EDEXCEL NATIONAL CERTIFICATE/DIPLOMA

FURTHER MECHANICAL PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS

UNIT 11 - NQF LEVEL 3

OUTCOME 2 - STRESS AND STRAIN

TUTORIAL 2 - STRUCTURAL MEMBERS

CONTENT

Be able to determine the stress in structural members and joints

Single and double shear joints: fastenings e.g. bolted or riveted joints in single and double shear;
joint parameters e.g. rivet or bolt diameter, number of rivets or bolts, shear load, expressions for
shear stress in joints subjected to single and double shear, factor of safety

Structural members: members e.g. plain struts and ties, series and parallel compound bars made
from two different materials; loading e.g. expressions for direct stress and strain, thermal stress,
factor of safety

It is assumed that the student has studied Mechanical Principles and Applications Unit 6 and
is already familiar with basic stress and strain.

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1. TYPES OF STRUCTURAL MEMBERS

Engineering structures come in many forms. Here are some.

STRUTS AND TIES

A strut is a long thin member that is compressed and usually fails by buckling.
A tie is a member that is stretched so it cannot buckle. A tie could be a rope or chain as well as a
rigid length of material.

Figure 1

FRAMES
Struts and ties make up the members of lattice frames such as the simple one shown. The two side
members are compressed and so are struts but the bottom one is stretched and could be a chain so it
is a tie.

Figure 2
COLUMNS
A column is a thick compression member. Struts fail due to bending but columns fail in
compression. Columns are usually made of brittle material which is strong in compression such as
cast iron, stone and concrete. These materials are weak in tension so it is important to ensure that
bending does not produce tensile stresses in them. If the compressive stress is too big, they fail by
crumbling and cracking

Figure 3

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BEAMS
A beam is a structure, which is loaded transversely (sideways). The loads may be point loads or
uniformly distributed loads (udl). The diagrams show the way that point loads and uniform loads
are illustrated.

Figure 4

Transverse loading causes bending and bending

is a very severe form of stressing a structure.
The bent beam goes into tension (stretched) on
one side and compression on the other.

Figure 5
2. DIRECT STRESS 

When a force is applied to an elastic body, the

body deforms. The way in which the body
deforms depends upon the type of force applied to
it. A compression force makes the body shorter. A
tensile force makes the body longer.

Tensile and compressive forces are called

DIRECT FORCES.

Stress is the force per unit area upon which it acts.

Stress =  = Force/Area N/m2 or Pascals.

The symbol  is called SIGMA

Figure 6

NOTE ON UNITS The fundamental unit of stress is 1 N/m2 and this is called a Pascal. This
is a small quantity in most fields of engineering so we use the multiples kPa, MPa and GPa.

Areas may be calculated in mm2 and units of stress in N/mm2 are quite acceptable. Since 1
N/mm2 converts to 1 000 000 N/m2 then it follows that the N/mm2 is the same as a MPa

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 3
3. DIRECT STRAIN 

In each case, a force F produces a deformation ΔL. In engineering we usually change this force into
stress and the deformation into strain and we define these as follows.

Strain is the deformation per unit of the original length Strain =  = ΔL/L

The symbol  is called EPSILON

Strain has no units since it is a ratio of length to length. Most engineering materials do not stretch
very much before they become damaged so strain values are very small figures. It is quite normal to
change small numbers in to the exponent for of 10 -6. Engineers use the abbreviation  (micro
strain) to denote this multiple.

For example a strain of 0.000068 could be written as 68 x 10-6 but engineers would write 68 .

Note that when conducting a British Standard tensile test the symbols for original area are S o
and for Length is Lo.

WORKED EXAMPLE No.1

A metal wire is 2.5 mm diameter and 2 m long. A force of 12 N is applied to it and it stretches
0.3 mm. Assume the material is elastic. Determine the following.

i. The stress in the wire .

ii. The strain in the wire .

SOLUTION
πd 2 π x 2.52
A   4.909 mm 2
4 4 Answer (i) is hence 2.44 MPa
F 12
σ   2.44 N/mm 2
A 4.909

L 0.3 mm
   0.00015 or 150 
L 2000

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE No.1

1. A steel bar is 10 mm diameter and 2 m long. It is stretched with a force of 20 kN and extends
by 0.2 mm. Calculate the stress and strain.

(Answers 254.6 MPa and 100 )

2. A rod is 0.5 m long and 5 mm diameter. It is stretched 0.06 mm by a force of 3 kN. Calculate
the stress and strain.

(Answers 152.8 MPa and 120)

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 4
4. MODULUS OF ELASTICITY E

Elastic materials always spring back into shape when released. They also obey
HOOKE'S LAW. This is the law of a spring which states that deformation is
directly proportional to the force.

F/ΔL = stiffness = k N/m

Figure 7

The stiffness is different for different materials and different sizes of the material. We may
eliminate the size by using stress and strain instead of force and deformation as follows.

F σA FL 
F = A ΔL = L hence  and 
L εL A L 
The stiffness is now in terms of stress and strain only and this constant is called the MODULUS of
ELASTICITY and it has a symbol E.

FL 
E 
A L 

A graph of stress against strain will be a straight line with a gradient of E. The units of E are the
same as the units of stress.

6. ULTIMATE TENSILE STRESS

If a material is stretched until it breaks, the tensile stress has reached the absolute limit and this
stress level is called the ultimate tensile stress. Values for different materials may be found in
various sources such as the web site Matweb.

WORKED EXAMPLE No. 2

A steel tensile test specimen has a cross sectional area of 100 mm 2 and a gauge length of 50
mm, the gradient of the elastic section is 410 x 103 N/mm. Determine the modulus of elasticity.

SOLUTION

The gradient gives the ratio F/A = and this may be used to find E.
σ F L 50
E  x  410 x 103 x  205 000 N/mm 2 or 205 000 MPa or 205 GPa
ε L A 100

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 5
 WORKED EXAMPLE No. 3

A Steel column is 3 m long and 0.4 m diameter. It carries a load of 50 MN. Given that the
modulus of elasticity is 200 GPa, calculate the compressive stress and strain and determine
how much the column is compressed.

SOLUTION

πd 2 π x 0.4 2
A   0.126 m 2
4 4
F 50 x10 6
σ   397.9 x10 6 Pa
A 0.126
σ σ 397.9 x10 6
E so ε    0.001989
ε E 200 x109
L
ε so L  ε L  0.001989 x 3000 mm  5.97 mm
L

5. SAFETY FACTOR

The stress at which a material is deemed to fail might be the ultimate stress or the yield stress. It
might also be some other value based on some other criterion such as fatigue and creep. We should
also bear in mind that the working stress is often higher than that predicted in the theory covered so
far because of local factors such as grooves and sharp corners that raise the stress level. We will not
be studying this here.

The safety factor is the ratio of the maximum stress allowed and the actual stress.

SF = Maximum Allowable Stress/Working Stress

WORKED EXAMPLE No.4

A Steel tie rod is 20 mm diameter. It carries a load of 4 MN. Given that the maximum
allowable stress is 460 MPa, calculate the safety factor.

SOLUTION

πd 2 π x 0.22
A   31.4 x 10 3 m 2
4 4
F 4 x106
σ  3
 127.3 x106 Pa
A 31.4 x 10
460
SF   3.61
127.3

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 SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE No.2

1. A bar is 500 mm long and is stretched to 505 mm with a force of 50 kN. The bar is 10 mm
diameter. Calculate the stress and strain.

The material has remained within the elastic limit. Determine the modulus of elasticity.
(Answers 636.6 MPa, 0.01 and 63.66 GPa.)

2. A steel bar is stressed to 280 MPa. The modulus of elasticity is 205 GPa. The bar is 80 mm
diameter and 240 mm long.

Determine the following.

i. The strain. (0.00136)
ii. The force. (1.407 MN)

3. A circular metal column is to support a load of 500 Tonne and it must not compress more than
0.1 mm. The modulus of elasticity is 210 GPa. the column is 2 m long.

Calculate the cross sectional area and the diameter. (0.467 m2 and 0.771 m)
Note 1 Tonne is 1000 kg.

4. A Steel tie rod is 10 mm diameter. It carries a load of 30 kN. Given that the maximum
allowable stress is 500 MPa, calculate the safety factor.
(Answer 1.31)

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 7
6. TEMPERATURE STRESSES

It is not clear in the syllabus how much attention should be paid to thermal stresses and perhaps a
description only would suffice. This work should be studied if you think it is required to calculate
thermally induced stresses.

Metals expand when heated. This can be put to good use. For example a ring may be expanded by
warming it and then fitted onto a shaft and on cooling grips the shaft very tightly.
Thermal expansion can also produce unwanted stresses in structures. For example, suddenly
allowing hot fluid into a badly designed pipe could cause it to fracture as it tries to get longer
but is prevented from doing so.
COEFFICIENT OF LINEAR EXPANSION

All engineering materials expand when heated and this expansion is usually equal in all directions.
If a bar of material of length L has its temperature increased by  degrees, the increase of length
L is directly proportional to the original length L and to the temperature change . Hence

L = constant x L 

The constant of proportionality is called the coefficient of linear expansion ().

L =  L 

INDUCED STRESS IN A CONSTRAINED BAR

When a material is heated and not allowed to expand freely, stresses are induced which are known
as "temperature stresses." Suppose the bar was allowed to expand freely by distance L and then
changed back to its original length. The strain is then
 =L /L =  L /L =  
Since stress/strain = modulus of elasticity (E) then the induced stress is
 = E  = E  

Figure 8

This may be a tensile stress or a compressive stress depending whether the bar was pulled back to
its original length or pushed back.

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 8
 WORKED EXAMPLE No. 5

A thin steel band 850 mm diameter must be expanded to fit around a disc 851 mm diameter.
Calculate the temperature change needed and the stress produced in the ring. The coefficient of
linear expansion is 15 x 10-6 per oC and the modulus of elasticity E is 200 GPa.

SOLUTION

Initial circumference of ring = D =  x 850 = 2670.35 mm

Required circumference =  x 851 = 2673.50 mm
L = 2673.50 - 2670.35 = 3.15 mm L =  L 
3.15 = 15 x 10 x 2670.35 x 
-6

 = 3.15/(15 x 10-6 x 2670.35) = 78.6 Kelvin

 = E  = 200 x 109 x 15 x 10-6 x 78.6 = 235.8 MPa.
Alternatively
strain  = L/ L = 3.15/2670.35 = 0.011796
stress  = E = 200 x 109 x 0.011796 = 235.8 MPa

WORKED EXAMPLE No. 6

A brass bar is 600 mm long and it is turned on a centre lathe to 100 mm diameter. It is held
between the chuck jaws and a running tail stock so that it is not free to expand. During the
turning process it has become heated from 20 oC to 95oC. Calculate the thermal stress induced
in the bar and the resulting thrust on the chuck and tail stock. E for brass is 90 GPa and  is
18 x 10-6 per oC.

SOLUTION

Stress induced =  = E  = 90 x 109 x 18 x 10-6 x (95 – 20) = 121.5 MPa

Force = stress x cross sectional area = 121.5 x 106 x  x 0.12/4 = 954.3 kN

WORKED EXAMPLE No.7

Determine the induced stress and thrust if the centre lathe flexed so that the bar changed length
by 0.6 mm.

SOLUTION

Check your solution here. The free expansion of the bar is

L =  L  = 18 x 10-6 x 600 x (95 – 20) = 0.81 mm
Actual change in length is 0.6 mm.
Strain induced = change in length/original length = (0.81 – 0.6)/600 = 0.00035
Stress induced  = E  = 90 x 109 x 0.00035 = 31.5 MPa
Force = stress x cross sectional area = 31.5 x 106 x  x 0.012/4 = 247.4 kN

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 9
 SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE No. 3

1. A steel ring is 50 mm inside diameter. It must be fitted onto a shaft 50.1 mm diameter.
Calculate the temperature to which it must be heated in order to fit on the shaft. The initial
temperature is 20 oC and the coefficient of linear expansion is 15 x 10-6 per oC.
(Answer 133.3 K)

2. A stub shaft 85.2 mm diameter must be shrunk to 85 mm diameter in order to insert it into a
housing. By how much must the temperature be reduced? Take the coefficient of linear
expansion is 12 x 10-6 per oC.
(Answer -195.6 K)

3. A steam pipe is 120 mm outer diameter and 100 mm inner diameter. It has a length of 30 m and
passes through a wall at both ends where it is rigidly constrained. Steam at 200 oC is suddenly
released into the pipe. The initial temperature of the pipe is 15 oC and the coefficient of linear
expansion is 15 x 10-6 per oC. E is 200 GPa.

Calculate
i. the thermal stress produced. (555 MPa)
ii. the force exerted by the pipe against the walls. (1.918 MN)

© D.J.Dunn www.freestudy.co.uk 10
7. COMPOSITE BARS

PARALLEL
A parallel compound bar may take many forms but essentially consists of two or more different
materials that are arranged side by side so that they are strained by the same amount. A common
example is reinforced concrete which has concrete and steel of the same length. When stressed,
they change length by the same amount. Other examples occur in engineering structures such as
rods with a tube around them. Consider two bars 'a' and 'b' made from two materials and squashed
by a force F as shown. The Flanges at the ends are to spread the force between the two.

Figure 9

The two parts are the same length throughout and both parts are hence strained the same amount.
Let the original length be L and the change in length be ΔL.

Strain = 
a = ΔL/L for material a
 b= ΔL/L for material b

The cross areas are Aa and Ab

Stress in a = a = F/Aa F1 = aAa

Stress in b = b = F/Ab F2 = bAb

F = F1 + F2
F = aAa + bAb .........(1)

The strain in a is a = ΔL/L

The strain in b is  b= ΔL/L

The modulus of elasticity for a is Ea = a/a a = a/Ea

The modulus of elasticity for b is Eb = b/b b = b/Eb

Since the strains are equal a/Ea = b/Eb

a = (Ea /Eb)b .........(2)

Combining equations (1) and (2)

F = b [(Ea /Eb)Aa +Ab]

or F = a [(Eb /Ea)Ab +Aa]

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 WORKED EXAMPLE No. 8

A steel cylinder is 0.5 m outer diameter and 0.4 m inner diameter and 1.5 m long. It is filled
with concrete and used as a vertical column to support a weight of 30 kN. Determine the
compression and the stresses in both the steel and concrete.

E is 205 GPa for the steel and 10 GPa for concrete.

SOLUTION

Aa = (0.52 - 0.45 2)/4 = 0.0373 m2. (steel)

Ab = ( 0.45 2)/4 = 0.159 m2. (concrete)

a/Ea = b/Eb
a = Ea (b/Eb)

F = 30 000 = aAa + bAb

30 000 = Ea (b/Eb)Aa + bAb
30 000 = (Ea /Eb)bAa + bAb

30 000 = (205 x 109 /10 x 109)0.0373b + 0.159 b

30 000 = 20.5 x 0.0373b+ 0.159 b
30 000 = 0.7646b+ 0.159 b
30 000 = 0.9236b
b = 30 000/0.9236
b = 32.48 kPa
a = (Ea /Eb)b
a = 20.5 x 32.38 = 665.8 kPa
b = b/Eb
b = 32480/10 x 109 = 3.248 x 10-6
ΔL = b L = 3.248 x 10-6 x 1.5 = 4.872 10-6m

Check for material a.

a = a/Ea

a = 665800/205 x 109 = 3.248 x 10-6

ΔL = a L = 3.248 x 10-6 x 1.5 = 4.872 10-6 m

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SERIES

A series compound bar consists of two or more different materials arranged end to end. In this case
the common factor is the force which is the same in each series member.

Consider two bars 'a' and 'b' in series as shown.

F = σa Aa = σa = F/ Aa
εa = σa/Ea ΔLa = εa La= σa La /Ea= F La / Ea Aa

F = σbAb σb = F/ Ab
εb = σb/Eb ΔLb = εb Lb= σb Lb /Eb= F Lb / Eb Ab

Total change in length ΔL = ΔLa + ΔLb = F La / Ea Aa + F Lb / Eb Ab

 L Lb 
ΔL  F a  
 Ea Aa E bA b 

WORKED EXAMPLE No. 9

A series compound bar is formed by screwing steel rod 10 mm diameter and 300 mm long into
the end of a brass rod 20 mm diameter and 100 mm long. Given E for steel is 200 GPa and E
for brass is 100 GPa, calculate the change in length when a force of 5 kN is applied to stretch
it.

SOLUTION

π102 π202
As   78.54 mm 2 A b   314.159 mm 2
4 4
 L Lb 
ΔL  F a  
 Ea Aa E b A b 
 0.3 0.1 
ΔL  5000 6
 6 
 111.4 x10 6 m
 200 x10 x78.54 x10 100 x10 x314.159 x10 
9 9

ΔL = 111.4 μm

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 SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE No. 4

1. Reinforced concrete column is rectangular in section and measures 0.4 m x 0.6 m. The column
contains 40 steel rods 10 mm diameter. Calculate the maximum load which can be supported
given that the stress in the steel must not exceed 400 MPa.

E is 200 GPa for the steel and 12 GPa for concrete.

(Answer 6.94 MN)

2. A cast iron cylinder is filled with concrete and used as a pillar to support a weight of 40 kN.
The cylinder is 0.5 m outer diameter and 0.49 m inner diameter. Determine the stress in the
iron and concrete.
E is 205 GPa for the steel and 10 GPa for concrete.
(Answer 115 kPa 2.36MPa)

3. A compound bar is constructed by riveting a steel strip 5 mm x 20 mm to a brass strip 8 mm x

20 mm to form a cross section 13 mm x 20 mm. The bar is 300 mm long and is stretched until
the stress in the brass is 5 MPa. Determine

i. the force used to stretch the bar. (1.8 kN)

ii. the extension of the bar. (0.015 mm)

Take E for steel as 200 GPa and for brass as 100 GPa.

4. An aluminium rod 25 mm diameter and 500 mm long is pin-jointed to a steel rod 12.5 mm
diameter and 1 m long. The assembly is stretched with a force of 15 kN. What is the change in
length? Take E for steel as 200 GPa and for aluminium as 71 GPa.
(Answer 826 μm)

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