Mechanical Strain in Deformation Analysis

In engineering, the deformation of a structure is related to the concept of strain. When an external load is applied to an engineering assembly, its components may experience a change in shape, quantified by “strain.” The strain is useful in determining the amount of elongation or distortion a structure may experience under various loading conditions. This course will discuss how strain is measured in experiments and how it is described mathematically in stress analysis. One important takeaway of this course is that the definition of strain is not unique and knowing the difference between them is critical in defining material property and evaluating strain results.