NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTZE FOR AERONAUTICS TECHNICAL WOTE NO. 902 DESCRIPTION OF stRUSS-STRAIN CURVES BY THREE PARAMSTERS By Walter Ramberg and William R. Osgood SUMMARY A simple formula is suggested for describing the stress-strain curve in terms of three parameters: namely, Young's modulus and two secant yield strengths. Dimension- less charts are derived from this forma for determining the stress-strain curve, the tangent modulus, and the reduced modulus of a material for which these three paran- eters are given. Comparison with the tensile and compres- sive data on aluminum-alloy, stainless-steel, and carvon- steel sheet in NACA Technical Note No. 840 indicates that the formula is adequate for most of these materials. The ormula does not descrite the behavior of alciad sheet, which shows a marked change in slope at low stress. It seems probable thet more than three parameters will be necessary to represent such stress-strain curves adequately. INTRODUCTION An assembly of the tensile and compressive stress- strain curves for sheet materials characteristic of air- craft construction is being obtained at the National Bureau of standards as the principal objective of a re- search project. for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronausics. Stress-strain, stress-deviation, secant— modulus, tangent-modulus, and. reduced-modulus curves have been presented in reference 1 for various grades of sheet materials of aluminum alloy, caroon steel, and chromium nickel steel. A second objective of the same research project is a search for yield parameters that give a better description of the stress-strain curve than those in use at present. The conventional description of the stress-strain curve of metals by the two parameters, Young's modulus an yield strength, is. inadequate for the efficient design of nemberg unless the material followa Hooke's law up to a2 NACA Technical Note No. 902 yield point et which it yields indefinitely under constant strees. s speciai behavior is approached, for ezample by certain steels (fig. 1) and by certain low-strength magnesium alloys, but it ie not characteristic of many high-strength alloys for aircraft. Examination of the stress-strain curves for aluminum alloy sheet and chromium-nickel-steel sheet given in ref- erence 1 shows, particularly for the compressive stress- strain curves (figs. 2 and 3), a gradual transitiom from the elastic straight line for low loads toward the horigon- tal line characterizing plastic behavior. The type of transition varies widely. Hence there is no hope of reduc- ing all stress-straia curves to a single typo of curve by uniform stretching, or affine transformation of coordinates. This rales out the possibility, which exists for affinely related stress-strain curves (reference 2), of complete description in terme of only two parameters, Young's mod~ ulus and secant yield strength. & minimum of three param eters will be required to describe thé changes in shape for different materials. Several proposals have been made for describing the stress-strain curve in terms of three or more parameters Donnell (reference $) suggests as two yield parameters the stresses c,, Sg, at Which the slope of the stress- strain curve is equal to 6/4 8 and 1/4 B, where B is Young's modulus. The ctress-strain curve is then derived from these two parameters on the assumption t siope varies linearly with the stress. This procedure gives a good description of many tensile stress-strain curves of aluminum alloys, but it does not seem adequate for the highly curve gent-modulus curves found for the compressive stress-strain properties in reference 1 rom which fig 4 ig taken. Furthermore there are practical difficulties in determining the stregses corre a to a tan, sof 3/48 and 1/48 from the stress-strain curve. & © e es Heser and Shyend (reference 4) noticed that the stress-strain curves for many materials may be approxi- mated by two straight lines when they are plotted on log- log p. proposeé to define yield strength as the s intersection of these two lines Description of the stress-strein curve above the yield strength would be obtained from the slope of the upper strai line. fhe proposal is doubtless an advance over the description by an offset yield strength. It has thea NACA Technical Note Mo. 902 disadvantage, however, of requiring the plotting of 5 cient stress-strain data on log-log paper to determine a straight line through the points. Furthermore it gives no information, about the shape of the important transition region near the intersection of the two straight lines An analytical expression for the stréss-strain curve which is suited for theoretical studies of plastic buck- ling was proposed by Nadai in 1939 (reference 5). The expression is e= i 8 <5 e= 84 5 > 8. z 2 where i e strain s stress ey strain corresponding to yield strength sy Sy Proportional Limit a constant if the logarithmof both sides is taken in equation (1), it can be seen t equation (1) approaches Esser and Ahrend's two straight lines as asymptotes for low and for high stress, respectively. The description of the trengi~ tion region is obtained vy increasing the number of param eters rom three to four In the study of plastic bending, the second author found an analytical expression containing three parameters that appeared to be well adapted for representing stress~ strain curves. Further examination of the expression in the light of the data given.in reference 1 confirmed this view.‘AGA Technical Note No. 902 ANALYTICAL &: PRESSION Stress-Strain Curve The proposed analytical expression is o= 2422) 2 a (3) - _ te) where EK and n ere constants. Wadai's expression (1) becomes the same as equation (2) if fl ‘ (3) roportional limit is taken es zero, and @ropped that ey is the strain corres that is, if the she requirement sponding to a yield stress (2) may be written in dimensionless The expressio g variables (reference 6}: form in terms the follovin ere s, is the secant yield strength, equal to the ordinate of the intersection with the stress-strain curve ef a line through the origin having a slope equal to m, % (gig. 5), m, deing a chosen constant, O “1 than the comparison with the stress-strain curve: is a coBy | parison with the tangent modulus ~ that is, the slope of the person train curve. Such a comparison seems to be advi s- | eble since the tangent modulus must be computed for evaluat-. € the reduced mo: 5 in compression. (See equation (17).. HAA Technical-Note No, 902 aL The tangent. moduli in compression of reference 1 are plotted on a dimensionless basis in figures 14 to 21 together with computed moduli as given by figure 8 The alue of mn from equation (29) for each material is given in figures 14 to 21. The computed moduli are shown for integral values of x and for n= 2. To appreciate the closeness of fit, therefore, it is necessery to inter polate between the curves by using the particular value of n applying to the olotted data. Sxcept for the curves with a very sharp knee (n >10) the experimental values of tangent modulus for stresses below the secant yield strength s, differ less than 40.07 B from the values corresponding to equation (15). In the case of the values with the sharp knee (fig. 21) the maximum differ~ ence was considerably greater. These differences do not detract seriously from the usefulness of equation (2), however, since the region in which the agreement is not good comprises a limited stress range. Consequently, in thig range the difference between the experimental and the computed values of g corresponding to a given value of tangent modulug are small. The comparison was confined to the materials in ref erence 1, which did not include alclad aluminum alloys. In the alclad altminus alloys a change in slope at low stress ig observed which corresponds to the yielding of the aluminum coating. It seems probable that inclusion of thig effect will require the addition of at least on! ore parameter to the three contained in equation (2). [STZR METHOD BXAVPLE FOR APPLICATION OF THRBE-PARA! Computations based on elastic theory give a value of 3 = 87 x 10° pounds per inch® for the critical compressive stress of a given specimen. The material of the specimen has the compressive stressq str curve shown in figure 22. It is desired to deter- mine the stress: B Se whick is an estimate for the critical stress after taking account of the plastic yielding of the material.12 WACA Technical Wote No. 902 Brom figure 22 are obtained the two secant yield strengths «. = 43.0 x 10° pounds: per inch” 38.0 x-10°-pounds per inch’ ° 4 so that Zutering figure 9 with this value of no and with the ratio 0.494 gives = = 0.475 so that corrected critical stress is By = 0.473 X 87 x o® = 41.2 x 10° pounds per inch” Yational Burean of Washington, D. G., April 6, 1943ei NACA Technical Note REFERENCES 1. Adtchison, C. §., and Miller, James A.: Tensile and Pack Compressive Tests of Some Sheets of Aluminum Alloy, 1025 Carbon steel, and Chromium-Nickel steel. r No. 640, Waca, 1942. Osgood, W. R.: A Rational Definition of Yield Strength. A.S-M.E. Jour. App. Mech., vol. 7, no. 2, June 1940, PP. A63-462, 3. Donnell, L. H.: Suggested New Definitions for Propor- tional Limit and Yield Point. Mech. Engineering, vol. 60, no. 11, Nov. 1938, pp. 837-38. Ssser, Hans, and Ahrend, H.: Kann die 0.2% Grenze durch eine tbereinkommenfreie Dehngrenze ersetzt werden. Ar - Eisenhittenw., vol. 13, no. 10, 1939-40, vp. - Holmquist, J. L., Bxperimental Column Curves and Stress~Strain Diagrams. of Standards Jour. Res., vol. 9, Oct. 82. 7 s. §.: Theory of Zlastic Stability. ew York, H. Y., 1936. 8 gen ber Knickfest + Ver. ber Forschungserbveite 1910.NACA Technical Note No $02 (| block=10/50" Figs. k2 90} «6 — Longitudinal tension 60 +—— Tronsverse oO udinal compression. 70 S ad 3s ae Qo SS 5 A g40 z= : § S20 fs 2 a 20 * - tS Figure |- Stress-stroin curve with 1) = sharp knee, 1025 corbon = 10 steel, thickness 0.120 inch. bait Gnas roo § 0 001 O02 003 004 2 Strain a G0 ar iamnen? <1Staesscstrainic : igure 2- Stress-strain curves with blunt knee, aluminut joy +L 50 248-T, thickness 0.064 inch.y 1 4 < | a af > § ge CBr ° 830 | g | 8 20 e |¥ == Iransverse Fension & ° ongitudinal compression : x —-— Transverse ” | QO .00f .002 .003 .004 .GO& O06 .007 .008 .009 StrainWo4Ls » (100/10 600° 800° L00° 900° S00’ P00 £00 200° 100 Oo & |_| i 08 lo, og 08 ay t y z tet 0018 ° Ea g “YSU! O20, (a : Le ~ ssauydiuy ‘pup ve ba OF Sing 24S Jay 28 a 9 -wnktwouy9 asu 1a eal OFT ® juniq up S3A0un aa ef @ uiosys ; er 2 0973 “S525 ~E aur) 5 a _ ; pact le 081 ; [fet A @SUEANSUO, —— x 002 3 YO/ssasdulod ;OLIQN4ILUOT ----~ 6 Eel ” OSUEASUDL, —— + ; UYOISUAL /OUIPN4L/O0UBT — v Oe? One? . Geelor =4201q))eat at ‘Strain Figure 5,- Determination of secant NACA Technical Note No. 902 Figs. 4,5 4.00; — I~ Transverse compression i 2 Longitudinal compression Zhy.50} q 2 5 oO 50 100 5 IS yeta i Figure 4.- Non-linear variation of tangent modulus with 3 stress; chromium-nickel steel, full-hard, i thickness 0,020 inch. é 56 / i 4 o-Ee/ | i i e i som,Ee j = i le i s H y S tA i ' de | ; i é le i : 5 s i / : 16} i 6 J 7 o "eee “04 —“n08 “008 yield strength.[ Fig: 6] He oh NACA Technical |Notd Nol 90:Fig. 7 *(%0 = lu) soauno uoyqutnop-ssoxye sveuorsuamtg -*), oanBty 's/pa-9 OL Q # © 2 / Fi ere 20" 10. 902 oz oe NACA Technical Note No. HSIaPicersirocdbooninere sere mim ea RSS RS RRMA pacar ene nena aren Pura OTS 7== See Tehine I i ei i bette ore? ‘a cata as | WN pubsr Pe pu NEAT = | —- T Fro Ea whl 4 bt I a [Ee fee ” NACA Technical Note No|s02 g ealtiered merscaee 8 oes ico oN ey AO wean csi SEI ACA Technical Vote Ho. 302 Fig. 10 zal 15 “0 Te a Figure 10.NACA Technical Note No. $02 Figs. 1,)2 Figure I- Experimental and computed 1+ 200 stress-strain curves; — + Cr-Ni steel, fullthard, thickness |. L+ |_ 0.020 inch I wt i | 52 ‘29 ZA a § i cat g Lat il S ee ‘al oa w Sd ge 5 fm A =F 3 Ke) 2 5 é = 5 i a | Meas Com Ez Ss, a Tension, — ured puted 1008 gin 50} “Longitudinal a 25770 185.7 1473 483 Trefeverse. + —=—— 24010 1800 (a7 458 Conpression, longitudinal o 28120 87.9 574 208 Transverse. x —-— 23.660 208.6 162.7 4,81 T ] 7 | | i o 002 O04 008 008 BIO O12 sirain 100} T Meos- Com. -E Son Tension, ured putec 4000 Beg in. Longiraginal “6 10800 522 S18 (G.4 Transverse. + ~~ 10490 45.5 41.5 [05~ 80} Compressic ~ Longitudinal” o (Q850 4322331 988 Transverse. x — 10710 490456 1342 € | [eae Se ge 8 i a 8 40} & 3 Vale 12- Experimental and computed -| stress-strain curves; \ aluminum alloy 245-T, thickness 0.084 | inch, | | [ee Et | o aor O04 206 08 a0 ore SircinNACA Technicel Note No. 902 Figs. ua M { | isl | S es ge 8 3 S ie i a oor a oo Figure 8. Experineniol and conpured stress-strain curves, 02S se Cereorratel tekoes OOS 400) “ nm Material igh 9 292 Cr-Ni steel full-hard ‘th Q620 long : Re t | | z IS m2 E SS 3 40} 4 2 20} fe ° 20.4060 89 70 ~ ed Tag oss, Figure l4.- Sxperimental and computed tongent moduli in compression, BeneNACA Technical Note No. 902 * Figs. 15,16 Be ony SEF Gh nog on ERD pond | lo 48 G--1y steel I herd th 0020 / 4.00) Pe sere eee ee fe sasieeice oe IK 3/6" 8 eee eee = FASS (oC CoSeeCeasaaaeeay M7 [Jester oeceassiaLIetesteee ass * Be eae ee 0 339" " "id * "620 trans, S 8 = £- | 2 EB S| ma $ a PnP = a | ato D | ao + at o 20 40 60 9 400 420 440 o-5f Figure 15.- Experimental and computed tangent moduli in compression, 3 eesti ESE + G0, (2848 u0d.4e9 GZO) OS< 1 _| eae ‘i sw CBA » WO DT ee L_ x deere aut OO seer: torn BES | a | - - i yoy e fe “WOOD UI IINPOW just s al to eee ER Ge eerie zcortcs even aes 4 > pao | ae : red 7 pjusul N i » C0 4 Lsee . |) eet HedxZ — 12 8unbt4 § cI ~th ney cOmtee aaa B A TA SUD 20°, 1-94) Kojjo-/y 898) x 2 3 4 » 04 , 2 OSS + aes ene «790°. 12848 vod’ cep) aG< o_| 2 tly buor 1600 UY L-Sz 1 Koji? ZeOI ¥ S| g, iu jolt 10 w 4 W 2 a 4, | ~ 08 3 | sb los ci i | , ic a2 G _ 5 a he iS & loo-u Ql Le y 5 . % P| | lour = 2 Beene22 Fig. soe Mo. NACA Technical Yo +008 +0