mechanical stress
Force on structure
Mechanical stress is the internal force per unit area within a material when external forces act on it.
Engineers measure stress to predict whether structures will hold or fail: The bridge was designed to withstand mechanical stress from heavy traffic.
Stress can be tensile (pulling apart), compressive (pushing together), or shear (sliding parallel surfaces).
The term distinguishes physical forces on materials from other types of stress, such as psychological or thermal.
- piezoelectricityStress-generated electricity in crystals
- fractureSplit in hard material
- breaking pointMoment of collapse
- structural failureLoss of load-bearing capacity
- creepStealthy, slow movement
metal fatigue · structural engineering · elasticity · ultimate strength · buckling · fatigue · wear and tear · material science · pressure · yielding · bending · shear · vibration · thermal expansion · tension · torsion · breaking · hardness
- Mechanobiologymechanoreceptors, cytoskeleton, myosin, microtubules, viscoelasticity
- Cell StressDNA damage, hypoxia, cold shock, free radicals
- stress types
- ultrasonicstransducer, ultrasonic cleaning, fish finder, sonogram, echosounder
mechanical stressrest
Cessation of activity
equilibrium · relaxation · static equilibrium · quiescence · repose
mechanical stressstrain
Excessive stretching force
stress relief · annealing · deformation · decompression · unloading
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