CI351 Engineering Rock Mechanics

02 Stress
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS W01.02 STRESS
Dr Rich Ghail
Room 335
r.ghail@imperial.ac.uk
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Why Study Stress?
2
Stress for Engineering Rock Mechanics 1
Stress is usually dealt with in academic monographs, because it is both
highly mathematical and conceptually difficult.
(a) there is a pre-existing state of stress in the ground that we need to
characterise and understand
Thus, it is useful to start with an understanding of the most important
concepts for engineering: a 10 Point Plan.
Point 1 Why study stress?
(b) when engineering occurs this state of stress will change, often
dramatically
(c) stress is a tensor: it is conceptually difficult to grasp
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Tensors
3
2
Point 2 A tensor is a strange thing
A scalar value has one property:
A vector value has two properties: magnitude and
A tensor value has three properties: magnitude, direction, and
magnitude
direction
a plane on
which it acts
Examples are temperature, mass, volume
Examples are force and velocity
Examples are stress, strain, permeability, moment of inertia
Mathematically, a tensor is a matrix that obeys certain transformation laws
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Stress Components
4

Force applied
at an arbitrary angle
to the face
Resolved into
normal and shear
components

shear component
resolved into 2
Cartesian components
3
Point 3 Stress has components
Consider a cube of material, aligned with its faces parallel to the x-y-z
axes:
STRESS =
FORCE
AREA
After the force has been resolved into
Cartesian components ( ),
the stresses can be computed:
and not before

CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS

Stress is a Point Property
5

4
Point 4 Stress is a point property
Although we say that
, which
is written symbolically as:
stress = force/area
We can therefore see that , each
derived from a force component. Hence, just as a force can be resolved
into components, so a tensor can be broken down into components.
However, tensors cannot be resolved: the components must be
determined by the use of a
each face has 3 stress components
TRANSFORMATON
Thus we talk about
infinitesimal cubes of
material, and we must
always remember that
any representation of
stress we draw is
strictly incorrect
strictly it is defined as
when the area reduces
to zero:
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Stress Matrix
6

5
Point 5 The stress components can be written in matrix form
The stress components
on an infinitesimal cube
all have particular names
and are put in
a matrix as
Sometimes the symbol is used throughout, whereupon the stress tensor
is often concisely written as
where the subscripts and take the values 1 to 3, representing the axes
to . This is tensoriaI notation.

CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS

Symmetry
7

SYMMETRICAL
ABOUT
LEADING DIAGONAL
LEADING
DIAGONAL
6
Point 6 The stress tensor is symmetric

f we consider rotational equilibrium of the infinitesimal
cube, we see that if no rotation is to take place then
= , = , =

which means that

CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS

Degrees of Freedom
8

y
s
m
m
e
tric
3 NORMAL STRESS COMPONENTS
3 SHEAR STRESS COMPONENTS
7
Point 7 The state of stress at a point has 6 independent components
Remember:
A SCALAR value has ONE property magnitude
A VECTOR value has TWO properties magnitude & direction and
needs THREE components in 3d
A TENSOR value has THREE properties magnitude, direction & plane
on which it acts and needs SX components in 3d
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Principal Directions
9

sym
m
e
tric
8
Point 8 There are principaI stresses and principaI directions
PRINCIPAL STRESSES
PRINCIPAL DIRECTIONS
For any stress state there is an orientation in space at which the shear
stresses vanish, and only normal
stresses remain.
These normal stresses are called
the , and
their orientations are the
Note that a principal stress state
comprises 6 independent
components: 3 stress magnitudes
and 3 rotation angles
By convention, > >
1 2 3

CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS

Excavation Planes
10

=0
=0

or

rock
air
rock
9
Point 9 AII excavation surfaces are principaI stress pIanes
On a free surface, =0 (Newton's 3rd law), and so the excavated surface
must be a principal stress plane. f there is no support pressure, the
normal stress is also zero.
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Stress Measurements
11
10
Point 10 CompIete stress determination requires 6 independent
measurements
Because there are 6 independent components of stress, whenever the
stress in the ground is determined ( ), then 6
independent measurements are required.
BY WHATEVER MEANS
F FEWER THAN 6 MEASUREMENTS ARE MADE, THEN
ASSUMPTONS HAVE TO BE NVOKED TO MAKE UP THE
SHORTFALL
CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Two-Dimensions
12
FundamentaI operations on 2D stress states
n rock mechanics often handle 2-d stress
states, and do two things regularly:
f many such calculations are to be
undertaken, then the
,
handled by a spreadsheet or similar
computer application, should be used.
f only a few such calculations are required,
is the method of choice, especially when
supported by calculation of the main values
(either stresses or orientations).
compute principal stresses and directions
compute stresses at a given orientation
STRESS TRANSFORMATION EQUATIONS
MOHR'S CIRCLE
11

section parallel to x-y plane:

complete
stress
state:

CI351 ENGINEERING ROCK MECHANICS J. HARRISION W1.02. STRESS
Mohrs Circle
13

o
1 o
2
o t ,
o t ,
o t ,
o t ,
t
+t
2o
2|
o
t

o
1
o
2
o

o
|
( ) ( )
( ) o o o = t
o o o + o + o = o
2 sin
2 cos
2 1 2
1
2 1 2
1
2 1 2
1