ABSTRACT
Just as with stress, we can generalize the concepts of simple strain and simple shear strain from one dimension to two and three dimensions. For most engineering materials, the displacements and deformations are small under usual loadings. (Exceptions might be with polymers and biomaterials.) For small displacements, we can neglect products of displacements and products of displacement derivatives when compared to linear terms. This allows us to make a linear analysis, and thus, a simplified analysis.
