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Deformation (mechanics)



 
 
In continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
, deformation is the change in shape and/or size of a continuum
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 body after it undergoes a displacement
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 between an initial or undeformed configuration
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 , at time , and a current or deformed configuration , at the current time .

In general, the displacement of a continuum body has two components: a rigid-body displacement component and a deformation component. If after a displacement of the continuum there is a relative displacement between particles, a deformation has occurred.






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In continuum mechanics
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
, deformation is the change in shape and/or size of a continuum
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 body after it undergoes a displacement
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 between an initial or undeformed configuration
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 , at time , and a current or deformed configuration , at the current time .

In general, the displacement of a continuum body has two components: a rigid-body displacement component and a deformation component. If after a displacement of the continuum there is a relative displacement between particles, a deformation has occurred. On the other hand, if after displacement of the continuum the relative displacement between particles in the current configuration is zero i.e. the distance between particles remains unchanged, then there is no deformation and a rigid-body displacement is said to have occurred.

Strain is the geometrical measure of deformation representing the relative displacement between particles in the material body, i.e. a measure of how much a given displacement differs locally from a rigid-body displacement.

Deformations results from stresses
Stress (physics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces....
 within the continuum induced by external force
Force

In physics, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity. Force has both Euclidean_vector#Length of a vector and Direction , making it a Vector quantity....
s or due to changes in its temperature. The relation between stresses and induced strains is expressed by constitutive equations, e.g. Hooke's law
Hooke's law

In mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of theory of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit....
 for linear elastic
Linear elasticity

Linear elasticity is the mathematical study of how solid objects deform and become internally stressed due to prescribed loading conditions. Linear elasticity relies upon the Continuum mechanics hypothesis and is applicable at macroscopic length scales....
 materials. Deformations which are recovered after the external forces have been removed, are called elastic deformations. In this case, the continuum completely recovers its original configuration. On the other hand, irreversible deformations, which remain even after external forces have been removed, are called plastic deformations. Such deformations occur in material bodies after stresses have surpassed a certain threshold value known as the elastic limit or yield stress
Yield (engineering)

The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in engineering and materials science as the Stress at which a material begins to Plasticity ....
, and are the result of slip
Slip (materials science)

Slip is the process by which plastic deformation is produced by a dislocation motion. By an external force, parts of the crystal lattice glide along each other, resulting in a changed geometry of the material....
, or dislocation
Dislocation

In materials science, a dislocation is a crystallographic defect, or irregularity, within a crystal structure. The presence of dislocations strongly influences many of the properties of materials....
 mechanisms at the atomic level.

Deformation is measured in units of length
Length

Length is the long dimension of any object. The length of a thing is the distance between its ends, its linear extent as measured from end to end....
.

Strain

Strain is the geometrical measure of deformation representing the relative displacement between particles in the material body, i.e. a measure of how much a given displacement differs locally from a rigid-body displacement (Jacob Lubliner). Strain defines the amount of stretch or compression along a material line elements or fibers, i.e. normal strain, and the amount of distortion associated with the sliding of plane layers over each other, i.e. shear strain, within a deforming body (David Rees). Strain is a dimensionless quantity
Dimensionless quantity

In dimensional analysis, a dimensionless quantity is a quantity without any physical units and thus a pure number. Such a number is typically defined as a product or ratio of quantity which do have units, in such a way that all the units cancel out....
, which can be expressed as a decimal fraction
Decimal

The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
, a percentage
Percentage

In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 . It is often denoted using the percent sign, "%". For example, 45% is equal to 45 / 100, or 0.45....
 or in parts-per notation
Parts-per notation

?Parts-per? notation is used, especially in science and engineering, to denote Proportionality in measured quantities; particularly in low-value proportions at the parts-per-million , parts-per-billion , and parts-per-trillion level....
.

The state of strain at a material point
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
 of a continuum body is defined as the totality of all the changes in length of material lines or fibers, i.e. normal strain, which pass through that point and also the totality of all the changes in the angle between pairs of lines initially perpendicular to each other, i.e. shear strain, radiating from this point. However, it is sufficient to know the normal and shear components of strain on a set of three mutually perpendicular directions.

If there is an increase in length of the material line, the normal strain is called tensile strain, otherwise, if there is reduction or compression in the length of the material line, it is called compressive strain.

Strain measures


Depending on the amount of strain, i.e. local deformation, the analysis of deformation is subdivided into three deformation theories:

  1. Finite strain theory, also called large strain theory, large deformation theory, deals with deformations in which both rotations and strains are arbitrarily large. In this case, the undeformed and deformed configurations of the continuum
    Continuum mechanics

    Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
     are significantly different and a clear distinction has to be made between them. This is commonly the case with elastomer
    Elastomer

    An elastomer is a polymer with the property of elasticity. The term, which is derived from elastic polymer, is often used interchangeably with the term rubber, and is preferred when referring to vulcanization....
    s, plastically-deforming
    Plasticity (physics)

    In physics and materials science, plasticity describes the deformation of a material undergoing non-reversible changes of shape in response to applied forces....
     materials and other fluid
    Fluid

    A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms under an applied shear stress. All liquids and all gases are fluids. Fluids are a subset of the Phase and include liquids, gas, Plasma physics and, to some extent, plasticity ....
    s and biological soft tissue
    Soft tissue

    In medicine, the term soft tissue refers to Tissue that connect, support, or surround other structures and Organ s of the body.Soft tissue includes tendons, ligaments, fascia, Fibrous connective tissue, fat, and synovial membranes , and muscles, nerves and blood vessels ....
    .
  2. Infinitesimal strain theory, also called small strain theory, small deformation theory, small displacement theory, or small displacement-gradient theory where strains and rotations are both small. In this case, the undeformed and deformed configurations of the body can be assumed identical. The infinitesimal strain theory is used in the analysis of deformations of materials exhibiting elastic
    Elastic

    Elastic may refer to:*Elastic collision, a term describing collisions in which kinetic energy is conserved*Elastic deformation, a reversible deformation of a material...
     behavior, such as materials found in mechanical and civil engineering applications, e.g. concrete and steel.
  3. Large-displacement or large-rotation theory, which assumes small strains but large rotations and displacements.


In each of these theories the strain is then defined differently. The engineering strain is the most common definition applied to materials used in mechanical and structural engineering, which are subjected to very small deformations. On the other hand, for some materials, e.g. elastomers and polymers, subjected to large deformations, the engineering definition of strain is not applicable, e.g. typical engineering strains greater than 1% (David Rees page 41), thus other more complex definitions of strain are required, such as stretch, logarithmic strain, Green strain, and Almansi strain.

The Cauchy strain or engineering strain is expressed as the ratio of total deformation to the initial dimension of the material body in which the forces are being applied. The engineering normal strain or engineering extensional strain of a material line element or fiber axially loaded is expressed as the change in length per unit of the original length of the line element or fibers. The normal strain is positive if the material fibers are stretched or negative if they are compressed. Thus, we have

where is the final length of the fiber.

The engineering shear strain is defined as the change in the angle between two material line elements initially perpendicular to each other in the undeformed or initial configuration.

The stretch ratio or extension ratio is a measure of the extensional or normal strain of a differential line element, which can be defined at either the undeformed configuration or the deformed configuration. It is defined as the ratio between the final length and the initial length of the material line.

The extension ratio is related to the engineering strain by

This equation implies that the normal strain is zero, i.e. no deformation, when the stretch is equal to unity.

The stretch ratio is used in the analysis of materials that exhibit large deformations, such as elastometers, which can sustain stretch ratios of 3 or 4 before they fail. On the other hand, traditional engineering materials, such as concrete or steel, fail at much lower stretch ratios, perhaps of the order of 1.001 (reference?)

The logarithmic strain , also called natural strain, true strain or Hencky strain. Considering an incremental strain (Ludwik)



the logarithmic strain is obtained by integrating this incremental strain:

where is the engineering strain. The logarithmic strain provides the correct measure of the final strain when deformation takes place in a series of increments, taking into account the influence of the strain path (David Rees).

The Green strain is defined as

The Green strain is addressed in more detail in the article on finite strain theory.

The Euler-Almansi strain is defined as

The Euler-Almansi strain is addressed in more detail in the finite strain theory.

Description of deformation


It is convenient to identify a reference configuration or initial geometric state of the continuum body which all subsequent configurations are referenced from. The reference configuration need not to be one the body actually will ever occupy. Often, the configuration at is considered the reference configuration, . The configuration at the current time t is the current configuration.

For deformation analysis, the reference configuration is identified as undeformed configuration, and the current configuration as deformed configuration. Additionally, time is not considered when analyzing deformation, thus the sequence of configurations between the undeformed and deformed configurations are of no interest.

The components of the position vector of a particle in the reference configuration, taken with respect to the reference coordinate system, are called the material or reference coordinates. On the other hand, the components of the position vector of a particle in the deformed configuration, taken with respect to the spatial coordinate system of reference, are called the spatial coordinates

There are two methods for analysing the deformation of a continuum. One description is made in terms of the material or referential coordinates, called material description or Lagrangian description
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
. A second description is of deformation is made in terms of the spatial coordinates it is called the spatial description or Eulerian description
Continuum mechanics

Continuum mechanics is a branch of mechanics that deals with the analysis of the kinematics and mechanical behavior of materials modeled as a continuum, e.g., solids and fluids ....
.

There is continuity during deformation of a continuum body in the sense that:
  • The material points forming a closed curve at any instant will always form a closed curve at any subsequent time.
  • The material points forming a closed surface at any instant will always form a closed surface at any subsequent time and the matter within the closed surface will always remain within.


Displacement


A change in the configuration of a continuum body results in a displacement
Displacement

Displacement may refer to:...
. The displacement of a body has two components: a rigid-body displacement and a deformation. A rigid-body displacement consist of a simultaneous translation and rotation of the body without changing its shape or size. Deformation implies the change in shape and/or size of the body from an initial or undeformed configuration to a current or deformed configuration (Figure 1).

If after a displacement of the continuum there is a relative displacement between particles, a deformation has occurred. On the other hand, if after displacement of the continuum the relative displacement between particles in the current configuration is zero i.e. the distance between particles remains unchanged, then there is no deformation and a rigid-body displacement is said to have occurred.

The vector joining the positions of a particle in the undeformed configuration and deformed configuration is called the displacement vector
Displacement (vector)

In physics, displacement is the vector that specifies the change in position of a point or a particle in reference to a previous position. When the previous point is the origin, this is better referred to as a position vector....
 , in the Lagrangian description, or , in the Eulerian description.

A displacement field is a vector field of all displacement vectors for all particles in the body, which relates the deformed configuration with the undeformed configuration. It is convenient to do the analysis of deformation or motion of a continuum body in terms of the displacement field, In general, the displacement field is expressed in terms of the material coordinates as

or in terms of the spatial coordinates as

where are the direction cosines between the material and spatial coordinate systems with unit vectors and , respectively. Thus

and the relationship between and is then given by

Knowing that then

It is common to superimpose the coordinate systems for the undeformed and deformed configurations, which results in , and the direction cosines become Kronecker delta
Kronecker delta

In mathematics, the Kronecker delta or Kronecker's delta, named after Leopold Kronecker , is a Function of two variables, usually integers, which is 1 if they are equal, and 0 otherwise....
s, i.e.

Thus, we have

or in terms of the spatial coordinates as

Displacement gradient tensor

The partial differentiation of the displacement vector with respect to the material coordinates yields the material displacement gradient tensor . Thus we have,

where is the deformation gradient tensor.

Similarly, the partial differentiation of the displacement vector with respect to the spatial coordinates yields the spatial displacement gradient tensor . Thus we have,