OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY ILE-IFE

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Materials Engineering
PRACTICAL REPORT
MECHANICAL TESTING (TENSILE TEST REPORT)
BY

BELLO MAYOWA SAMUEL

INSTRUCTOR:MR L.A AMINU

DATE OF SUBMISSION:7th, MAY 2019

ABSTRACT
In the material testing laboratory, Tensile test was done on
two steel specimens as figure 1 and 2 to identify the initial and
final measurement for diameter and gage length.
The results were as shown in table 1 and 2 below
Specimen A
Do(mm) Lo(mm) Df(mm) Lf(mm)
4.84 26.59 4.66 31.63

Specimen B
Do(mm) Lo(mm) Df(mm) Lf(mm)
4.84 26.44 4.30 30.30
INTRODUCTION

Mechanical testing plays an important role in evaluating

fundamental properties of engineering materials as well as
developing new materials and in controlling the quality of
materials for use in design and construction. If a material is to
be used as part of an engineering structure that will be
subjected to a load, it is important to know that the material is
strong enough and rigid enough to withstand the loads that it
will experience in service. As a result, engineers have
developed a number of experimental techniques for
mechanical testing of engineering materials subjected to
tension, compression, bending or torsion loading.
The most common type of test used to measure the
mechanical properties of a material is the Tension Test. Tension
test is widely used to provide a basic design information on the
strength of materials and is an acceptance test for the
specification of materials. The major parameters that describe
the stress-strain curve obtained during tension test are the
tensile strength (UTS), yield strength or yield point, elastic
modulus, percentage elongation and the reduction in area.
Toughness, Resilience, Poisson’s ratio can also be found by the
use of this testing technique.
In this test, a specimen is prepared suitable for gripping into
the jaws of the testing machine type that will be used. The
specimen used is approximately uniform over a gauge length
(the length within which elongation measurements are done). A
picture is shown below

Fig.a: Tensile specimen

Tensile specimens are machined from the material to be
tested in the desired orientation and according to the
standards. The cross section of the specimen is usually round,
square or rectangular. For metals, a piece of sufficient thickness
can be obtained so that it can be easily machined, a round
specimen is commonly used. The central portion (guage
portion) of the length is usually of smaller cross section than
the end portions. This ensures the failure to occur at a section
where the stresses are not affected by the gripping device. The
gage length is marked and elongation is measured between
these markings during test.

A tensile load is applied to the specimen until it fractures, the

machine used is the Tensometer. The change in the guage
length of the sample is remeasured after fracture.
PROCEDURE
1. Preparation of the material was done by measuring the
initial diameter do and initial gage length lo. This was done by
using the vernier calipers to both the inner diameter and
gage length. A picture is given below

Fig.b: Vernier Calipers

2. The specimen was mounted on the Tensometer and firmly

clamped on vices attached horizontally on the left (fixed)
crosshead and right (movable) crosshead where by left
movement of the left crosshead provided clamping space
while its righr movement provided pulling space during
stretching.
3. A graph paper was stamped on a roller at the pointer and
marked a reading scale of 1cm and the mercury pointer was
set to zero by turning the mercury knob.

Fig 2: A Tensometer

4. A graph was drawn on the graph paper by the pointer until

the specimen fractures. The specimen was then removed
and measured to obtain the new diameter and inner gage
length.
DATA AND RESULTS
Two specimen were provided for this experiment. The data and
result for the specimens are given below

Specimen A
Do(mm) Lo(mm) Df(mm) Lf(mm)
4.84 26.59 4.66 31.63

Specimen B
Do(mm) Lo(mm) Df(mm) Lf(mm)
4.84 26.44 4.30 30.30

The graph obtained from the pointer for the two

specimen are shown below
Specimen A and B

DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
 The results of the experiment shows that the specimen
undergoes ductile fracture because there was a reduction of
area at the fractured point and the fracture appeared cup,
which concludes that mild steel is a ductile material.

CONCLUSION
 Mechanical testing is carried out to produce data that may b
used for design purposes or as part of a material joining
procedure or operator acceptance scheme. Tensile test which is
an important part of mechanical testing helps us by providing
information that will be used in design calculations or to
demonstrate that a material complies with the requirements of
the appropriate specification. Many engineering application
that require high tensile strength normally us mild steel. This is
because of the crystalline structure of mild steel that allows it
to withstand high axial loads before fracture can occur.

RECOMMENDATION
 The experiment should be done carefully and use well
caliberated instruments to avoid errors. New and advanced
instrument should be employed in future for smooth and error-
free experiments.

REFERENCES
1) Richard Budymas, K. D. (2014). Mc-Graw Hill Series in
Mechanical Engineering (10th Edition ed). Mc- Graw Hill
Series.
2) Callister, Jr, W.D. Materials Science and Engineering: an
introduction, 5th edition, 2000.