ME338A

CONTINUUM MECHANICS

lecture notes 08

thursday, january 29th, 2009

3 Balance equations

Volumetric–deviatoric decomposition
in analogy to the strain tensor ǫ, the stress tensor σ can
be additively decomposed into a volumetric part σ vol and
a traceless deviatoric part σ dev

volumetric – deviatoric decomposition of stress tensor σ

σ = σ vol + σ dev (3.1.21)

with volumetric and deviatoric stress tensor σ vol and σ dev

tr(σ vol ) = tr(σ ) tr(σ dev ) = 0 (3.1.22)

• volumetric second order tensor σ vol

1
σ vol = [ σ : I ] I = IIvol : σ (3.1.23)
3
upon double contraction volumetric fourth order unit tensor
IIvol extracts volumetric part σ vol of stress tensor
1
IIvol = 3
I⊗I
(3.1.24)
vol 1
II = δ δ e
3 ij kl i
⊗ e j ⊗ ek ⊗ el

• deviatoric second order tensor σ dev

1
σ dev = σ − [ σ : I ] I = IIdev : σ (3.1.25)
3
upon double contraction deviatoric fourth order unit tensor
IIdev extracts deviatoric part of stress tensor

IIdev = IIsym − IIvol = IIsym − 13 I ⊗ I

1 (3.1.26)
dev 1 1
II = 2 δik δjl + 2 δil δjk − 3 δij δkl ei ⊗ e j ⊗ ek ⊗ el

68
3 Balance equations

Volumetric stress
volumetric part σ vol of stress tensor σ
1 1 (3.1.27)
σ vol = 3
[σ : I ] I = 3
[ I ⊗ I ] : σ = IIvol : σ
interpretation of trace as hydrostatic pressure

p = 13 tr(σ ) = 1
3 σ : I = 31 (σ11 + σ22 + σ33 ) (3.1.28)

index representation

σ vol = σijvol ei ⊗ e j (3.1.29)

matrix representation of coordinates [ σijvol ]

 
1 0 0 1
 
[σijvol ] = p  0 1 0  p = tr(σ ) (3.1.30)
  3
0 0 1

volumetric stress tensor σ vol is a spherical second order ten-

sor as σ vol = p I
volumetric stress tensor σ vol contains the hydrostatic pres-
sure part of the total stress tensor σ

69
3 Balance equations

Deviatoric stress
deviatoric stress tensor σ dev preserves the volume and con-
taines the remaining part of the total stress tensor σ
deviatoric part σ dev of the stress tensor σ

σ dev = σ − σ vol = σ − 1
3
[σ : I ] I = IIdev : σ (3.1.31)

index representation

σ dev = σijdev ei ⊗ e j (3.1.32)

matrix representation of coordinates [ σijdev ]

 
 2σ11 − σ22 − σ33 σ12 σ13 
 
[σijdev] = 13  σ21 2σ22 − σ11 − σ33 σ13 
 
σ31 σ32 2σ33 − σ11 − σ22
(3.1.33)

trace of deviatoric stresss tr (σ dev )

1
tr (σ dev ) = 3 [2σ11 − σ22 − σ33 ]
1 (3.1.34)
+ 3
[2σ22 − σ11 − σ33 ]
1
+ 3
[2σ33 − σ11 − σ22 ] = 0

deviatoric stress tensor σ dev is a traceless second order ten-

sor as tr (σ dev ) = 0
deviatoric stress tensor σ dev contains the hydrostatic pres-
sure free part of the total stress tensor σ

70
3 Balance equations

Normal–shear decomposition
assume we are interested in the
stress σn normal to a particular tσ
σn
plane characterized through its
n
normal n, i.e. the normal pro- σt
jection of the stress vector t σ
σn = t σ · n = [ σ t · n] · n = σ t : [ n ⊗ n] = σ t : N (3.1.35)
normal–shear (tangential) decomposition of stress vector t σ
tσ = σ n + σ t (3.1.36)
normal stress vector – stress in direction of n
σ n = [ σ t : [ n ⊗ n]] n = σ t : [ n ⊗ n ⊗ n] (3.1.37)
shear (tangential) stress vector – stress in the plane
σ t = t σ − σ n = σ t · n − σ t : [ n ⊗ n ⊗ n]
(3.1.38)
t sym t
= σ : [II · n − n ⊗ n ⊗ n] = σ : T
amount of shear stress τn
||τn ||2 = (t σ − σ n ) · (tσ − σ n ) = t σ · t σ − 2t σ · σ n + σn2 n · n
(3.1.39)
and thus
√ q
τn = || σ t || = σt · σt = t σ · t σ − σn2 (3.1.40)
in general, i.e. for an arbitrary direction n, we have normal
and shear contributions to the stress vector, however, three
particular directions {nσ i }i=1,2,3 can be identified, for which
t σ = σ n and thus σ t = 0, the corresponding {nσ i }i=1,2,3 are
called prinicpal stress directions and {σn i }i=1,2,3 = {λσi }i=1,2,3
are the principal stresses
71
3 Balance equations

Principal stresses
assume stress tensor σ t to be known at x ∈ B , principal
stresses {λσ i }i=1,2,3 and principal stress directions {nσ i }i=1,2,3
can be derived from solution of special eigenvalue problem
according to §1.1.3
σ t · nσ i = λ σ i n σ i [ σ t − λσ i ] · nσ i = 0 (3.1.41)
solution
det (σ t − λσ I ) = 0 (3.1.42)
or in terms of roots of characteristic equation
λ3σ − Iσ λ2σ + I Iσ λσ − I I Iσ = 0 (3.1.43)
roots of characteristic equation in terms of principal invari-
ants of σ t
Iσ = tr (σ t ) = λσ1 + λσ2 + λσ3
I Iσ = 12 [tr2 (σ t ) − tr (σ t 2 )] = λσ2 λσ3 + λσ3 λσ1 + λσ1 λσ2
I I Iσ = det (σ t ) = λσ1 λσ2 λσ3
(3.1.44)
spectral representation of σ
3
t
σ = ∑ λσi nσi ⊗ nσi (3.1.45)
i =1
principal stresses λσi are purely normal, no shear stress τn in
principal directions, i.e. t σi = σ n = λσi nσi and σ t = 0 thus
τn = 0
due to symmetry of stresses σ = σ t, stress tensor posseses
three real eigenvalues {λσ i }i=1,2,3, corresponding eigendi-
rections {nσ i }i=1,2,3 are thus orthogonal nσi · nσj = δij
72
3 Balance equations

Special case of plane stress

dimensional reduction in case of plane stress with vanishing
stresses σ13 = σ23 = σ31 = σ32 = σ33 = 0 in out of plane
direction, e.g. for flat sheets
σ = σij ei ⊗ e j (3.1.46)
matrix representation of coordinates [ σij ]
 
 σ11 σ12 0 
 
[σij ] =  σ21 σ22 0  (3.1.47)
 
0 0 0
Voigt representation of stress
three dimensional second order stress tensor σ
σ = σij ei ⊗ e j (3.1.48)
matrix representation of coordinates [ σij ]
 
 σ11 σ12 σ13 
 
[σij ] =  σ21 σ22 σ23  (3.1.49)
 
σ31 σ23 σ33
due to symmetry [ σij ] = [ σji ] and thus σ12 = σ21, σ23 = σ32,
σ31 = σ13, stress tensor σ contains only six independent com-
ponents σ11, σ22, σ33, σ12, σ23, σ31,it proves convenient to repre-
sent second order tensor σ through a vector σ
σ = [ σ11, σ22, σ33, σ12, σ23, σ31 ]t (3.1.50)
vector representation σ of stress σ in case of plane stress
σ = [ σ11, σ22, σ33, σ12 ]t (3.1.51)

73
3 Balance equations

3.1.3 Concept of heat flux

the contact heat flux qn at a point x is a scalar of the unit [en-

ergy/time/surface area]
the contact heat flux qn characterizes the energy transport
normal to the tangent plane to an imaginary surface passing
through this point with normal vector n

∂B̄ B̄ x n qn

{ei }i=1,2,3
definition of contact heat flux qn in analogy to Cauchy’s pos-
tulate, lemma and theorem originally introduced for the mo-
mentum flux in §3.1.2

Cauchy’s postulate

qn = qn ( x, n) (3.1.52)

Cauchy’s lemma

qn ( x, n) = −qn ( x, −n) (3.1.53)

Cauchy’s theorem
the contact heat flux qn can be expressed as linear function
of the surface normal n and the heat flux vector q

qn = q · n (3.1.54)

74
3 Balance equations

Heat flux vector

the vector field q is called heat flux vector

q = qi e i (3.1.55)

Cauchy’s theorem

qn = q · n (3.1.56)

index representation

qn = (qi ei ) · (n j e j ) = qi n j δij = qi ni (3.1.57)

geometric interpretation

q3

e3 q2

e1 e2

q1

the coordinates qi characterize the heat energy transport through

the planes parallel to the coordinate planes
in continuum mechanics of adiabatic systems the heat flux
vector vanishes identically

75