Introduction

The mechanical design of engineering structures usually involves an analysis of the stress and displacement fields in conjunction with a postulate predicting the event of failure itself. Sophisticated methods for determining stress distributions in loaded structures are available today. Detailed theoretical analyses based on simplifying assumptions regarding material behavior and structural geometry are undertaken to obtain an accurate knowledge of the stress state. For complicated structure or loading situations, experimental or numerical methods are preferable. Having performed the stress analysis, we select a suitable failure criterion for an assessment of the strength and integrity of the structural component.