INTRODUCTION
Strength of Materials, also called The Mechanics of Materials or Solid Mechanics,
provides the basis for the design of the components that make up machines and load-bearing
structures. In Statics, the forces and moments acting at various points in a structural component
or at points of contact with other structures were determined. The forces, stresses, and strains
existing within a component were not of interest. In Solid Mechanics, we will consider questions
like, “What load will cause this structure to fail?”, “What maximum torque can this shaft
transmit?”, “What material should be selected for this component?”, “At what load will this
column buckle?” Such questions were not of interest in a Statics course. But, before any of
these questions can be answered, we must calculate the forces and moments acting on the
components that make up a structure or machine. So, Statics always precedes the study of
Strength of Materials. Sometimes Statics is combined with Strength of Materials in one course
since they are so closely related.
WHAT IS DEFORMABLE BODIES?
In mechanics, any body that changes its shape and/or volume while being acted upon by
any kind of external force. The field of deformable body mechanics does not treat the body as
rigid, but incorporates the deformability (ability to undergo shape change) and the material
properties of the body into the analyses. This field of applied mechanics utilizes the
experimentally determined and/or verified relationships between applied forces and
corresponding deformations.