forced the bolt
to take the entire moment load.

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Failure of machine components

Chain test fixture that failed in one cycle. To alleviate complaints of

excessive wear, the manufacturer decided to case-harden the material.
(a) Two halves showing fracture; this is an excellent example of brittle
fracture initiated by stress concentration.
(b) Enlarged view of one portion to show cracks induced by stress
concentration at the support-pin holes.

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Failure of machine components

Valve-spring failure caused by

spring surge in an oversped
engine. The fractures exhibit the
classic 45 shear failure.

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Failure of machine components

- In designing any machine element, the engineer should have available the
results of a great many strength tests of the particular material chosen. These tests
should be made on specimens having the same heat treatment, surface finish, and
size as the element the engineer proposes to design; and the tests should be made
under exactly the same loading conditions as the part will experience in service.
- The cost of gathering such extensive data prior to design is justified if failure of
the part may endanger human life or if the part is manufactured in sufficiently
large quantities.
- More often than not it is necessary to design using only published values of
yield strength, ultimate strength, percentage reduction in area, and percentage
elongation.
- How can one use such poor data to design against both static and dynamic
loads, two- and three-dimensional stress states, high and low temperatures, and
very large and very small parts?

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Static Strength

- Stress concentration is a highly localized

effect. In some instances it may be due to a
surface scratch. If the material is ductile and
the load static, the design load may cause
yielding in the critical location in the notch.
This yielding can involve strain strengthening
of the material and an increase in yield
strength at the small critical notch location.
- Since the loads are static and the material is
ductile, that part can carry the loads
satisfactorily with no general yielding. In
these cases the designer sets the geometric
(theoretical) stress concentration factor Kt to
unity.

An idealized stress-strain curve. The dashed

line depicts a strain-strengthening material.

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Stress Concentration

- Designers do not apply Kt in static loading of a ductile material loaded

elastically, instead setting Kt = 1.
- When using this rule for ductile materials with static loads, be careful to assure
yourself that the material is not susceptible to brittle fracture in the environment
of use.
- The usual definition of geometric (theoretical) stress-concentration factor for
normal stress Kt and shear stress Kts is

m ax K t nom

m ax K ts nom

- An exception to this rule is a brittle material that inherently contains

microdiscontinuity stress concentration, worse than the macrodiscontinuity that the
designer has in mind. Sand molding introduces sand particles, air, and water vapor
bubbles. The grain structure of cast iron contains graphite flakes, which are literally
cracks introduced during the solidification process. The strength of a cast iron
reported in the literature includes this stress concentration. In such cases Kt or Kts
need not be applied.

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Stress Concentration

- If the failure mechanism is simple, then simple tests can give clues. Just what is
simple? The tension test is uniaxial (thats simple) and elongations are largest in
the axial direction, so strains can be measured and stresses inferred up to
failure. Just what is important: a critical stress, a critical strain, a critical
energy?
- Next, failure theories will be shown that have helped answer some of these
questions. Unfortunately, there is no universal theory of failure for the general
case of material properties and stress state. Instead, over the years several
hypotheses have been formulated and tested, leading to todays accepted
practices. These practices will be charactersied as theories.

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Failure Theories

Structural metal behavior is typically classified as being ductile or brittle.

Ductile : f 0.05
have an identifiable yield strength (often Syt = Syc = Sy)
Brittle : f < 0.05
do not exhibit an identifiable yield strength
classified by Sut, Suc

Ductile materials (yield criteria)

- Maximum shear stress (MSS)
- Distortion energy (DE)
- Ductile Coulomb-Mohr (DCM)

Brittle materials (fracture criteria)

- Maximum normal stress (MNS)

- Brittle Coulomb-Mohr (BCM)

- Modified Mohr (MM)

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Failure Theories

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The maximum-shear-stress theory predicts that yielding begins whenever the

maximum shear stress in any element equals or exceeds the maximum shear stress
in a tension test specimen of the same material when that specimen begins to yield.
The MSS theory is also referred to as the Tresca or Guest theory.
As a strip of a ductile material is subjected to tension, slip lines (called Lder
lines) form at approximately 45 with the axis of the strip. These slip lines are the
beginning of yield, and when loaded to fracture, fracture lines are also seen at
angles approximately 45 with the axis of tension. Since the shear stress is
maximum at 45 from the axis of tension, it makes sense to think that this is the
mechanism of failure.
However, it turns out the MSS theory is an acceptable but conservative predictor of
failure; and since engineers are conservative by nature, it is quite often used.

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Maximum-Shear-Stress Theory (MSS) for ductile material

F
45

sI

ductile

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brittle

Maximum-Shear-Stress Theory (MSS) for ductile material

For simple tensile test, the maximum shear stress at yield is

m ax

Sy
2

For a general state of stress, three principal stresses can be ordered that 1 2 3

max

1 3

The MMS theory predicts yielding when

m ax
This implies that

1 3 S y

1 3 S y

S sy 0.5S y

The design equation

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or

m ax

Sy
2n

or 1 3

Sy
n

Maximum-Shear-Stress Theory (MSS) for ductile material

For plane stress (one of the principal stresses

is zero and A B )
Case 1: A B 0 1 A

3 0

A Sy
Case 2: A 0 B

1 A 3 B

A B Sy
Case 3: 0 A B

1 0

3 B

B S y
Shaft design problems typically fall into
case 2 where a normal stress exists from
bending and/or axial loading, and a shear
stress arises from torsion (sx, txy, sy = 0)

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The MSS theory for plane

stress, where A and B are the
two nonzero principal stresses.

Maximum-Shear-Stress Theory (MSS) for ductile material

The distortion-energy theory predicts that yielding occurs when the distortion
strain energy per unit volume reaches or exceeds the distortion strain
energy per unit volume for yield in simple tension or compression of the
same material
Yielding of ductile materials was not a simple tensile or compressive
phenomenon at all, but, rather, that it was related somehow to the angular
distortion of the stressed element.
The stress tensor can be divided into 2 components:
a) Hydrostatic component
b) Distortional component

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Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

Due to the stress sav

acting in each of the
same principal direction.

av

This element subjected to

pure angular distortion, no
volume change.

1 2 3
3

The element undergoes

pure volume change, no
angular distortion.

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Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

The strain energy per unit volume for simple tension is

For the element shown in the last page the strain energy per unit volume is

1
u 11 2 2 3 3
2

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Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

Strain energy per unit volume for general state of stress can be found from

1 2
1 22 32 21 2 2 3 31
2E

Strain energy for producing only volume uv change can be obtained by substitute
1 = 2 = 3 = av

uv

1 2 2
1 22 32 21 2 2 2 3 2 31
6E

Then the distortion energy is obtained by

2
2
2
1 1 2 2 3 3 1
u d u uv

3E
2

Note that the distortion energy is zero if 1 = 2 = 3.

For yielding in simple tension; 1 = Sy, 2 = 3 = 0

ud

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1 2
Sy
3E

Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

Yielding is predicted when

1 2 2 2 3 2 3 1 2

1/ 2

Sy

The left of this equation can be thought of as a single, equivalent, or effective

stress for the entire general state of stress given by 1, 2, and 3. This effective
stress is usually called the von Mises stress, , or it can be written as

S y
where the von Mises stress is

1 2 2 2 3 2 3 1 2

1/ 2

For plane stress (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = 0)

A B

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2
A

2 1/ 2
B

Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

Using xyz components of 3D stress, the von Mises stress can be written as

1
x y 2 y z 2 z x 2 6 xy2 yz2 zx2
2

For plane stress

2
x2 x y y2 3 xy

1/ 2

The failure surface for DE is a

circular cylinder with an axis
inclined at 45 from each principal
stress axis, whereas the surface for
MSS is a hexagon inscribed within
the cylinder.
The DE theory for plane stress states.

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Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

1/ 2

- Consider an isolated element, in which the normal stresses on each surface are
equal to the hydrostatic stress av. There are eight surfaces symmetric to the
principal directions that contain this stress. This forms an octahedron. The shear
stresses on these surfaces are equal and are called the octahedral shear stresses.
Through coordinate transformations the octahedral shear stress is given by

oct

1
2
2
2 1/ 2
1 2 2 3 3 1
3

- For yielding in simple tension; 1 = Sy, 2 = 3 = 0

oct

2
Sy
3

- By comparing two above equations, yielding is

predicted when

1 2 2 3 3 1

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1/ 2

Sy

Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

For the case of pure shear xy in plane stress x = y = 0

Principal stresses are 1 = xy, 2 = - xy

2 1/ 2
xy

Sy

or

xy

Sy
3

0.577 S y

Thus the shear yield strength predicted by DE theory is

S sy 0.577 S y

is about 15 percent greater than the 0.5 Sy predicted by

the MSS theory.

The DE theory predicts no failure under hydrostatic stress and agrees well with all
data for ductile behavior. Hence, it is the most widely used theory for ductile
materials and is recommended for design problems unless otherwise specified.

The design equation is

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Sy
n

Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

The model for the MSS theory ignores the contribution of the normal stresses on
the 45 surfaces of the tensile specimen. However, these stresses are P/2A, and
not the hydrostatic stresses which are P/3A. Herein lies the difference between
the MSS and DE theories.

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Distortion-Energy Theory (DE) for ductile material

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MMS and DE theory for ductile material

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MMS and DE theory for ductile material

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MMS and DE theory for ductile material

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MMS and DE theory for ductile material

For some materials, yield strength in

tension and compression are not
identical, e.g., magnesium (Syc
0.5Syt), gray cast iron (Suc 3-4Syt)

Compression

Failure envelope

Mohrs hypothesis was to use the

results of tensile, compression
and torsion shear test to construct
the three Mohrs circles.
Line ABCDE is called failure
envelope. It needs not be straight
but may be circular or quadratic.
The three Mohr circles describe the
stress state in a body growing during
loading until one of them became
tangent to the failure envelope,
thereby defining failure. (yielding
occurs)

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Pure shear

Tension

Three Mohr circles (uniaxial compression test,

test in pure shear, and the uniaxial tension test)
are used to define failure by the Mohr
hypothesis. The strengths Sc and St are the
compressive and tensile strengths, respectively;
they can be used for yield or ultimate strength.

Coulomb-Mohr (CM) Theory for ductile material

A variation of Mohrs theory, called the Coulomb-Mohr theory or Internalfriction theory was developed by using only tension and compression tests
Consider the conventional
ordering of the principal stresses
1 2 3. The largest Mohrs
circle connects 1 and 3.

Failure envelope

If the center of three circles are

C1, C2 and C3 respectively, the
triangle OBiCi are similar,
therefore

B2C2 B1C1 B3C3 B1C1

OC 2 OC1
OC 3 OC1
Note: B2C2 is a radius of the second
circle and OC2-OC1 is the distance
between C1 and C2 (= av1 - av2)

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Tension

Compression

General state of
stress

Coulomb-Mohr (CM) Theory for ductile material

1 3 St
S c St

2
2 2 2
St 1 3 Sc St

2
2
2 2
Simplifying above equation gives

1 3

1
St Sc
For pure shear t, s1 = -s3 = t. The torsional yield strength occurs when tmax = Ssy.
It can be obtained by substituting 1 = -3 = Ssy

S sy

The design equation is

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S yt S yc
S yt S yc
1 3 1

St Sc n

Coulomb-Mohr (CM) Theory for ductile material

For plane stress ( A B ) the CoulombMohr theory provides the hexagon as shown
Case 1: A B 0 1 A

3 0

Case 1

A St
Case 2: A 0 B

A B 0

1 A 3 B

A B

1
St Sc
Case 3: 0 A B

B Sc

1 0

Case 2

3 B
Case 3
Plot of the Coulomb-Mohr theory
of failure for plane stress states.

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Coulomb-Mohr (CM) Theory for ductile material

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Coulomb-Mohr Theory for ductile material

- The selection of one or the other

of these two theories is something
that you, the engineer, must
decide.

- von Mises theory passes closer

to the central area of the data. It is
the most precise criteria to predict
yielding of ductile materials.
While the Tresca theory is the
simplest to be used.

Experimental data
superposed on failure
theories.

- For ductile materials with unequal yield strengths, Syt and Syc, the Mohr
theory is the best available. However, the theory requires the results from
three separate modes of tests. The alternative to this is to use the CoulombMohr theory, which requires only the tensile and compressive yield
strengths and is easily to be dealt with.

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Failure of ductile material (summary)

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Failure of ductile material

plane stress:

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Failure of ductile material

Plane stress Eq. (3-14):

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Failure of ductile material

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Failure of ductile material

plane stress:

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Failure of ductile material

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Failure of ductile material

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Failure of ductile material

The Maximum-Normal-Stress (MNS) theory states that failure occurs

whenever one of the three principal stresses equals or exceeds the strength.
For a general stress state in the ordered form
1 2 3 , the failure occurs when

1 S ut

or

3 S uc

For plane stress with A B , the failure

occurs when

A S ut
ultimate
tensile
strength

or

B S uc
ultimate
compression
strength

Graph of maximum-normal-stress (MNS) theory of failure for plane

stress states. Stress states that plot inside the failure locus are safe.

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Maximum-Normal-Stress Theory for brittle materials

The design equations:

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Maximum-Normal-Stress Theory for brittle materials

Brittle-Coulomb-Mohr (BCM)
A

S ut
n

A B 0

A B 1

S ut S uc n

Case 1

A 0 B
Case 2

Suc
B
n

0 A B

Biaxial fracture data of gray cast iron

compared with various failure criteria.

Case 3

*These theories is restricted to plane stress and be of design type incorporating the factor of safety.

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Modification of the Mohr Theory for brittle materials

Modified-Mohr (MM)
A

S ut
A B 0
n
B
1
A 0 B and
A

Suc Sut A B
Suc Sut

Suc

A 0 B

Suc
n

Case 1

1
n

Case 2

B
and
1
A

0 A B
Case 3

Biaxial fracture data of gray cast iron

compared with various failure criteria.

Case 4

*These theories is restricted to plane stress and be of design type incorporating the factor of safety.

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Modification of the Mohr Theory for brittle materials

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Modified Mohr theory

N mm

Coulomb Mohr theory

s1

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sut

Sut Suc
Suc s 1 Sut (s 1 s 3 )

s3
suc

1
Nm

When s 1 s 3

Normal stress theory

for brittle material
N mm

sut

s1

When s 1 s 3

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Modification of the Mohr Theory for brittle materials

Eq. (3-13):

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Modification of the Mohr Theory for brittle materials

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Modification of the Mohr Theory for brittle materials

- Ductile materials may develop a

brittle fracture or crack if used
below the transition temperature.
- In the 1st quadrant the data appear
on both sides and along the failure
curves of MNS, CM and MM. All
failure curves are the same and fit
well.
- In the 4th quadrant the MM theory
represents the data the best.
- In the 3rd quadrant the points data
are too few to make any suggestion
concerning a fracture locus.
A plot of experimental data points obtained from
biaxial tests on cast iron. Shown also are the graphs
of three failure theories for brittle materials.

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Failure of brittle materail (Summary)

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Selcetion of failure criteria