### Digitize scientific plots with Python

Frequently, scientific data are published as plots correlating one quantity against another. Hovewer, it is quite difficult for someone that wishes it, to get access to the original raw data from which the plot was created. The latter is even worse in the case of plots appearing in old books or printed papers. Instead of using a ruler to extract the data with limited accuracy, I will show you how you can use Python to digitize the curves in the plot and extract the data as arrays. You can find the complete code of the curve digitizer tool here. …

### Mohr Coulomb failure criterion

The Mohr Coulomb failure criterion is one of the most used failure models for quasi-brittle materials like rocks. It is very popular due to its simplicity and its parameters are direct physical properties of the material. Its calibration can be done with typical uniaxial and triaxial compression tests or in some cases by using only uniaxial compression tests; however with some uncertainty. In the analysis that follows, the compressive stresses will be assumed positive.

### Mohr's circle

In two dimensional stress analysis, Mohr's circle is a graphical representation of the stress state of a point in a body under static equilibrium. The two dimensional loading state can be either plane stress or plane strain loading. For three dimensional analysis we may use the extended Mohr circle for three dimensions (Mohr's circle 3d).

Consider a body in equilibrium under two dimensional loading (cf. Fig. 1). The stress tensor for this case is given by:

$\sigma_{ij}=\left[\begin{array}{cc}\sigma_{11} & \sigma_{12}\\ \sigma_{21} & \sigma_{22}\end{array}\right]$
(1)

### Plane stress

Plane state of stress or simply plane stress we call a special case of loading which usually occurs to solid bodies where one dimension is very small compared to the other two. Consider a very thin solid body as shown in Fig. 1. The normal and shear stresses acting on the two opposite sides normal to $$x_{3}$$ are all equal to zero. Due to the fact that the body is very thin, we may assume that $$\sigma_{33}$$, $$\sigma_{31}$$ and $$\sigma_{32}$$ are approximately zero throughout the hole body:

$\sigma_{33}=\sigma_{31}=\sigma_{32}=0$
(1)
Tags: mechanics | tensors

### Equilibrium equations

A solid body is in static equilibrium when the resultant force and moment on each axis is equal to zero. This can be expressed by the equilibrium equations. In this article we will prove the equilibrium equations by calculating the resultant force and moment on each axis. A more elegant solution may be derived by using Gauss's theorem and Cauchy's formula. This approach may be found in international bibliography.

Consider a solid body in static equilibrium that neither moves nor rotates. Surface and body forces act on this body. We cut an infinitesimal parallelepiped inside the body and we analyze …