INTRODUCTION

A universal testing machine (UTM), also known as a universal tester,

materials testing machine or materials test frame, is used to test the tensile strength and
compressive strength of materials. An earlier name for a tensile testing machine is a
tensometer. The "universal" part of the name reflects that it can perform many standard
tensile and compression tests on materials, components, and structures (in other words,
that it is versatile).

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 Components

Several variations are in use. Common components include:

 Load frame - Usually consisting of two strong supports for the machine. Some small
machines have a single support.
 Load cell - A force transducer or other means of measuring the load is required. Periodic
calibration is usually required by governing regulations or quality system.
 Cross head - A movable cross head (crosshead) is controlled to move up or down.
Usually this is at a constant speed: sometimes called a constant rate of extension (CRE)
machine. Some machines can program the crosshead speed or conduct cyclical testing,
testing at constant force, testing at constant deformation, etc. Electromechanical, servo-
hydraulic, linear drive and resonance drive are used.
 Means of measuring extension or deformation - Many tests require a measure of the
response of the test specimen to the movement of the cross head. Extensometers are
sometimes used.
 Output device - A means of providing the test result is needed. Some older machines
have dial or digital displays and chart recorders. Many newer machines have a computer
interface for analysis and printing.
 Conditioning - Many tests require controlled conditioning (temperature, humidity,
pressure, etc.). The machine can be in a controlled room or a special environmental
chamber can be placed around the test specimen for the test.
 Test fixtures, specimen holding jaws, and related sample making equipment are called
for in many test methods.

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Use

Stress–strain curve showing typical yield behavior for nonferrous alloys. (Stress, , shown as
a function of strain,

1. True elastic limit

2. Proportionality limit
3. Elastic limit
4. Offset yield strength

The set-up and usage are detailed in a test method, often published by a standards organization.
This specifies the sample preparation, featuring, gauge length (the length which is under study
or observation), analysis, etc.

The specimen is placed in the machine between the grips and an extensometer if required can
automatically record the change in gauge length during the test. If an extensometer is not fitted,
the machine itself can record the displacement between its cross heads on which the specimen is
held. However, this method not only records the change in length of the specimen but also all
other extending / elastic components of the testing machine and its drive systems including any
slipping of the specimen in the grips.

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Once the machine is started it begins to apply an increasing load on specimen. Throughout the
tests the control system and its associated software record the load and extension or
compression of the specimen.

Machines range from very small table top systems to ones with over 53 MN (12 million lbf)
capacity

Elastic modulus

An elastic modulus (also known as modulus of elasticity) is a quantity that measures an object
or substance's resistance to being deformed elastically (i.e., non-permanently) when a stress is
applied to it. The elastic modulus of an object is defined as the slope of its stress–strain curve in
the elastic deformation region:[1] A stiffer material will have a higher elastic modulus. An
elastic modulus has the form:

where stress is the force causing the deformation divided by the area to which the force is
applied and strain is the ratio of the change in some parameter caused by the deformation to the
original value of the parameter. If stress is measured in Pascal’s, then since strain is a
dimensionless quantity, the units of λ will be Pascal’s as well

Specifying how stress and strain are to be measured, including directions, allows for many types
of elastic module to be defined. The three primary ones are:

1. Young's modulus (E) describes tensile elasticity, or the tendency of an object to deform
along an axis when opposing forces are applied along that axis; it is defined as the ratio
of tensile stress to tensile strain. It is often referred to simply as the elastic modulus.
2. The shear modulus or modulus of rigidity (G or ) describes an object's tendency to
shear (the deformation of shape at constant volume) when acted upon by opposing forces;
it is defined as shear stress over shear strain. The shear modulus is part of the derivation
of viscosity.
3. The bulk modulus (K) describes volumetric elasticity, or the tendency of an object to
deform in all directions when uniformly loaded in all directions; it is defined as
volumetric stress over volumetric strain, and is the inverse of compressibility. The bulk
modulus is an extension of Young's modulus to three dimensions.

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Two other elastic moduli are Lamé's first parameter, and P-wave modulus.

Homogeneous and isotropic (similar in all directions) materials (solids) have their (linear)
elastic properties fully described by two elastic module and one may choose any pair. Given a
pair of elastic module, all other elastic moduli can be calculated according to formulas in the
table below at the end of page.

Inviscid fluids are special in that they cannot support shear stress, meaning that the shear
modulus is always zero. This also implies that Young's modulus for this group is always zero.

In some English texts the here described quantity is called elastic constant, while the inverse
quantity is referred to as elastic modulus.

Stress–strain curve

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Fig.1 Stress-strain curve typical of a low carbon steel

A stress–strain curve for a material gives the relationship between stress and strain. It is
obtained by gradually applying load to a test coupon and measuring the deformation, from
which the stress and strain can be determined. These curves reveal many of the properties of a
material such as the Young's modulus, the yield strength and the ultimate tensile strength.

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Definition

Generally speaking, curves representing the relationship between stress and strain in any form
of deformation can be regarded as stress-strain curves. The stress and strain can be normal,
shear, or mixture, also can be uni axial, biaxial, or multi axial, even change with time. The form
of deformation can be compression, stretching, torsion, rotation, and so on. If not mentioned
otherwise, stress–strain curve refers to the relationship between axial normal stress and axial
normal strain of materials measured in a tension test.

Engineering stress and strain

Consider a bar of original cross sectional area being subjected to equal and opposite force
pulling at the ends so the bar is under tension. The material is experiencing a stress defined to
be the ratio of the force to the cross sectional area of the bar, as well as an axial elongation:
Subscript 0 denotes the original dimensions of the sample. The SI unit for stress is Newton per
square meter, or Pascal (1 Pascal = 1 Pa = 1 N/m2), and for strain is "1". Stress-strain curve for
this material is plotted by elongating the sample and recording the stress variation with strain
until the sample fractures. By convention, the strain is set to the horizontal axis and stress is set
to vertical axis. Note that for engineering purposes we often assume the cross-section area of
the material does not change during the whole deformation process. This is not true since the
actual area will decrease while deforming due to elastic and plastic deformation. The curve
based on the original cross-section and gauge length is called the engineering stress-strain
curve, while the curve based on the instantaneous cross-section area and length is called the true
stress-strain curve. Unless stated otherwise, engineering stress-strain is generally used.

True stress and strain

The difference between true stress–strain curve and engineering stress–strain curveDue to the
shrinking of section area and the ignored effect of developed elongation to further elongation,
true stress and strain are different from engineering stress and strain. Here the dimensions are
instantaneous values. Assuming volume of the sample conserves and deformation happens
uniformly, the true stress and strain can be expressed by engineering

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Stress and Strain. For true stress, For the strain, Integrate both sides and apply the boundary
condition, So in a tension test, true stress is larger than engineering stress and true strain is
less than engineering strain. Thus, a point defining true stress-strain curve is displaced
upwards and to the left to define the equivalent engineering stress-strain curve. The
difference between the true and engineering stresses and strains will increase with plastic
deformation. At low strains (such as elastic deformation), the differences between the two is
negligible. As for the tensile strength point, it is the maximal point in engineering stress-strain
curve but is not a special point in true stress-strain curve. Because engineering stress is
proportional to the force applied along the sample, the criterion for necking formation can be
set as. This analysis suggests nature of the UTS point. The work strengthening effect is exactly
balanced by the shrinking of section area at UTS point. After the formation of necking, the
sample undergoes heterogeneous deformation, so equations above are not valid. The stress
and strain at the necking can be expressed as: An empirical equation is commonly used to
describe the relationship between true stress and strain.
Here, is the strain-hardening coefficient and is the strength coefficient. Is a measure of a
material's work hardening behavior? Materials with a higher have a greater resistance to
necking. Typically, metals at room temperature have ranging from 0.02 to 0.5.
Stages

A schematic diagram for the stress-strain curve of low carbon steel at room temperature is
shown in figure 1. There are several stages showing different behaviors, which suggest different
mechanical properties. To clarify, materials can miss one or more stages shown in figure 1, or
have totally different stages. The first stage is the linear elastic region. The stress is proportional
to the strain, that is, obeys the general Hooke's law, and the slope is Young's modulus. In this
region, the material undergoes only elastic deformation. The end of the stage is the initiation
point of plastic deformation. The stress component of this point is defined as yield strength (or
upper yield point, UYP for short).

The second stage is the strain hardening region. This region starts as the strain goes beyond the
yielding point, reaching a maximum at the ultimate strength point, which is the maximal stress
that can be sustained and is called the ultimate tensile strength (UTS). In this region, the stress
mainly increases as the material elongates, except that for some materials such as steel, there is
a nearly flat region at the beginning. The stress of the flat region is defined as the lower yield
point (LYP) and results from the formation and propagation of Lüders bands. Explicitly,
heterogeneous plastic deformation forms bands at the upper yield strength and these bands
carrying with deformation spread along the sample at the lower yield strength. After the sample
is again uniformly deformed, the increase of stress with the progress of extension results from
work strengthening, that is, dense dislocations induced by plastic deformation hampers the
further motion of dislocations.

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To overcome these obstacles, a higher resolved shear stress should be applied. As the strain
accumulates, work strengthening gets reinforced, until the stress reaches the ultimate tensile
strength. The third stage is the necking region. Beyond tensile strength, a neck forms where the
local cross-sectional area becomes significantly smaller than the average. The necking
deformation is heterogeneous and will reinforce itself as the stress concentrates more at small
section. Such positive feedback leads to quick development of necking and leads to fracture.
Note that though the pulling force is decreasing, the work strengthening is still progressing, that
is, the true stress keeps growing but the engineering stress decreases because the shrinking
section area is not considered. This region ends up with the fracture. After fracture, percent
elongation and reduction in section area can be calculated.

Classification

Stress–strain curve for brittle materials compared to ductile materials.

It is possible to distinguish some common characteristics among the stress–strain curves of

various groups of materials and, on this basis, to divide materials into two broad categories;
namely, the ductile materials and the brittle materials.

Ductile materials

Ductile material ls, which include structural steel and many alloys of other metals, are
characterized by their ability to yield at normal temperatures.

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Low carbon steel generally exhibits a very linear stress–strain relationship up to a well defined
yield point (Fig.1). The linear portion of the curve is the elastic region and the slope is the
modulus of elasticity or Young's modulus . Many ductile materials including some metals,
polymers and ceramics exhibit a yield point. Plastic flow initiates at the upper yield point and
continues at the lower one. At lower yield point, permanent deformation is heterogeneously
distributed along the sample. The deformation band which formed at the upper yield point will
propagate along the gauge length at the lower yield point. The band occupies the whole of the
gauge at the luders strain. Beyond this point, work hardening commences. The appearance of
the yield point is associated with pinning of dislocations in the system. For example, solid
solution interacts with dislocations and acts as pin and prevent dislocation from moving.
Therefore, the stress needed to initiate the movement will be large. As long as the dislocation
escape from the pinning, stress needed to continue it is less.

After the yield point, the curve typically decreases slightly because of dislocations escaping
from Cottrell atmospheres. As deformation continues, the stress increases on account of strain
hardening until it reaches the ultimate tensile stress. Until this point, the cross-sectional area
decreases uniformly because of Poisson contractions. Then it starts necking and finally
fractures.

The appearance of necking in ductile materials is associated with geometrical instability in the
system. Due to the natural inhomogeneity of the material, it is common to find some regions
with small inclusions or porosity within it or surface, where strain will concentrate, leading to a
locally smaller area than other regions. For strain less than the ultimate tensile strain, the
increase of work-hardening rate in this region will be greater than the area reduction rate,
thereby make this region harder to be further deform than others, so that the instability will be
removed, i.e. the materials have abilities to weaken the inhomogeneity before reaching ultimate
strain. However, as the strain become larger, the work hardening rate will decreases, so that for
now the region with smaller area is weaker than other region, therefore reduction in area will
concentrate in this region and the neck becomes more and more pronounced until fracture. After
the neck has formed in the materials, further plastic deformation is concentrated in the neck
while the remainder of the material undergoes elastic contraction owing to the decrease in
tensile force.

The stress-strain curve for a ductile material can be approximated using the Ramberg-Osgood
equation.This equation is straightforward to implement, and only requires the material's yield
strength, ultimate strength, elastic modulus, and percent elongation.

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Brittle materials

Brittle materials, which includes cast iron, glass, and stone, are characterized by the fact
that rupture occurs without any noticeable prior change in the rate of
elongation,sometimes they fracture before yielding. Brittle materials such as concrete or
carbon fiber do not have a well-defined yield point, and do not strain-harden. Therefore,
the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same. Typical brittle materials like
glass do not show any plastic deformation but fail while the deformation is elastic. One of
the characteristics of a brittle failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to
produce the same shape as the original component as there will not be a neck formation
like in the case of ductile materials. A typical stress–strain curve for a brittle material will
be linear. For some materials, such as concrete, tensile strength is negligible compared to
the compressive strength and it is assumed zero for many engineering applications. Glass
fibers have a tensile strength stronger than steel, but bulk glass usually does not. This is
because of the stress intensity factor associated with defects in the material. As the size of
the sample gets larger, the size of defects also grows. In general, the tensile strength of a
rope is always less than the sum of the tensile strengths of its individual fibers.

Fatigue testing

IABG Fatigue test of the A380 wing

Fatigue testing is a specialized form of mechanical testing that is performed by applying cyclic
loading to a coupon or structure. These tests are used to generate fatigue life and crack growth
data, identify critical locations or demonstrate the safety of a structure that may be susceptible
to fatigue. Fatigue tests are used on range components from coupons through to full size test
articles such as automobiles and aircraft.

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Fatigue tests on coupons are typically conducted using servo hydraulic test machines which are
capable of applying large variable amplitude cyclic loads. Constant amplitude testing can also
be applied by simpler oscillating machines. The fatigue life of a coupon is the number of cycles
it takes to break the coupon. This data can be used for creating stress-life or strain-life curves.
The rate of crack growth in a coupon can also be measured, either during the test or afterward
using fracto graphy. Testing of coupons can also be carried out inside environmental chambers
where the temperature, humidity and environment that may affect the rate of crack growth can
be controlled.

Because of the size and unique shape of full size test articles, special test rigs are built to apply
loads through a series of hydraulic or electric actuators. Actuators aim to reproduce the
significant loads experienced by a structure, which in the case of aircraft, may consist of
manoeuvre, gust, buffet and ground-air-ground (GAG) loading. A representative sample or
block of loading is applied repeatedly until the safe life of the structure has been demonstrated
or failures occur which need to be repaired. Instrumentation such as load cells, strain gauges
and displacement gauges are installed on the structure to ensure the correct loading has been
applied. Periodic inspections of the structure around critical stress concentrations such as holes
and fittings are made to determine the time detectable cracks were found and to ensure any
cracking that does occur, does not affect other areas of the test article. Because not all loads can
be applied, any unbalanced structural loads are typically reacted out to the test floor through
non-critical structure such as the undercarriage. Airworthiness standards generally require a
fatigue test to be carried out for large aircraft prior to certification to determine their safe life.[2]
Small aircraft may demonstrate safety through calculations, although typically larger scatter or
safety factors are used because of the additional uncertainty involved.

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Coupon tests

MTS-810 Fatigue test machine

Fatigue tests are used to obtain material data such as the rate of growth of a fatigue crack that
can be used with crack growth equations to predict the fatigue life. These tests usually
determine the rate of crack growth per cycle versus the stress intensity factor range .
Standardised tests have been developed to ensure repeatability and to allow the stress intensity
factor to be easily determined.

Coupon shape,A variety of coupons can be used but some of the common ones are:

 compact tension coupon (CT)

 Centre Cracked Tension panel (CCT)
 Single Edge Notch Tension coupon (SENT).

Instrumentation

The following instrumentation is commonly used for monitoring coupon tests:

 Strain gauges are used to monitor the applied loading or stress fields around the crack
tip. They may be placed beneath the path of the crack or on the back face of a compact
tension coupon.

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  An extensometer or displacement gauge can be used to measure the crack tip opening
displacement at the mouth of a crack. This value can be used to determine the stress
intensity factor which will change with the length of the crack. Displacement gauges can
also be used to measure the compliance of a coupon and the position during the loading
cycle when contact between the opposite cracks faces occur in order to measure crack
closure.
 Applied test loads are usually monitored on the test machine with a load cell.
 Optical travelling microscopes can be use for measurement of the position of the crack
tip.

Full scale fatigue tests

Fatigue test at Boeing Everett.Full scale tests may be used to:

1. Demonstrate the safety of a structure that may be susceptible to fatigue.

2. generate fatigue data
3. identify critical locations

Fatigue tests can also be used to determine the extent that widespread fatigue damage may be a
problem.

Test article

Certification requires knowing and accounting for the complete load history that has been
experienced by a test article. The load history may be recorded using a data acquisition system
which is typically incorporated in to the black box flight recorder.

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Using test articles that have previously been used for static proof testing have caused problems
where overloads have been applied and that can retard the rate of fatigue crack growth.

Fatigue cracks typically initiate from high stress regions such as stress concentrations or
material and manufacturing defects. It is important that the test article is representative of all of
these features.

Crack may initiate from the following sources:

 Fretting, typically from high cycle count dynamic loads.

 M.S -drilled holes or incorrectly sized holes for interference fit fasteners.
 Material treatment and defects such as broken inclusions.
 Stress concentrations such as holes and fillets.
 Scratches, impact damage.

Loading sequence

A representative block of loading is applied repeatedly until the safe life of the structure has
been demonstrated or failures occur which need to be repaired. The size of the sequence is
chosen so that the maximum loads which may cause retardation effects are applied sufficiently
often, typically at least ten times throughout the test, so that there are no sequence effects.

The loading sequence is generally filtered to eliminate applying small non-fatigue damaging
cycles that would take too long to apply. Two types of filtering are typically used:

1. Dead band filtering eliminates small cycles that completely fall within a certain range
such as +/-3g.
2. rise-fall filtering eliminates small cycles that are less than a certain range such as 1g.

The testing rate of large structures is typically limited to a few Hz and needs to avoid the
resonance frequency of the structure.

Test rig
Fatigue test rig at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

All components that are not part of the test article or instrumentation are termed the test rig.
The following components are typically found in full scale fatigue tests:

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  Whiffle trees. In order to apply the correct loads to various parts of the structure, a
mechanism known as a whiffle tree is used to distribute the loads from a loading
actuator to the test article. Loads applied to a central point are distributed through a
series of pin jointed connected beams to produce known loads at the end connections.
Each end connection is typically attached to a pad which is bonded onto the structure
such as an aircraft wing. Hundreds of pads are usually applied to reproduce the
aerodynamic and inertial loads seen on wing. Because the whiffle tree consists of
tension linkages, they are unable to apply compressive loads and therefore,
independent whiffle trees are typically used on the upper and lower sides of wing
fatigue tests.
 Hydraulic, electromagnetic or pneumatic actuators are used to apply loads to the
structure, either directly or through the use of a whiffle tree to distribute the loads. A
load cell is placed inline with the actuator and is used by the load controller to control
the loads into the actuator. When many actuators are used on a flexible test structure,
there may be cross-interaction between the different actuators. The load controller
must ensure that spurious loading cycles are not applied to the structure as a result of
this interaction.
 Reaction restraints. Many of the loads such as aerodynamic and internal forces are re-
acted by internal forces which are not present during a fatigue test. Hence, the loads are
reacted out of the structure at non-critical points such as the undercarriage or through
restraints on the fuselage.
 Linear variable differential transformer can be used to measure the displacement of
critical locations on the structure. Limits on these displacements can be used to signal
when a structure has failed and to automatically shut down the test.
 Non-representative structure. Some test structure may be expensive or unavailable and
are typically replaced on the test structure with an equivalent structure. Structure that
is close to actuator attachment points may see an unrealistic load that makes these
areas non-representative.

Instrumentation

The following instrumentation is typically used on a fatigue test:

 strain gauges
 accelerometers
 displacement gauges
 load cells
 crack sensor
 structural health monitoring sensors

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 Conclusion
Test interpretation and certification involves using the results from the fatigue test to justify the
safe life and operation of an item. The purpose of certification is to ensure the probability of
failure in service is acceptably small. The following factors may need to be considered:

 number of tests
 symmetry of the test structure and the applied loading
 installation and certification of repairs
 scatter factors
 material and manufacturing process variability
 environment
 criticality

• At lower values of pulse on time and peak current and higher value of spark gap voltage
low or negligible residual stress value of 8.2 MPa was observed.
• • At low discharge energy conditions better morphological characteristics were obtained
in terms of lower roughness value and narrow machined pocks. Surface cracks were not
observed at all the machining conditions.
• • A wide range of WLT values were observed ranging from 12 μm to 50 μm. The
obtained values for inconel alloy were slightly high when compared to other metals. But with
the sacrifice of MRR the WLT values can be obtained as low as 3–5 μm.
• • The elastic properties of inter metallic’s in terms of G/K ratio and residual stresses
influenced the hardness value of wire UTM inconel alloy. The observed hardness values were
slightly high when compared to as received material. The AlCu3 inter metallic was anisotropic
in nature and its formation must either be controlled or prevented.

16
 References
[1]Pujari srinivasa Rao. 2016. Surface integrity of wire UTM aluminium alloy: A
comprehensive experimental investigation, 199, 369-378.
[2]J.R Gavage, A.K.M Desilva , 2018. Effect of wire breakage on the process of energy
utilization of UTM Sci. Eng. 39, 4187–4199.
[3]F K Locke, L Hengen. Structure and composition of white layer In the UTM process. No.2;
1997. Pp.19-24.

 Davis, Joseph R. (2004), Tensile testing (2nd ed.), ASM International, p. 2, ISBN 978-0-87170-
806-9.
 Annappa, C H (July 2012), "APPLICATION OF VALUE ENGINEERING FOR COST REDUCTION – A
CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSAL TESTING MACHINE", International Journal of Advances in
Engineering & Technology, 4 (1): 618–629, retrieved 1 December 2017

 NIST, Large Scale Structure Testing Facility, archived from the original on 5 June 2010,
retrieved 4 May 2010.

 Kirstein (1971). Universal Testing Machine of 12-Million-lbf Capacity, NBS Pub 355 (PDF)
(Report). NIST. Retrieved 22 May 2017.

ASTM E74 - Practice for Calibration of Force Measuring Instruments for Verifying the Force
Indication of Testing Machines

 ASTM E83 - Practice for Verification and Classification on Extensometer Systems

 ASTM E1012 - Practice for Verification of Test Frame and Specimen Alignment Under
Tensile and Compressive Axial Force Application
 ASTM E1856 - Standard Guide for Evaluating Computerized Data Acquisition Systems
Used to Acquire Data from Universal Testing Machines
 JIS K7171 - Standard for determine the flextural strength for plastic material & products

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