Coordination Transformations for Strain & Stress Rates

To keep the presentation as simple as possible, we will look at purely two-dimensional

stress-strain rates. Given an original coordinate system ( x, y ) and a rotated system
( y x, ) as shown below:
x
x'
y
y'

Recall that the strain rates in the x-y coordinate system are:
u 1 | u v| v
= = =
xx xy yy
x 2
\

y
+
x
.
|
|
y
Or, in index notation:
=
ij
1
2

x
u
i
j
+

u
x
i
j
|
|
|
\ .
Also, we note that the unit vectors for the rotated axes are:
K
i
K

= cosi
K
+ sin j
K
K K

j= sini+ cos j
Thus, the location of a point in ( y x, ) is:
(
cos sin
( (
x x
=
( ( (
y y

sin cos

Similarly, the velocity components are related by:
(
cos sin
( (
u u
=
( ( (
v v

sin cos

For differential changes, we also have
(
cos sin
( (
dx dx
=
( ( (
dy dy

sin cos

Coordination Transformations for Strain & Stress Rates

16.100 2002 2

Thus, defining T as the rotation matrix, we note that:

cos sin
sin cos
x x
x y
T
y y
x y



(
(
(
(
= =
(

(

(




Inverting this:
1
1
cos sin cos sin
sin cos sin cos

x x
x y
T
y y
x y

(
(
( (
(
= = =
( (

(

(




Thus to find
x
u

in terms of v u, and their derivatives:

cos sin

u u x u y u u
x x x y x x y


= + = +



Then, substituting sin cos v u u + = :

2 2
2 2

2

cos sin ( cos sin )

cos cos sin cos sin sin

cos 2cos sin sin

sin cos ( sin cos )

sin sin cos sin cos

xx xx xy yy
u
u v
x x y
u v u v
x x y y
v
u v
y x y
u v
x x





(
= + +
(



= + + +

= + +
(
= + +
(



=

2
2 2

cos
sin 2sin cos cos
1 1
sin cos ( cos sin ) cos sin ( sin cos )
2 2
yy xx xy yy
u v
y y
u v
u v v
y x x y x y

+

= + +

| | ( (
+ = + + + + +
`
| ( (

\ . )
2 2

sin cos ( ) (cos sin )

xy yy xx xy
= +


Coordination Transformations for Strain & Stress Rates

16.100 2002 3
If y x are the principal strain directions, then
y y y x x x xy
& , 0 and = are


)
2 2

2 2

( cos sin
cos sin
sin cos
xx yy y x
yy xx y y
yy xx x x



=
+ =
+ =
if 0
xy
=


The next step is to relate the stresses in ( ) ( ) y x to y x , , . Consider a differential surface
with y normal:



The resultant stress is given as the vector

and the force on the surface is . ds

Decomposing the stress vector into the coordinate axes gives:

( )
( ) ( )


yx yy
xx yx yy xy
dx i j dx
dy dx i dx dy j


= +
= + +

Note that:


cos
sin

cos sin

sin cos
dx dx
dy dx
i i j
j i j

=
=
=
= +

dx
dy

yx

yy

xx

xy

yy

yx

d
x
x
x'
y
y'

Coordination Transformations for Strain & Stress Rates

16.100 2002 4

Thus, the second line becomes:




( sin cos )(cos sin )

( cos sin )(sin cos ) ( )
xx yx
yy xy yx yy
i j dx
i j dx i j dx


+
+ + = +



So collecting all the j i

&

terms (and enforcing

yx xy
=
) gives:

2 2

2 2

( )sin cos (cos sin )
sin cos 2 sin cos
yx yy xx yx
yy xx yy yx


= +
= +


For the principal strain axes,

( )
( )
0
2
2
=
+ + =
+ + =
xy
yy xx yy yy
yy xx xx xx

Plugging this into
y y x y
and gives


( )
( ) ( )

2 2
2 sin cos
2 sin cos
xy
xx yy yy
yx yy xx
yy xx yy xx yy

+
=
= + + +

Thus, we arrive at the known result:

( )


2
2
yx xy
yy yy xx yy


=
= + +


A similar derivation would give:

( )

2
xx xx xx yy
= + +