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To the laymen, stress is normally associated with the human body and mind; a physical and mental condition.
However to engineers, it has a specific meaning. Stress is defined as the force applied on a surface. Hence if force is expressed in Newton (N) and area expressed in mm2, the unit for Stress is given as N/mm2. The formula for Stress is thus given as:
Therefore, stress can be equated to the load per unit area or the force applied per cross-sectional area perpendicular to the force.
Unlike the normal stress a human body go through, in material science, there are two types of stress that a structure can experience:
1. Normal Stress and
2. Shear Stress.
When a force acts perpendicular (or "normal") to the surface of an object, it exerts a normal stress. When a force acts parallel to the surface of an object, it exerts a shear stress.
Also, unlike bodily stress that humans go through, concrete or any materials for that matter can either be subjected to compressive stress or tensile stress.
Discussing this is really stressful!