ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews some elementary procedures for studying mechanics of materials with a view toward application with biomaterials. It begins with a review of elementary concepts of stress, strain, and Hooke’s law. The chapter then generalizes these concepts and considers a few illustrative applications primarily in the extension, bending, and torsion of beams and rods, with a view toward loading of long bones and ribs in biosystems. In biosystems, such as the human body, few if any parts are rectangular. Instead the limbs and the other body parts do not have elementary shapes. Nevertheless in some instances they may be modeled as cylinders or spheres. Therefore, it is useful to have the equations expressed in cylindrical and spherical coordinates. In biosystems some of the slender structures, such as the ribs, are not straight but instead are curved. If the curvature is significant the stress distribution can measurably be changed.