Stress

Meaning
Stress is the ratio of force to area at a point on a real or imaginary surface.

stress.png

Rationale
Stress is used to represent how forces on surfaces vary with orientation and location.

Examples

Attributes

  • stress is a vector
  • common units are N/m2, Pa, lbf/in2 or psi, lbf/ft2 or psf

Connections

  • stress is related to force through integration over area.

Force = Integral (stress * dA)

  • stress is commonly decomposed into a normal and tangental components
      • normal stress (or pressure in fluid mechanics)
      • shear stress
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