CE 241

Materials Science
Properties related to strength

CE241 – Materials Science

 Strength
• A measure of the stress a material
can withstand

Yield Ultimate
Strength Strength

the stress at which a maximum stress the

material begins to material can withstand
plastically deform during a tensile test

• may change considerably with

respect to the way material is
deformed
• mode of stress, type of stress & rate
of stress application

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 2

 Strength
• Increased loading rate
• increases σy and σult
• decreases %EL
• Why?
• An increased rate gives less
time for dislocations to move
past obstacles.

• Therefore, strength data are usually obtained from lab tests

which are performed under strictly standardized specimens
under controlled conditions from σ-ε relationships.

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 3

 Brittle failure – Ductile failure
• Ductile materials:
• Materials which undergo large
amounts of plastic deformation
before they break
• These materials fracture at very
large strains.
• Ex. Mild steel and gold

• Brittle materials:
• Materials which fracture at very
low strains with little to no plastic
deformation.
• For brittle materials, the concept
of yield strength is irrelevant for • There is no defined transition point
brittle materials as they don't between ductile and brittle
deform plastically.
behavior.
• Ex. Glass and ceramics like
porcelain • Typically a material which has a
strain at fracture <5% is considered
to be brittle.
Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 4
 Character of fracture
• Necking down of the specimen near fracture:
• Highly ductile fracture in which specimen necks
down to a point
• Moderately ductile fracture after some necking.
(Cup and cone)
• Brittle fracture without any plastic deformation
(square break)

1/7/2021 CE241 – Materials Science

Moderately ductile fracture
• Evolution to failure

CE241 – Materials Science

 Ductility and Brittleness
• A ductile material is the one which deforms appreciably before it
breaks, whereas a brittle material is the one which does not.

• Ductility can be defined as strain at fracture.

• Ductility is commonly expressed as:
𝐿𝑓 −𝐿0
• % elongation: %𝐸𝐿 = × 100
𝐿0

𝐴0 −𝐴𝑓
• % reduction in cross-sectional area: %𝑅𝐴 = × 100
𝐴0
If %RA > 50 % → Ductile metal

• %RA and %EL are often comparable.

• Reason: crystal slip does not change material volume.
• %RA > %EL possible if internal voids form in neck.

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 7

Ductility
• Ductility can be dependent on temperature.
• Many types of steel are ductile at room T; but, become brittle
when T drops to below the ductile to brittle transition
temperature.
• This transition temperature is an
important design consideration,
because ductile failure is normally
preferred to brittle failure.
• Ex.: Brittle failure of Titanic.
• Icy waters of the North Atlantic are
thought to have caused the steel of
the ship's hull to drop below its
ductile to brittle transition
temperature, resulting in
catastrophic brittle fracture.

CE241 – Materials Science

 Ductility Q
A

• A cylindrical specimen of steel having an original diameter of 12.8 mm is

tensile-tested to fracture and found to have an engineering fracture strength
of 460 MPa. If its cross-sectional diameter at fracture is 10.7 mm, determine:

• (a) Ductility in terms of percent reduction in area.

12.8𝑚𝑚 2 10.7𝑚𝑚 2
𝜋 − 𝜋 128.7𝑚𝑚2 − 89.9𝑚𝑚2
2 2
%𝑅𝐴 = × 100 = × 100 = 30%
12.8𝑚𝑚 2 128.7𝑚𝑚2
2 𝜋
%RA = 30% < 50 %
→ not ductile!
• (b) True stress at fracture  Instantenaous area: Area at fracture, Af
• First compute the load at fracture must first be computed from the fracture
strength as: 1𝑚2
𝐹 = 𝜎𝑓 𝐴0 = 460 × 106 𝑁/𝑚2 128.7𝑚𝑚2 = 59,200𝑁
106 𝑚𝑚2
• Thus, the true stress is calculated as
𝐹 59,200𝑁
𝜎𝑇 = = = 658.5𝑀𝑃𝑎
𝐴𝑓 89.9𝑚𝑚2

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science

 Stress-strain curve for a polymer

• Polymers differ dramatically from

metals:
• neck does not continue shrinking until
the specimen fails.
• Rather, it stretches only to a “natural
draw ratio” which is a function of T
and specimen processing, beyond
which the material in the neck stops
stretching and new material at the
neck shoulders necks down.
• The neck then propagates until it
spans the full gage length of the
specimen, a process called drawing.
• Not all polymers are able to sustain
this drawing process.

* The glass-transition temperature Tg of a material characterizes the range of temperatures over w hich this glass transition occurs. It is alw ays low er than the melting
temperature, Tm, of the crystalline state of the material, if one exists.

1/7/2021 CE241 – Materials Science 10

 Toughness
• energy absorption capacity up to fracture = energy needed to
completely fracture the material
• In a static strength test, the area under the σ-ε curve gives the
amount of work done to fracture the specimen
• Modulus of toughness, (J/m3 = N.m/m3 = Pa): amount of energy that can
be absorbed by the unit volume of material without fracturing it

𝜀
• Modulus of toughness: 𝑈𝑡 = ‫׬‬0 𝑓 𝜎 ⅆ𝜀
• If the area under the σ-ε curve is large, the material will have high
toughness, and so will be able to absorb a large amount of energy before
fracturing.
• For a material to have high toughness, it should have a good
balance of both ductility and strength.

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 11

Energy absorption of various materials
Material εmax, σmax, Modulus of Density, Max.
% MPa Toughness, kg/m3 energy,
MJ/m3 J/kg
Ancient Iron 0.03 70 0.01 7,800 1.3
Modern spring steel 0.3 700 1.0 7,800 130
Yew wood 0.3 120 0.5 600 900
Tendon 8.0 70 2.8 1,100 2,500
Rubber 300 7 10.0 1,200 8,000

* Spring steel: a wide range of steels used in the manufacture of springs, prominently in automotive and industrial suspension
applications. These steels are generally low-alloy manganese, medium-carbon steel or high-carbon steel with a very high yield
strength. This allows objects made of spring steel to return to their original shape despite significant deflection or twisting.
CE241 – Materials Science
Question
• Consider the engineering σ-ε strain curves given below
a) Determine what the are under a σ-ε strain curve represents, give its unit
b) Based on the σ-ε strain curves, state which material has the highest tensile
toughness
c) Based on the σ-ε strain curves, state which material has the highest tensile
ductility
d) Explain why ceramics have lower toughness than metals

smaller toughness
Engineering (ceramics)
tensile larger toughness
stress,σ (metals, PMCs)

smaller toughness-
unreinforced
polymers

Engineering tensile strain,ε

CE241 – Materials Science

Impact test: Notch toughness
• ability of a material to
withstand an impact blow
• Charpy test
• Energy absorbed is the
difference in height between
initial and final position of
the hammer. The material
fractures at the notch and
the structure of the cracked
surface will help indicate
whether it was a brittle or
ductile fracture.
• Izod test
• Generally used for polymers
• Different from the Charpy
test in terms of the
configuration of the notched
test specimen

CE241 – Materials Science

Impact test
• The FCC alloys→ generally ductile fracture mode
• The HCP alloys→ generally brittle fracture mode
• The BCC alloys→ brittle modes at relatively low temperatures
and ductile mode at relatively high temperature

CE241 – Materials Science

Resilience (J/m3 = N.m/m3 = Pa)
• Resilience
• energy absorption capacity during elastic deformation = amount of
energy the material can absorb without suffering damage
𝜀
• Modulus of resilience: 𝑈𝑟 = ‫׬‬0 𝑦 𝜎 ⅆ𝜀

𝜀𝑦
𝑈𝑟 = න 𝜎 ⅆ𝜀
0
1
≅ 𝜎𝑦 𝜀𝑦
2
𝜎𝑦 2
≅
2𝐸

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 16

 Resilience
• Determine the modulus of resilience for a titanium alloy with E of
113.8 GPa and σy of 880 MPa.
𝜎𝑦2 880𝑀𝑃𝑎 2
• 𝑈𝑟 ≅ = = 3.4𝑀𝑃𝑎 = 3.4𝐽/𝑚3
2𝐸 113.8𝐺𝑃𝑎

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 17

 Temperature dependence
• Engineering σ-ε behavior for pure iron at three temperatures is given below.
• Which one has the highest resilience?
• Which one has the highest touhness?
• Which one has the highest yield point?
• Which one has the highest tensile strength?
• Which one has the highest ductility?
• Which one has highest stiffness?

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 18

 Modulus of resilience
• A cylindrical specimen of aluminum having a diameter of 12.8
mm and a gauge length of 50.800 mm is pulled in tension.
• Use the load–elongation characteristics tabulated below to
complete parts (a) through (f).
• (a) Plot the data as engineering stress versus engineering
Load Length
N mm
strain.
0 50.8 • (b) Compute the modulus of elasticity.
7,330 50.851
15,100 50.902 • (c) Determine the yield strength at a strain offset of 0.002.
23,100 50.952
30,400 51.003 • (d) Determine the tensile strength of this alloy.
34,400 51.054
38,400 51.308
• (e) What is the approximate ductility, in percent elongation?
41,300 51.816 • (f) Compute the modulus of resilience.
44,800 52.832
46,200 53.848
47,300 54.864
47,500 55.88
46,100 56.896
44,800 57.658
42,600 58.42
36,400 59.182
Fracture

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 19

 Modulus of resilience
Load Length ΔL ε σ
σu= 370 MPa
N mm mm x 10-3 N/mm2 400
0 50.8 0 0.00 0.0 350
7,330 50.851 0.051 1.00 57.0
300
15,100 50.902 0.102 2.01 117.3
23,100 50.952 0.152 2.99 179.5 250 %plastic elongation

σ N/mm2
30,400 51.003 0.203 4.00 236.2 200 =0.165-0.005=0.16
34,400 51.054 0.254 5.00 267.3
150
38,400 51.308 0.508 10.00 298.4
41,300 51.816 1.016 20.00 321.0 100 % elongation =0.165
44,800 52.832 2.032 40.00 348.2 50
46,200 53.848 3.048 60.00 359.0
0
47,300 54.864 4.064 80.00 367.6 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
47,500 55.88 5.08 100.00 369.1 ε x 10-3
46,100 56.896 6.096 120.00 358.3
44,800 57.658 6.858 135.00 348.2
42,600 58.42 7.62 150.00 331.1
36,400 59.182 8.382 165.00 282.9
Fracture
σy= 285 MPa
A
E= (179.5-0MPa)-(2.99x10-3-0)
mm2
128.68 =59 GPa

Ur= (285 MPa)2/2 (59 GPa)

=0.65 GPa

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 20

Question AQ

• The stress-strain tests were carried out on five different metals

(A,B,C,D and E) and the results are shown in the figure below.
Select the metal for respective properties:

A B C D E
Highest resistance to plastic X
strain
Highest toughness X
Lowest stiffness X
Highest ductility X
Highest brittleness X
Highest resistance to elastic X
deformation
Highest tensile strength X

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 21

Hardness
• Resistance to permanently indenting the surface.
• Large hardness means:
• resistance to plastic deformation or cracking in compression,
• better wear properties.

CE241 – Materials Science

 Hardness
Material resistance to localized plastic deformation
• resistance of a material to indentation.
• quick & practical way of estimating the quality of a material.
• Large hardness means:
• Resistance to plastic deformation or cracking in compression
• Better wear properties

• Early hardness tests were based on natural minerals with a scale

constructed solely on the ability of one material to scratch
another that was softer.
• A qualitative & somewhat arbitrary hardness indexing scheme was
devised, termed as Mohs Scale, which ranged from 1 on the soft end for
talc to 10 for diamond.

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 23

 Mohs Hardness Scale
• An unknown material will scratch a softer one & will be scratched
by harder one.

Mineral name Scale Common object

Talc 1
Gypsum 2 Fingernail (2.5)
Calcite 3 Gold, Silver (2.5-3)
Copper penny (3.5)
Fluorite 4 HARDER Iron (4-5)
Apatite 5 Knife, Glass-(6-7)
Orthoclase 6 Steel nail (6-7)
Quartz 7
Topaz 8 Masonry drill bit (8.5)
Corundum 9
Diamond 10

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 24

 Hardness
• The hardness of a metal is determined by Type of hardness test
pressing an indenter onto the surface of the Brinell hardness test
material and measuring the size of an Rockwell hardness test
indentation. Vickers hardness test
Knoop hardness test
• The bigger the indentation the softer is the
material.
General procedure
Press the indenter into
the surface

Withdraw the indenter

Measure hardness by
measuring depth or
width of indentation

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 25

Hardness tests

CE241 – Materials Science

 Hardness
1. Brinell Hardness - HB
• Load P is pressed for 30 sec. and the
P indentation diameter is measured as d.
2𝑃
𝐻𝐵 =
𝜋𝐷 𝐷 − 𝐷2 − ⅆ2

HB = Brinell Hardness Number

P = load on the indenting tool (kgf)
D = diameter of steel ball (mm)
d = measure diameter at the rim of the impression (mm)

d Material
Soft brass
Brinell Hardness Number
60
Mild steel 130
Annealed chissel steel 235
White cast iron 415
Nitrided surface 750
Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 27
 Brinell hardness AQ

• (a) A 10-mm-diameter Brinell hardness indenter produced an indentation 1.62 mm in

diameter in a steel alloy when a load of 500 kgf was used. Compute the HB of this
material.

• (b) What will be the diameter of an indentation to yield a hardness of 450 HB when a
500 kgf load is used?

2𝑃 2(500𝑘𝑔f)
• (a) 𝐻𝐵 = = = 241
𝜋𝐷 𝐷− 𝐷2 −𝑑 2 𝜋(10𝑚𝑚) 10𝑚𝑚− (10𝑚𝑚)2 −(1.62𝑚𝑚)2

2𝑃 2 2(500𝑘𝑔f) 2
• (b) ⅆ = 𝐷2 − 𝐷− = (10𝑚𝑚)2− (10𝑚𝑚) − = 1.19𝑚𝑚
(𝐻𝐵)𝜋𝐷 (450)𝜋(10𝑚𝑚)

kilogram-force (kgf) = a mass of 1 kg × standard acceleration due to gravity on Earth (9.80665 m/s²)
Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 28
 Hardness
2. Rockwell Hardness (most common)
Initial P1 • Instead of the indentation diameter,
indentation depth is measured.
load
• However, the surface roughness may affect
the results.
H1
• So, an initial penetration is measured up to
some load, and the penetration depth is
measured with respect to this depth.
Final • ΔH = H2 – H1
P2 • No major sample damage
load
• Minor load 10 kg,
H2 • Major load 60 (A), 100 (B) & 150 (C) kg
• A = diamond, B = 1/16 in. ball, C = diamond

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 29

 Hardness
3. Vicker`s Hardness - HV
• Instead of a sphere a diamond pyramid
indenter is used.
d1  d 2
d
2
P
Vicker’s Hardness = 1.854 2
Top d
(kgf/mm2)
View Indentation

d1

d2
Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 30
 Hardness
• Hardness tests are performed
more frequently than any other
mechanical test for several
reasons:
• They are simple and inexpensive—
ordinarily no special specimen
need be prepared, and the testing
apparatus is relatively inexpensive.
• The test is nondestructive—the
specimen is neither fractured nor
excessively deformed; a small
indentation is the only
deformation.
• Other mechanical properties often
may be estimated from hardness
data, such as tensile strength
• Comparison of several hardness
scales is given on the right.

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 31

 Next lecture
• Creep & Fatigue

Thursday, January 7, 2021 CE241 – Materials Science 32

Work
𝑙 𝜀
• Work required to strain a bar ε: 𝑊 = ‫𝑙׬‬0 𝐹 ⅆ𝑙 = 𝐴0 𝑙0 ‫׬‬0 𝜎 ⅆ𝜀
𝜀
• Work per unit volume of material, W/A0l0: 𝑤 = ‫׬‬0 𝑓 𝜎 ⅆ𝜀

CE241 – Materials Science