ABSTRACT
The previous chapter deals with the relationship between external loading and internal elastic-plastic deformation in materials. Relationships are provided to reduce these extrinsic factors to stress and strain, which are associated with the behavior of materials rather than with structural behavior. Stress-strain curves for materials then become the fundamental mechanical data that are used to examine the suitability of a particular material for a given load-bearing application. These data are generally acquired in tension for simplicity, and various calculations, on the basis of a number of assumptions, have to be made to predict the behavior of materials in compression and shear or in more complex situations including bending, torsion, and combined loading.
