𝟓 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬

Five Major Stresses

🛩️Aircraft structural members are designed to carry a load or to resist stress. Aircraft parts must be planned to carry the load to be imposed upon it.

🛩️The term stress is often used interchangeably with the word “strain.” They are not the same thing. External loads or forces cause stress. Stress is a material’s internal resistance, or counterforce, that opposes deformation. The degree of deformation of a material is strain. When a material is subjected to a load or force, that material is deformed, regardless of how strong the material is or how light the load is.

🛩️Here 5 major stresses to which aircraft is subjected
✳️Tension
✳️Compression
✳️Torsion
✳️Shear
✳️Bending


✈️Tension is the stress that resists a force that tends to pull something apart. The engine pulls the aircraft forward, but air resistance tries to hold it back. The result is tension, which stretches the aircraft. The tensile strength of a material is measured in pounds per square inch (psi) & is calculated by dividing the load (in pounds) required to pull the material apart by its cross-sectional area (in square inches).

✈️Compression is the stress that resists a crushing force. The compressive strength of a material is also measured in psi. Compression is the stress that tends to shorten or squeeze aircraft parts.

✈️Torsion is the stress that produces twisting. While moving the aircraft forward, the engine also tends to twist it to one side, but other aircraft components hold it on course. Thus, torsion is created. The torsion strength of a material is its resistance to twisting or torque.

✈️Shear is the stress that resists the force tending to cause one layer of a material to slide over an adjacent layer. Two riveted plates in tension subject the rivets to a shearing force. Usually, the shearing strength of a material is either equal to or less than its tensile or compressive strength. Aircraft parts, especially screws, bolts, rivets, are often subject to a shearing force.

✈️Bending stress is a combination of compression & tension. The rod in Figure has been shortened (compressed) on the inside of the bend and stretched on the outside of the bend.

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