Solid mechanics

Solid mechanics studies how solid bodies deform, move, and respond to forces, temperature changes, and other physical effects. It connects material behavior to stresses, strains, and motion.

Stress (mechanics): Stress is the internal force per unit area transmitted through a material. It describes how external loads are carried inside a solid.
Classical mechanics: Classical mechanics describes the motion and equilibrium of macroscopic bodies under forces. Solid mechanics extends its force-and-motion framework to deformable bodies.
Structural engineering: Structural engineering designs and assesses load-bearing structures such as buildings, bridges, and towers. It uses stress and deformation predictions to ensure structural safety.
Fluid mechanics: Fluid mechanics studies how liquids and gases move and respond to forces. Fluids continually deform under shear, unlike the solid bodies modeled here.
Strain (mechanics): Strain measures relative deformation, such as extension or shear, within a material. It quantifies the shape and size changes that solid mechanics predicts.
Continuum mechanics: Continuum mechanics models matter as continuously distributed, ignoring its microscopic structure at the scale of interest. It provides the mathematical framework used to describe solid deformation.
Fracture mechanics: Fracture mechanics analyzes how cracks initiate and propagate in materials under stress. It predicts when defects in a solid may grow into failure.
Rigid body mechanics: Rigid body mechanics models objects as undeformable while analyzing their motion and equilibrium. It neglects the internal deformation that defines solid mechanics.
Constitutive equation: A constitutive equation relates a material's response variables, such as stress, to its deformation or history. It supplies the material-specific relation linking stress to strain.
Force: Force is an interaction that changes or tends to change an object's motion or shape. Applied forces are common causes of stress and deformation in solids.

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Applied mechanicsCompared with: It narrows attention to solid bodies rather than the broader range of mechanical systems.