ASHUTOSH KUMAR

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 Introduction
 History & Development
 Present condition
 Technical Analysis
 Basics
 Mohr’s Circle Derivation
 Mohr’s circle for plane stress
 Mohr’s circle for 3dimensional stress

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Introduction

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Although the stress circle is invariably attributed to Mohr, it was
in fact Cullman who first conceived this graphical means of
representing stress. Mohr’s contribution lay in making an
extended study of its usage for both two-dimensional and
three dimensional stresses, and in developing a strength
criterion based on the stress circle at a time when most
engineers accepted Saint-Venant’s maximum strain theory as
a valid failure criterion.
Culmann introduced his stress circle in considering
longitudinal and vertical stresses in horizontal
beams during bending. Isolating a small element
of the beam and using rectangular coordinates,
he drew a circle with its centre on the (horizontal)
zero shear stress axis, passing through the two stress points
represented by the normal and conjugate

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shear stresses on the vertical and horizontal faces of the element. He
took the normal stress on the horizontal faces to be zero. In making
this construction Cullman established a point on the circle, now known
as the pole point, and showed that the stresses on a plane at any
specified inclination could be found by a line through this point
drawn parallel to the plane. Such a line met the circle again at the
required stress point. Extensive use is made of the pole point in the
present text. Cullman went on to plot trajectories of principal
stresses for a beam, obtained directly from the stress circles

Christian Otto Mohr was born in 1835 in Wesselburen,

on the inhospitable North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein.
After graduating from the Hannover Polytechnical Institute
he first worked, like Culmann, as a railway engineer before taking up,
at the age of 32, the post of Professor of Engineering Mechanics at
the Stuttgart Polytechnikum. In 1873 he moved to the Dresden
Polytechnikum, where he continued to pursue his interests in both
strength of materials and the theory of structures.

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Pioneering contributions which he made to the theory of
structures included the use of influence lines to calculate the
deflections of continuous beams, a graphical solution to the
three-moments equations, and the concept of virtual work to
calculate displacements at truss joints. His work on the stress
circle included both two-dimensional and three-dimensional
applications and, in addition, he formulated the
trigonometrically expressions for an elastic material, relating
stresses and strains, as well as the expression relating direct
and shear strain moduli. As with stress, he showed that shear
strains and direct strains could be represented graphically by
circles in a rectangular coordinate system. Believing, as
Coulomb had done a hundred years before, that shear stresses
caused failure in engineering materials, Mohr proposed a
failure criterion based on envelopes tangential to stress circles
at fracture in tension and compression.

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He then assumed that any stress conditions represented by a
circle touching these envelopes would initiate failure. This
failure criterion was found to give better agreement with
experiment than the maximum strain theory of Saint-Venant,
which was widely accepted at that time.

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Mohr’s circle provides a graphical visualization of:-

(1) Principle Stress

(2) Principle strain

(3) Shear stress

(4) Shear strain

(5) Stress transformation

(6) Strain transformation

Being more informative it is being used in Industries for

gathering and estimating the information of various stress
and strains.

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Quick Review of stress:-

(1) Plane stress

(2) Stress Tensor

(3) Plane strain

(4) Strain Tensor

(5) Stress transformation

(6) Strain transformation

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where all elements of the body are
subjected to normal and shear
stresses acting along a plane (x-y);
none perpendicular to the plane
(z-direction)
z = 0; xz = 0; zy = 0
Therefore, the state of stress at a
point can be defined by the three
independent stresses:
x; y; and xy

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where all elements of the body are
subjected to normal and shear
strains acting along a plane (x-y);
none perpendicular to the plane
(z-direction)
z = 0; xz = 0; zy = 0
Therefore, the state of strains at a
point can be defined by the three
independent stresses:
x; y ; and xy

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Point Q for 3 Free Body Diagram
dimensional stress

Normal to the plane N can be resolved along

x, y and z axes. By calculating N we can get
Shear stress also.
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Description of the above shown figure:-

•state of plane stress exists at point Q

•One need to know the state of stress on an Arbitrary
plane inclined at some angle

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For knowing the state of stress Free body diagram get developed
and the result comes as shown below

Calculated stress values:-

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For 3-d stresses:- This is the basic system
from which plane stress condition is also
defined. It is shown below.

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For Plane stresses:-

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We have equations for Normal stress and Shear stress as below

 x  y  x  y
n   cos 2   xy sin 2 (1)
2 2
 x  y
  sin 2   xy cos 2 (2)
2
Rewriting the equation (1)

 x  y  x  y
n   cos 2   xy sin 2 (3)
2 2

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Taking squares of equations (2) & (3) and adding them will result in

2 2
  x  y    x  y 
  n      
2
   xy 2 (5)
 2   2 
Recall that σx, σy, and τxy are known constants defining the specified state of

stress, whereas σn and τ are variables. Consequently, (σx + σy)/2 is a

constant, say, h, and the right-hand member of Eq. (5) is another constant,
say, r. Using these substitutions, we transform Eq. (5) into

 n  h   2 2
r 2
(6)

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The equation (6) is similar to equation of Circle i.e.,

( x  h) 2  ( y  k ) 2  r 2

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 Center of circle is
 x  y
Ch
2
From the origin.

Radius of the Circle is

2
  x  y 
Rr     xy 2
 2 

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The following procedure is used to draw a Mohr's circle and to
find the magnitude and direction of maximum stresses from it.
First, the x- and y-axes of a Cartesian coordinate system are

identified as the -axis

n  respectively.
and -axis,
Next, two points of the Mohr's circle are plotted. These are the

points B and A . The line connecting these two points is a

diameter of the Mohr's circle. These points are the location of
Direct and shear stress.
The center of the Mohr's circle, O, is located where the

diameter, AB, intersects the σ-axis. This point gives the

average normal stress (σavg). The average normal stress can be
read directly from a plot of the Mohr's circle.
The Mohr's circle intersects the axis at two points, C and E.

The stresses at these two end points of the horizontal diameter

are the principal stresses. The point E represents the maximum
normal stress (σmax) and the point C is the minimum normal
stress (σmin).

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 Next we examine the points where the circle intersects the line
parallel to t-axis passing through the center of the circle, O. The
vertical diameter of the circle passes through O (σavg) and goes up
to positive (maximum shear) and down to negative (minimum shear).
The magnitudes of extreme values are equal to the radius of the
Mohr's circle, but with different signs.
 The next value to determine is the angle that the plane of maximum
normal stress makes with the X-axis. Let us create a new -axis by
drawing a line from the center of the Mohr circle, O, through point A.
Let the angle between the X-axis and the s-axis be Ø . If θ is the
angle between the maximum normal stress and the x-axis, then it
can be shown that Ø = 2 θ .

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 To construct the Mohr's circle for a general three-dimensional case
of stresses at a point, the values of the principal stresses and their
principal directions must be first evaluated.
 Considering the principal axes as the coordinate system, instead of
the general , x1,x2,x3 coordinate system, and assuming that

then the normal and shear components of the stress vector tn, for a
given plane with unit vector n, satisfy the following equations

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which are the equations of the three Mohr's
circles (C1,C2 & C3) for stress
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Different Cases for Mohr’s circle in 3-D

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The inequality equations can be written as :

According to the first of the above equations, the point (s, t) must lie on or
outside a circle of radius 0.5 (s2 – s3) with its center at 0.5 (s2 +s3) along the s axis. This
is the circle with BC as diameter. The second equation indicates
that the point (s, t) must lie inside or on the circle ADC with radius 0.5 (s1 – s3) and
center at 0.5 (s1 +s3) along the s axis.

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From the first two of these equations, since s1 =s2 the point (s, t) must lie on the
outside a circle of radius 0.5 (s1 – s3) with its center at 0.5 (s1 +s3) along the s axis. This is
the circle with BC as diameter. The second equation indicates
that the point (s, t) must lie inside or on the circle ADC with radius 0.5 (s1 – s3) and
center at 0.5 (s1 +s3) along the s axis. The last equation indicates that the point must lie
outside a circle of zero radius. Hence, in this case, the Mohr’s circles will reduce to a
circle BC and a point circle B. The point Q lies on the circle BEC.

Mohr’s circles collapse to a single point on the s axis.

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  n   x cos 2 
1
   x sin 2
2

theta Normal
(degree) stress shear stress
0 1.00 0.00
15 0.93 0.25
30 0.75 0.43
45 0.50 0.50
60 0.25 0.43
75 0.07 0.25
90 0.00 0.00
105 0.07 -0.25
120 0.25 -0.43
135 0.50 -0.50
150 0.75 -0.43
165 0.93 -0.25
180 1.00 0.00

On the circle, the highlighted point is the topmost point on the

circle. From the right most point (1,0) if we move
anticlockwise, then the points are located at 2 times angle.
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