Chapter 4 · 2 hours
General Hooke’s Law
Practice questions
Practice questions and answers
2 exam-style questions on this chapter, written for this site from the official syllabus. We haven’t found past IOE papers for this subject yet; if you have some, share them in the community.
- Practice · 6 marks
State the generalised Hooke's law. Write the stress-strain relations for a linear isotropic material, define the elastic constants , , and and show the relations between them. How many independent constants are needed for anisotropic, orthotropic and isotropic materials?
Answer
Generalised Hooke's law
For a linear elastic body each stress component is a linear function of all strain components: , where is the elasticity (stiffness) tensor. Because and are symmetric and a strain energy function exists, the 81 constants reduce to 21 for the most general anisotropic body.
Isotropic material
Inverse (Lamé form): , with .
Elastic constants
| Constant | Definition |
|---|---|
| Young's modulus | in uniaxial tension |
| Poisson's ratio | |
| Shear modulus | in pure shear |
| Bulk modulus | under hydrostatic pressure |
Relations
Adding the three normal strain equations gives the volumetric strain ; for hydrostatic stress , so
Pure shear: the principal stresses are , so ; since (45 rotation) and ,
Hence and . Only two are independent.
Number of independent constants
| Material | Independent constants |
|---|---|
| General anisotropic | 21 |
| Orthotropic (three perpendicular symmetry planes, e.g. timber) | 9 |
| Transversely isotropic | 5 |
| Isotropic | 2 |
- Practice · 8 marks
(a) At a point in an isotropic steel body the principal stresses are 100 MPa, 50 MPa and -30 MPa. Calculate the strain energy per unit volume and split it into volumetric (dilatation) and distortion parts. Take GPa, . (b) A steel cube is completely prevented from expanding in all three directions and is heated by C. Using the equations of thermo-elasticity, find the stress developed in the cube. Take /C.
Answer
(a) Strain energy density
Terms: ; .
Volumetric part (change of volume only):
Distortion part:
Check: . About 85 percent of the energy is distortion energy (used in the von Mises theory).
(b) Fully constrained heated cube
Thermo-elastic equations for isotropic material:
Total strain is zero in all directions and the stress is the same in all three by symmetry, :
For comparison, a bar restrained in one direction only would have MPa; the triaxial restraint makes the stress 2.5 times larger. The stress is hydrostatic, so it causes no distortion and the cube does not yield by the shear-based theories.
Answer: (a) N mm/mm (= 32.75 kJ/m), , N mm/mm; (b) MPa (compressive, equal in all three directions).
Written from the official syllabus. Questions and answers are written for this site; check them against your class notes.
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