Lab report on

Tensile Test
ABSTRACT

The tensile test involves experimenting to see at what load a specimen will deform and fracture. Using
a single specimen of a certain length and diameter, the specimen was placed in a tensile testing
machine called a universal testing machine and then, using this machine, a load was applied till the
specimen fractured. The resulting load and elongation were recorded into a table and then the
engineering stress-strain graph was plotted for the specimen.

AIM

The objectives of the practical were to validate and know the principles of material strength.
Furthermore, to understand mechanical properties of materials and know how they work and are
measured through tensile test of a specimen.

INTRODUCTION

Mechanical testing is one of the most valuable methods of evaluating properties of materials to be
used in engineering applications, as a form of quality control, whereby they may be used to design or
construct products. One of the most common tests to determine mechanical properties of a material is
the tension test. As will be seen, the tension test can be used to ascertain several mechanical properties
of materials that are important in design. A specimen is deformed, usually to fracture, with a gradually
increasing tensile load that is applied uniaxially along the long axis of a specimen. In this experiment,
using the tensile testing machine, a specimen will be wrapped with the extensometer of the testing
machine, which will elongate the specimen until fracture. As the specimen is elongated, it will register
a load an extension which will be recorded to plot the stress vs strain graph. Using this graph,
properties of the material like yield strength, tensile strength,% elongation and modulus of elasticity.

APPARATUS

In this experiment, a range of components were used. The universal tensile testing machine was used
to put a load on the testing specimen. This type of machine can be seen in figure 1.
Figure 1 Tensile Testing Machine1

A load was then applied to the specimen shown in the resulting figures below until fracturing
occurred.

METHOD

Before the test, a few things must be done. Firstly, gage marks were placed on the specimen.
Thereafter the initial length and diameter of both specimen was taken. Then, the specimen was placed
into the machine whereby they were tested until fracturing occurred. The diameter and final gage
length were then taken after completion of the test. The tensile test experiments’ data, when plotted,
results in a curve which shows the Stress vs Strain of the specimen. The curve will display where the
tensile profile until the point where the specimen succumbs to the force and breaks. As can be seen
from figure 3, the results obtained from this experiment should display a similar type of curve.

1
http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5551 accessed on the 21st May 2017
Figure 3 Theoretic graph of stress vs strain2

To measure the Stress and Strain of the material, a tensile testing machine, such as the one below, will
be used together with the accompanying software to record the tensile behaviour of the specimen.
Through that data, an associated deduction can then be made about the properties of the material.

THEORY

For any material, there’s an associated stress and strain which the material experiences. Engineering
stress  is defined as

F
σ = Equation 1
A
And as such, engineering strain, which determines the elongation of a material is

Δι
ε= Equation 2
ι
The degree to which a structure deforms or strains depends on the magnitude of
an imposed stress. For most metals that are stressed in tension and at relatively low
levels, stress and strain are proportional to each other through the relationship

σ =εE Equation 3
This is known as Hooke’s law, and the constant of proportionality E (GPa or psi)
is the modulus of elasticity, or Young’s modulus.3

2
Materials science and engineering: an introduction / William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch.–8th ed.

3
Materials science and engineering: an introduction / William D. Callister, Jr., David G. Rethwisch.–8th ed.
Tensile testing relates to the tensile stress that is imposed on a metallic specimen and how the
specimen will react to react to the force pulling it apart. What results is that the metal specimen then
displays a form of deformation, in the form of elongation and an accompanying strain.

This form of testing is a widely-used test for the mechanical properties of a metal, these properties
include ductility, strength and toughness of the material. By measuring the force required to elongate
a specimen to breaking point, material properties can be determined to predict how materials and
products will behave in any of their intended applications. The test can be used to determine the
following properties of the metal;

 The yield strength

 Tensile strength
 % of elongation
 % of reduction in area
 Modus of elasticity