Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Solid mechanics

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOL : Solid mechanics


Solid mechanics is the branch of physics and mathematics that concerns the behavior of solid matter under external actions (e.g., external forces, temperature changes, applied displacements, etc.). It is part of a broader study known as continuum mechanics.

A material has a rest shape and its shape departs away from the rest shape due to stress. The amount of departure from rest shape is called strain, the departure itself is called deformation. If the applied stress is sufficiently low (or the imposed strain is small enough), almost all solid materials behave in such a way that the strain is proportional to the stress by a coefficient: the Young's modulus.

History

Major topics

There are several standard models for how solid materials respond to stress:

  1. Elastic (solid mechanics) – Linearly elastic materials can be described by the 3-dimensional elasticity equations. A spring obeying Hooke's law is a one-dimensional linear version of a general elastic body. By definition, when the stress is removed, elastic deformation is fully recovered.
  2. Viscoelastic – a material that is elastic, but also has damping: on loading, as well as on unloading, some work has to be made against the damping effects. This work is converted in heat within the material.
  3. Plastic – a material that, when the stress exceeds a threshold (yield stress), permanently changes its rest shape in response. The material commonly known as "plastic" is named after this property. Plastic deformation is not recovered on unloading.
One of the most common practical applications of Solid Mechanics is the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation.

Solid mechanics extensively uses tensors to describe stresses, strains, and the relationship between them.

Typically, solid mechanics uses linear models to relate stresses and strains (see linear elasticity). However, real materials often exhibit non-linear behavior.

For more specific definitions of stress, strain, and the relationship between them, please see strength of materials.

References


[http://encycl.opentopia.com/ edit ] General subfields within physics
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics | Classical mechanics | Condensed matter physics | Continuum mechanics | Electromagnetism | Special relativity | General relativity | Particle physics | Quantum field theory | Quantum mechanics | Statistical mechanics | Thermodynamics
  1. redirect

See also

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: