Engineering and other related sciences often deal with materials subjected to stress and solving for this could help you determine the strength of materials. A stress calculator is a valuable tool in solving problems in mechanics that deal with strain, Young’s modulus, and stress. It requires only a few basic steps and from this, one can also learn the relationship between stress and strain for any given material which remains elastic.
Table of Contents
How to use the stress calculator?
This stress calculator is a simple and easy tool you can use to solve for the units of stress. It requires a couple of values for it to perform the calculation for you using the stress formula. This is a lot more convenient than having to perform the calculations manually. Here are the steps to follow for this online tool:
- First, enter the value of the Area and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- Then enter the value of the Force and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- Next, enter the value of the Initial Length and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- Finally, enter the value of the Final Length and choose the unit of measurement from the drop-down menu.
- After entering all of the required values, the stress strain calculator generates several values for you including Length Change, Stress, Strain, and Young’s Modulus.
How do you calculate stress?
Simply defined, stress refers to the measure of how much pressure the particles of a certain material exert on each other. You can measure this by the force which acts on an object per unit of area. Although they do have some basic similarities, stress differs from pressure.
When calculating for stress, you need to consider an area that’s so small and you would assume that the particles you analyzed are all homogeneous. If you consider a larger area, the stress you calculate is typically the average value. When solving for the units of stress without a stress calculator, the stress formula to use is as follows:
σ = F/A
where
σ refers to the stress
F refers to the force which acts on the body
A refers to the area
What is the formula of strain?
By definition, strain refers to the measure of the deformation caused by a force acting on a given object. It’s the proportion between the change of length and the original length of the object. We can better illustrate this with a very simple example: Stretch an elastic band until it’s twice as long as its initial length.
For this example, the strain will then be equal to 1 or 100%. Without using the stress strain calculator, you can manually solve for strain using this formula:
ε = ΔL/L₁ = (L₂ – L₁)/L₁.
where
ε refers to the strain
L₂ refers to the final length
L₁ refers to the original length
ΔL refers to the change in length
* It’s important to note that strain has no dimension.
If you have a given that is linearly elastic, the strain and stress will be directly related through this formula:
E = σ/ε
where:
E refers to the modulus of Elasticity
σ refers to the stress
ε refers to the strain
To better understand this, you must first know what the linear behavior of a given material is. To demonstrate, if you apply stress to a given material, strain will increase proportionally. This might be true only for a range of stress.
The reason for this is that when you reach a specific value, the material that you place under stress may either yield or break. Yielding refers to the strain increase in a state of constant stress.
How do you calculate engineering stress?
When applied to engineering, stress refers to the applied load divided by the original cross-sectional area of a material. In most cases in engineering, the material can either be wood, steel or concrete. The formula to determine stress is:
σ = P /A0
where:
σ refers to the stress
P refers to the load
A0 refers to the cross-section area of the material before you subject it to deformation
How do you calculate compressive stress?
In terms of engineering design, compressive stress refers to the force applied to a material to produce a smaller volume. Steel bars, beams, and columns get shortened by a very small amount when you subject them to compressive stress.
For instance, you can compress a cylinder using an applied force. The restoring force per unit area is what we call compressive stress. You can determine this type of stress using the simple formula:
CS = F/A
where:
F refers to the force.
A refers to the material’s original cross-sectional area
How do you calculate maximum stress?
Stress has become so common to our modern, fast-paced culture that you can apply it to different kinds of situations. Relative to this is “maximum stress” which right away brings to mind a “breaking point.”
In engineering, you can express the units of stress in pressure units of force per unit area. The calculation of a new force and the moment acting on a given surface usually requires some integration. For a cross-section with a rectangular shape, the formula is:
I = (bh3)/12
where
I refers to the moment of Inertia
b refers to the width of the section
h refers to the height of the section.
It’s important to note that inertia I varies according to the shape of the section.
For this computation, you must gather all the required information including:
q or the uniform load
L or the length of the beam
i or the moment of inertia
y or the perpendicular distance of the load from the neutral axis
With all this data, you can now calculate the maximum stress in a given beam with both ends supporting a uniform load. Use the formula:
σ = (y/q/L2)/8*I
where:
σ refers to maximum stress
y refers to the load’s perpendicular distance from the neutral axis
q refers to the load’s magnitude
L refers to the beam’s length
I refers to the moment of inertia of the beam’s cross section
