 2001, W. E.

Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 1

Constitutive Relations (Chapter 9)
“ceiiinosssttuv”  an anagram by Robert Hooke (1676)
ut tensio sic vis  the explanation by Robert Hooke (1678)
“as the tension so the displacement”

It is physically observed that the deformation and motion

of the particles in a continuous body are in some way related
to the forces applied to the body. Alternately we can say
that the strain (a measure of deformation per unit length) is
related to the stress (force per unit area) applied to the body.
This relationship essentially provides specific information
about the characteristics of the specific material that the
body is made of.
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 2
In general, the 9 components of the stress tensor [] can be be
related to the 9 components of the strain tensor [E] through 81
material parameters. Due to the symmetry of both tensors
( yx   xy , etc), there are only 6 independent stresses and strains
and the number of material parameters is reduced to 36. For a
linear relationship between stress and strain, one can thus write:

 xx  C11 xx  C12 yy  C13 zz  C14 xy  C15 xz  C16 yz

 yy  C21 xx  C22 yy  C23 zz  C24 xy  C25 xz  C26 yz
.....
 xz  C61 xx  C62 yy  C63 zz  C64 xy  C65 xz  C66 yz
or
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 3
 xx   C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16   xx 
 yy  C C22 C23 C24 C25 C26   yy 
   21  
 zz  C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36   zz 
 
   C C46   xy
 xy   41
C42 C43 C44 C45
 
 xz  C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56   xz 
 yz  C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66  
 yz 

In general, Cij are functions of position x,y,z.

For a homogeneous material, Cij are independent of position

x,y,z.

For an isotropic material, Cij are independent of the orientation of

the coordinate axes (i.e., properties are same in all directions).
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 4
For an orthotropic material, Cij are different in each of the 3
coordinate directions.

For the simplest solid material (linear, isotropic), one can deduce
from physical observation that there are only two independent
material constants that relate all stress and strain components.
These are

E Young’s modulus (slope of uniaxial stress-strain curve)

 Poisson’s ratio (ratio of contraction to extension strains)

These properties are typically measured in a uniaxial tensile test.

 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 5
Consider a test specimen with cross- P A

sectional area A and applied load P in

the x direction as shown below.
Assume a gauge length of L.
x
L* L

During the tensile test, we observe y

that the length changes from L to L*
z
and the width decreases from W to W*
W*. The axial stress and strain in the t W

axial (x) direction are defined to be P A=W*t

 xx  P / A
and  xx  L / L  ( L *  L) / L
The strain in the transverse (y) direction (due to the axial load) is

 yy  W / W  (W * W ) / W
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 6
If we plot axial stress vs. axial strain and transverse strain vs.
axial strain, we obtain the following:
 xx  P / A  yy  W / W

E  slope    yy /  xx   slope
1

 xx  L / L  xx  L / L

 xx  E xx ,where E is a material constant

 xx  L / L  ( L *  L) / L and  yy  W / W  (W * W ) / W
  yy   xx or  yy /  xx   (a material constant)
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 7
Similarly, the strain in the z direction is:  zz   xx
Combining the relation defining Poisson's ratio and Hooke's
Law, we can write the transverse strain  yy in terms of axial
stress  xx :
 yy   xx  ( / E ) xx

The strain in the z direction during the application of load P

(which causes stress  xx ) is also seen to be

 zz   xx  ( / E ) xx

E is called Young's modulus of elasticity, and

 is called Poisson's ratio.
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 8
Consider a test where we apply normal tractions (stresses) in
the x, y and z directions simultaneously. For a linear
material, we can think of this as three separate problems:
 yy  yy  zz
 zz
 xx  xx  xx  xx +
= +
 zz  zz
 yy  yy

xx = normal strain in x direction due to  xx

+ normal strain in x direction due to  yy
+ normal strain in x direction due to  zz
From Hooke's Law, the strain in the x direction for each case is:
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 9
 xx   xx due to  xx   xx due to  yy   xx due to  zz
1  
  xx   yy   zz
E E E
or
1
 xx  [  (   )]
E xx yy zz
The stress in the x direction increases the strain while the
transverse stresses causes a contraction (decrease).
Doing similar experiments in the y and z directions gives:
1
 yy  [  (   )]
E yy xx zz
1
 zz  [  (   )]
E zz xx yy
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 10
Experiments with shear tractions will show that an xy shear
stress in the xy plane produces only xy shear strain in the xy
plane and NO extensional strain* (e.g., the shear strain is
uncoupled from the extensional strain). Thus, we obtain the
following experimental observations for the shear strains:
1  1  1 
 xy  ( ) ,  xz  ( ) , and  yz  ( )
E xy E xz E yz

The term E /(1  )  2G defines a shear modulus, G, relating

shear strain and shear stress (similar to Young’s modulus, E,
for extensional strain). G  E /[2(1  )].
------------------------------
* Keep in mind that if one calculates shear strains at some angle
 from the x-axis (Mohr’s circle), you will obtain normal strains!
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 11
For a linear, elastic, isotropic material, we can superimpose
all of the six experiments to obtain the constitutive relations:
1
 xx  [  (   )]
E xx yy zz
1
 yy  [  (   )]
E yy xx zz
1
 zz  [  (   )]
E zz xx yy
1 
 xy  ( )
E xy
1 
 xz  ( )
E xz
1 
 yz  ( )
E yz
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 12
The above may be solved for the stresses in terms of the strains to obtain:
E
  [(1  )     ]
xx (1   )(1  2 ) xx yy zz
E
  [  (1  )   ]
yy (1   )(1  2 ) xx yy zz
E
  [    (1  ) ]
zz (1   )(1  2 ) xx yy zz
E
  
xy (1   ) xy
E
  
xz (1   ) xz
E
  
yz (1   ) yz
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 13
The constitutive equation for the linear elastic isotropic
material can also be written in matrix notation as:
 1    
1  2 1  2 1  2 0 0 0  

 xx     xx 
    1     
 yy  1  2 1  2 1  2
0 0 0  yy 

 zz  E      zz 
    1   
 
 xy  (1   ) 1  2 1  2 1  2
0 0 0
  xy 
 xz   0 0 0 1 0 0   xz 
     
 yz   0 0 0 0 1 0   yz 
 0 0 0 0 0 1 
Note that only 2 material constants (E and  ) are required.
The material matrix [C] is symmetric!
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 14
Important Note: Hooke's Law in frequently written in terms
of the engineering shear strain  . Recall, that the
engineering shear strain is defined to be twice that of the
tensor shear strain; for example,  xy  2 xy . Hence the shear
stress in terms of engineering shear strain becomes:
E E E
    ( / 2)    G
xy (1   ) xy (1   ) xy 2(1   ) xy xy

Similarly,
  G , and   G
xz xz yz yz

where
E
G  shear modulus
2(1   )
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 15
For a linear, elastic, homogeneous material we note that the
extensional strains and stresses are uncoupled from the shear
strains and stresses.
Thermal Strain. Experimentally we observe that a
temperature increase, T, produces a uniform expansion but
no shear and the expansion is proportional to a material
constant  (coefficient of thermal expansion). The
additional strain due to heating is thus  xx   yy   zz  T .
1 1 
 xx  [  (   )]  T  xy  ( )
E xx yy zz E xy
1 1 
 yy  [  (   )]  T  xz  ( )
E yy xx zz E xz
1 1 
 zz  [  (   )]  T  yz  ( )
E zz xx yy E yz
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 16
It should be noted that the first term in the extensional strain
terms above (the [ ] term) is due to elastic behavior of the
material (ie, it has Young’s modulus in it). The second part
is due to thermal strain. We can separate the total strain
into elastic and thermal strains components:

 total
xx   elastic   thermal
xx
 total
yy   elastic   thermal
yy
 total
zz   elastic   thermal
zz

elastic 1
  [  (   )]
where xx E xx yy zz . yy and zz similar.
 thermal  T
 2001, W. E. Haisler Chapter 9: Constitutive Relations 17
Recall, in the above, that shear strains have no thermal
component.

The constitutive relations for linear elastic isotropic material may

be written in a compact matrix notation as follows:

[ ]  E [ ]   (tr[ ])[ I ]

(1   )  1  2 

where tr  trace of the matrix, [I] = identity matrix. Similarly,

for the strain-stress equations

[ ]  1 (1   )[]  (tr[])[ I ]

E