For an isotropic elastic annulus with internal excess pressure and zero outer gauge pressure, radial equilibrium gives . Its stress tensor has and . Enforcing , gives , so the maximum difference occurs at the bore and equals the displayed expression. Once an appropriate yield criterion is reached, stress must be related to elastic strain while total strain includes a plastic contribution. The elastic formula alone cannot describe further irreversible deformation.
Past exam of the elasticity and plasticity course of the University of Oxford 2007 1 Solution 2026-10-31
The in-plane equilibrium equations are and . On a simply connected patch, each divergence-free row has a streamfunction: write , , . Symmetry gives , so another potential exists with , . HenceIf two such Airy stress functions give the same stress, their difference has zero Hessian and is therefore an arbitrary affine function on a connected domain. This is the full nonuniqueness for a fixed stress. The existence argument is local, or global on a simply connected domain; domains that are multiply connected regions require the associated force and moment period conditions for a single-valued global potential. Equilibrium alone should not silently erase that topological qualification.
For plane strain put . The constitutive equation gives . ConsequentlyThe displacement Saint-Venant compatibility equations then becomesFor stable elastic moduli the coefficient is nonzero, so . If is bounded and smooth and on its boundary, integrating twice by parts gives . Thus is harmonic with zero boundary value and by uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem. The normal-derivative condition is what removes the extra fourth-order boundary terms.
For the pressurized annulus, substituting the radial constitutive equations into equilibrium gives , so . The stresses areUsing gauge stresses relative to ambient, the boundaries are , . ThereforeandThe maximum occurs at the bore. Once the chosen yield criterion is reached, Hooke's law cannot describe the total strain alone: write total strain as elastic plus plastic strain and supplement the elastic stress law with a yield condition, a plastic flow rule and any required work hardening law. A plastic region starts near the bore and must be matched to the remaining elastic region. The exact conversion between a principal-stress difference and the quoted yield stress depends on whether the material criterion is Tresca or von Mises. This is the elastic stress concentration in a pressurized thick cylinder.
Yield criterion 2026-10-31
A yield criterion specifies the admissible elastic stress region, possibly depending on internal hardening variables . Plastic loading occurs on its boundary. The Tresca yield criterion uses maximum principal-stress difference, while the Von Mises yield criterion uses a quadratic deviatoric-stress invariant. Thus a numerical stress difference must be compared to a yield stress using the convention of the selected criterion.