Experiment 3: Torsion Test on Metals

Report done by
Aumar Al-Meshhadany
40102507

For
ENGR 244(DI-X)

Course given by
Dr. Ehab Ahmed

Concordia University
2/20/2021
Contents
Objective ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Theory ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Procedure ........................................................................................................................................ 5
Calculations..................................................................................................................................... 6
Tables, graphics, and results ........................................................................................................... 7
Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 18
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 19
References ..................................................................................................................................... 20
Objective

The objective is to find the shear modulus of the aluminum, the brass, and the steel by
using the torsion test.

Introduction

First, it is important to understand what is torsion. Take for an example a towel and apply
a force, at its ends, of opposite direction. The twisting of the towel that you see is called torsion.
The product of torsion is a shear stress. Now, what produces a torsion? Well, as said before, it’s a
force applied at the end of a long object with a circular cross section. But this force in question is
a rotatif foce. This type of force is called torque. Torque is a moment that distribute stress over a
circular cross section. The relation between the torque and the shear stress will be explained in
the next section.
Theory

An important concept to understand the relation between torque and shear stress is the
shear strain. The shear strain is defined as:

𝜌∅ 𝑥
𝛾= =
𝐿 𝐿
Where L is the full length of a torsion specimen and 𝜌∅ is the length of the arc turned. If an
applied twist creates a shear strain, then a torque will apply a shear stress. Therfore, we can use
the shear strain formula and express it for the shear stress:

𝑇𝜌
𝜏=
𝐽

Where 𝜌 is the distance from the axis of the shaft to where the stress is acting and J is the polar
moment of inertia:

𝜋 4 𝜋 𝐷 4 𝜋𝐷4
𝐽 = ∙𝑐 = ∙( ) =
2 2 2 32
Where D is the diameter.

Now comes the shear modulus. The shear modulus, also called Modulus of Rigidity, is relation
between the shear strain and the shear stress and is defined as:
𝜏
𝐺=𝛾
Procedure

For this experiement, we have to measure the gauge length and diameter at different
locations for the three materials using the proprer tools. Once this done, we put the specimen we
want to stress onto the torsion machine and enter the Maximum Torque values given:

Table 1 : Maximum Torque of Each Metal Used for the Torsion Test

Metal Maximum Torque [N-m]

Aluminum 6
Brass 6
Steel 10.5
Calculations

*All of the calculations will be given for only one measure and one specimen as the rest
of the measures and specimen follow the same methodology.*

• Aluminum
o Shear Stress

0.004998
𝑇∗𝜌 𝑇𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 ∗ 𝜌𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 0.03𝑁𝑚 ∗ ( 2
)
𝜏= = 𝜏𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 = = = 1223777.909𝑃𝑎
𝐽 𝐽𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 𝜋0.0049984
32
o Shear Strain

0.004998
𝜌 ∗ ∅𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 ∗ 0.010995574
𝛾= = 2 = 0.000274779
𝐿 0.1
o Shear Modulus

𝜏𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 1223777.909𝑃𝑎
𝐺= = = 4453608627𝑃𝑎 = 4.4537𝐺𝑃𝑎
𝛾𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 1 0.000274779
Tables, graphics, and results

Table 2: Values of Shear Stress and Shear Strain of the Aluminum

Shear stress [Pa] Shear Strain

1223777.909 0.000274779
1223777.909 0.000296587
2039629.849 0.000318395
2447555.818 0.000340203
2855481.788 0.000353288
3671333.727 0.000366373
3671333.727 0.000379457
4079259.697 0.000392542
4079259.697 0.000401265
4487185.667 0.00041435
5303037.606 0.000427435
5710963.576 0.000444881
5710963.576 0.000457966
6118889.546 0.00047105
6526815.515 0.000488497
6934741.485 0.000501581
7342667.455 0.000510305
7342667.455 0.000527751
8158519.394 0.000545197
8158519.394 0.000558282
8974371.333 0.000571367
9382297.303 0.000588813
9790223.273 0.000606259
9790223.273 0.000619344
10606075.21 0.00063679
10606075.21 0.000645514
11014001.18 0.000658598
11421927.15 0.000671683
12237779.09 0.000689129
12237779.09 0.000706576
12645705.06 0.000724022
13053631.03 0.000741468
13461557 0.000754553
13869482.97 0.000771999
13869482.97 0.000785084
14685334.91 0.000798169
15093260.88 0.000811253
15093260.88 0.000824338
15909112.82 0.000841785
15909112.82 0.000859231
16724964.76 0.000872316
16724964.76 0.0008854
17132890.73 0.000898485
17540816.7 0.00091157
17540816.7 0.000929016
18356668.64 0.000942101
18764594.61 0.000955186
19172520.58 0.00096827
19580446.55 0.000985717
19988372.52 0.000998801
20396298.49 0.001016248
20396298.49 0.001029332
21212150.42 0.001046779
21620076.39 0.001059863
21620076.39 0.001072948
22435928.33 0.001090394
22843854.3 0.001107841
23251780.27 0.001120925
23659706.24 0.001138372
23659706.24 0.001151457
24475558.18 0.001164541
24883484.15 0.001177626
24883484.15 0.001190711
25291410.12 0.001208157
25699336.09 0.001221242
26107262.06 0.001234327
26107262.06 0.001251773
26515188.03 0.001264858
27331039.97 0.001277942
27738965.94 0.001295389
27738965.94 0.001308473
28554817.88 0.001321558
28962743.85 0.001334643
29370669.82 0.001352089
29778595.79 0.001369535
30186521.76 0.001386982
30594447.73 0.001400066
 31002373.7 0.001417513
31002373.7 0.001426236
31410299.67 0.001439321
31818225.64 0.001452405
32226151.61 0.00146549
32634077.58 0.001478575
33449929.52 0.001496021
33449929.52 0.001509106
33857855.49 0.001522191
33857855.49 0.001526552

Table 3 : Values of Shear Stress and Shear Strain of the Brass

Shear stress [Pa] Shear Strain

57714083.18 0
0 6.90094E-06
234610.0942 6.90094E-06
469220.1885 2.07028E-05
1876880.754 4.83066E-05
2815321.131 6.21085E-05
3519151.414 8.28113E-05
4692201.885 0.000110415
5396032.167 0.000117316
6099862.45 0.000138019
7038302.827 0.000151821
7507523.016 0.000165623
8680573.487 0.000186325
9619013.864 0.000207028
10322844.15 0.000227731
11261284.52 0.000241533
11730504.71 0.000255335
12668945.09 0.000276038
13607385.47 0.000289839
14076605.65 0.000303641
14780435.94 0.000317443
15718876.31 0.000338146
16422706.6 0.000358849
17126536.88 0.00036575
17830367.16 0.000386453
18768807.54 0.000407155
19707247.92 0.000427858
20880298.39 0.000448561
21818738.76 0.000476165
22757179.14 0.000489967
23461009.42 0.000503769
24164839.71 0.000517571
24399449.8 0.000524471
24634059.89 0.000531372
26041720.46 0.000558976
26276330.55 0.000565877
27918601.21 0.000607283
29326261.78 0.000634886
30264702.16 0.000655589
31672362.72 0.000683193
32376193 0.000696995
32610803.1 0.000703896
32845413.19 0.000710797
32845413.19 0.000710797
33314633.38 0.000717698
34487683.85 0.000745302
36364564.61 0.000786707
37303004.98 0.00080741
38476055.45 0.000828113
39414495.83 0.000848816
40352936.21 0.000869518
41056766.49 0.00088332
41056766.49 0.00088332
41291376.59 0.000890221
41525986.68 0.000890221
42229816.96 0.000910924
43872087.62 0.000945429
44810528 0.000966132
45983578.47 0.000993735
46218188.56 0.000993735
47156628.94 0.001014438
48329679.41 0.001042042
49033509.7 0.001055844
50206560.17 0.001083448
50910390.45 0.001097249
51614220.73 0.001111051
52318051.01 0.001131754
52552661.11 0.001138655
53491101.49 0.001159358
54898762.05 0.001186962
55837202.43 0.001200764
56306422.62 0.001221466
57010252.9 0.001235268
57479473.09 0.001242169
58417913.46 0.001262872
59825574.03 0.001290476
60764014.41 0.001311179
60764014.41 0.001311179
60998624.5 0.001311179
61702454.78 0.001338782
63579335.54 0.001380188
64986996.1 0.001400891
65925436.48 0.001421594
66629266.76 0.001435396
67098486.95 0.001449197
67802317.23 0.001462999
68271537.42 0.0014699
68506147.52 0.001476801
69209977.8 0.001490603
69679197.99 0.001504405
70617638.36 0.001525108
71556078.74 0.001545811
72025298.93 0.001552712
72963739.31 0.001573414
74136789.78 0.001601018
75075230.16 0.001621721
75779060.44 0.001635523
76248280.63 0.001649325
77655941.19 0.001676928
78594381.57 0.001697631
79532821.95 0.001718334
79767432.04 0.001718334
80705872.42 0.001745938
81878922.89 0.001766641
82113532.98 0.001773542
83051973.36 0.001794244
83521193.55 0.001808046
84225023.83 0.001821848
84928854.11 0.001842551
86336514.68 0.001870155
87040344.96 0.001883957
87744175.24 0.001897759
88682615.62 0.001918461
89855666.09 0.001939164
90324886.28 0.001952966
90559496.37 0.001959867
90794106.47 0.001959867
91732546.85 0.001987471
93844037.69 0.002028876
94782478.07 0.00205648
95720918.45 0.002077183
96659358.82 0.002090985
97832409.3 0.002111688
98067019.39 0.00212549
98301629.48 0.00212549
98536239.58 0.00213239
99005459.77 0.002146192
99474679.96 0.002153093
100647730.4 0.002180697
101116950.6 0.002187598
102290001.1 0.002215202
102759221.3 0.002222103
103463051.6 0.002242806
106043762.6 0.002298013
107920643.3 0.002332518
108624473.6 0.002353221
108859083.7 0.002353221
108859083.7 0.002353221
108859083.7 0.002353221
109093693.8 0.002367022
109562914 0.002367022
110032134.2 0.002380824
112378235.1 0.002429131
113785895.7 0.002463636
114958946.2 0.002491239
116366606.7 0.002511942
116835826.9 0.002525744
116835826.9 0.002525744
117070437 0.002532645
117539657.2 0.002546447
 117774267.3 0.002546447
117774267.3 0.002553348
119181927.9 0.002580952
121058808.6 0.002615456
122466469.2 0.002649961
122935689.4 0.002663763
124343349.9 0.002691367
124812570.1 0.002705168
125751010.5 0.002725871
126924061 0.002746574
127158671.1 0.002753475
127627891.3 0.002760376

Table 4: Values of Shear Stress and Shear Strain of the Steel

Shear stress [Pa] Shear Strain

231591.3939 1.38616E-05
2315913.939 3.4654E-05
3705462.302 6.23771E-05
5326602.06 7.62387E-05
6716150.423 9.70311E-05
9032064.362 0.000131685
11116386.91 0.000159408
12737526.66 0.000180201
14590257.82 0.000207924
16674580.36 0.000228716
18064128.72 0.000249509
19685268.48 0.000277232
21769591.03 0.000298024
23390730.78 0.000325747
25011870.54 0.00034654
26633010.3 0.000367332
28254150.05 0.000388124
29643698.42 0.000408917
31033246.78 0.000429709
32885977.93 0.000457432
34738709.08 0.000478225
35896666.05 0.000499017
37749397.2 0.00051981
39370536.96 0.000547533
40991676.72 0.000568325
42612816.48 0.000589118
44465547.63 0.00060991
46086687.38 0.000637633
47476235.75 0.000651495
49560558.29 0.000686149
51181698.05 0.000706941
52802837.81 0.000727733
54423977.56 0.000755457
56276708.72 0.000776249
57897848.47 0.000797041
59518988.23 0.000824765
61371719.38 0.000845557
62761267.74 0.000866349
63919224.71 0.000887142
65771955.87 0.000907934
67856278.41 0.000935657
69245826.77 0.00095645
70866966.53 0.000977242
72719697.68 0.001004965
74572428.83 0.001032688
75730385.8 0.001053481
77583116.95 0.001074273
79435848.11 0.001101996
80825396.47 0.001122789
82446536.23 0.001143581
84530858.77 0.001171304
85920407.13 0.001192097
87078364.1 0.001205958
89625869.44 0.001240612
91710191.98 0.001268335
93099740.34 0.001289128
94952471.5 0.001316851
96573611.25 0.001344574
98194751.01 0.001358436
99815890.77 0.001386159
101668621.9 0.001406951
103058170.3 0.001427744
104216127.3 0.001448536
105837267 0.001469328
107689998.2 0.001497052
109079546.5 0.001517844
110700686.3 0.001538636
112553417.4 0.00156636
114174557.2 0.001587152
115332514.2 0.001607944
117185245.3 0.001628737
118806385.1 0.00165646
120195933.4 0.001670321
121817073.2 0.001691114
123438212.9 0.001718837
125290944.1 0.001739629
126680492.5 0.001767353
128533223.6 0.001788145
130385954.8 0.001815868
131775503.1 0.00183666
133165051.5 0.001857453
135249374 0.001885176
136870513.8 0.001905968
138260062.2 0.001926761
140112793.3 0.001947553
141502341.7 0.001968346
143355072.8 0.001996069
145670986.8 0.002030723
147523717.9 0.002051515
148913266.3 0.002072308
150534406 0.0020931
152387137.2 0.002120823
153776685.5 0.002141615
154703051.1 0.002155477
156555782.3 0.0021832
158176922 0.002203993
159798061.8 0.002224785
162113975.7 0.002259439
164198298.3 0.002287162
165819438 0.002307955
167903760.6 0.002342608
169988083.1 0.002370332
171609222.9 0.002391124
173230362.6 0.002411916
174156728.2 0.002425778
Graphic 1: Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of the Aluminum

Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of Aluminum

40000000

35000000 Shear Modulus (Pa) = 26.25E+9

30000000
Shear
Shear Sress [Pa]

25000000 Stress

20000000

15000000 Shear
Modulus
10000000

5000000

0
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002
Shear Strain

Graphic 2: Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of the Brass

Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of Brass

140000000
Shear Modulus (Pa) = 46.21E+9
120000000

100000000
Shear Stress [Pa]

80000000

60000000 Shear Stress

Shear Modulus
40000000

20000000

0
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003
Shear Strain
Graphic 3: Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of the Steel

Shear Stress vs Shear Strain of Steel

200000000

180000000 Shear Modulus (Pa) = 71.77E+9

160000000

140000000
Shear Stress [Pa]

120000000

100000000
Shear Stress
80000000 Shear Modulus

60000000

40000000

20000000

0
0 0.0005 0.001 0.0015 0.002 0.0025 0.003
Shear Strain
Discussion

The given values of shear modulus are 26 GPa, 39 GPa and 77 GPa for the aluminum, the
brass, and the steel respectively. The experimental values of the shear modulus are 26 GPa, 46
GPA, and 71 GPA for the aluminum, the brass, and the steel respectively. We can observe that
the experimental value and the given value of shear modulus for the alumium are identic. But,
the experimental values of the shear modulus of the brass and the steel do not equal the given
value. This could be explained by the difference of length and diameter. Indeed, the aluminum
has a longer length and a shorter diameter which makes it more prone to a torsion. On the other
hand, the brass and the steel have a shorter length and a bigger diameter which make them less
prone to torsion, without having to take their properties into consideration. In other words, the
test was done with different parameters for the brass and the steel than with the aluminum. Also,
errors like bad readings or bad installation of the specimen onto the machine can explain such
difference in shear modulus.

An advantages of solid cylindrical torsion is that the center of the cross section stays the
same which creates a torsion through the center of the cylindric along its length. A disadvantage
of solid cylindrical torsion is that it might not fracture properly. The advantage of tubular torsion
is that it will fracture properly, therefore the determination of shear strength is easier. The
disadvantage of tubular torsion is that the torsion won’

The shear modulus value is basically a coefficient of rigidity. The higher the value of
shear modulus, the higher its rigidity. Which means a large force is required to produce
deformation. The aluminum has the lowest value of shear modulus. Therfore, its fracture surface
will be at an angle instead of being straight like the steel (see figure 1) since it can’t handle too
much force. On the other hand, the steel can go throug more force which means the material will
turn on itself more times, and will result in a clean perpendicular fracture. The cast iron has a
shear modulus of 41 GPa which means it will fracture at an angle.

Figure 1:Fracture Surface of Steel vs Aluminum

Conclusion

We observed the same value of shear modulus for the aluminum. As for the brass and the
steel, the experimental values of shear modulus were 46 GPa and 71 GPa respectively. The given
values were 39 GPa and 77 GPa for the brass and the steel respectively. This difference of value
could be explained by the difference of length and diameter of both the brass and the steel.
 References

- ENGR 244 – Mechanic of Materials – ONLINE LABORATORY - Experiment 3:

Torsion Test on Metals – DATA SHEET – Lab Section: DI, FI & LI (February 20 2021).
- ENGR 244 – Mechanic of Materials – ONLINE LABORATORY – Experiment 3:
Torsion Test on Metals – Experiment Description (February 20 2021).
- Mechanins of Materials: Torsion. Retrieved February 20 2021, from
https://www.bu.edu/moss/mechanics-of-materials-torsion.
- Modulus of Rigidity. Retrived February 20 2021, from
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/modulus-rigidity-d_946.html