DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

MEng 143 – Material Science and Engineering for Mechanical Engineering Laboratory
Report No.
Second Semester, A.Y. 2020 - 2021

Name: Jeremy B. Dadula Course & Year: BSME III

Laboratory Exercise No. 2:

Compression Test

Introduction

A compression test is any test in which a material experiences opposing forces that push

inward upon the specimen from opposite sides or is otherwise compressed, “squashed”,

crushed, or flattened. The test sample is generally placed in between two plates that distribute

the applied load across the entire surface area of two opposite faces of the test sample and then

the plates are pushed together by a universal test machine causing the sample to flatten. A

compressed sample is usually shortened in the direction of the applied forces and expands in

the direction perpendicular to the force. A compression test is essentially the opposite of the

more common tension test.

The goal of compression testing is to determine the behavior or response of a material

while it experiences a compressive load by measuring fundamental variables, such as, strain,

stress, and deformation. By testing a material in compression, the compressive strength, yield

strength, ultimate strength, elastic limit, and the elastic modulus among other parameters may

all be determined. With the understanding of these different parameters and the values

associated with a specific material it may be determined whether or not the material is suited for

specific applications or if it will fail under the specified stresses.

In this activity, the students will have a picture of how the material behaves under the

compression test using the simulation feature of the SolidWorks. In addition, the students will

have a picture of how the compression test will be performed.

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Experimental Procedure

In this activity SolidWorks application is being used, so installing it to the computer is the

primary task to be done. To know how the program works, watching the tutorial that the

instructor provided and exploring it is a great help. In order for it to be done is to follow the step

by step procedure from the video provided by the instructor.

First thing to do is to follow the video of drawing the figure, then follow the video that simulate

the compression, the figure has two parts namely: DIE and SPECIMEN. In the video, just

follow everything, so for the materials used in the DIE would be 1.2803(X40Cr14) and for the

SPECIMEN would be 1.0037(S235JR) and switch its model type into Plasticity – von Mises.

Figure 1: Material Properties for DIE

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Figure 2: Material Properties for SPECIMEN

Figure 2: Material Properties for DIE

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Laws and Theories

Materials subjected to a compressive force show initially a linear relationship between

stress and strain. This is the physical manifestation of Hooke's Law, which states: E=

Stress(s)/strain(e). where E is known as Young's Modulus for compression. This value

represents how much the material will deform under applied compressive loading before plastic

deformation occurs. A material's ability to return to its original shape after deformation has

occurred is referred to as its elasticity. Vulcanized rubber, for instance, is said to be very elastic,

as it will revert back to its original shape after considerable compressive force has been applied

Results and Discussion

When all the required values are done, we are going to run the study of material that

I am using. On the left side of the screen, the result of the simulation will be available.

In the test, because a force is applied, the behavior of the material when subjected to

tensile test is the material undergo deformation. The material elongates and its diameter

reduces.

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Figure 3: Result (stress)

As show in the results of stress above, the specimen deforms into specific length and we

can also see the pressure in every point or area of our material. The results can say that the

most stressed part in the material is the specimen.

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Figure 4: Result Displacement

As shown in the photo, we can see deformation in the material and has a total of 15 mm

deformation. The most displaced part of the material is the die because it is where the

compressive force is applied and it is also the most affected part of the figure in terms of

displacement.

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Figure 5: Result (Strain)

As shown in the results, the die has least strained part and the most strained part is the

middle of the specimen in which that is the middle-deformed part and the diameter of that part

is bigger than any part of the specimen.

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Conclusions

Based on all observations and data measurements obtained in this study, it can be said

than Compression test can be helpful in producing a material after manufacturing because it

gives us the result of the stress strain diagram and we can determine elastic limit, proportional

limit, yield point, yield strength and etc. We can also see in the photo that after applying

compressive force in the material, the material deformed by 15 mm making the diameter of the

middle part of the specimen become huge that the original diameter of the specimen.

SolidWorks did a great job in simulating the stress, strain and displacement of the material and

allows us to locate where the maximum stress, strain and displacement can be located.

Compressive stress.

References

1. https://www.instron.us/en-us/our-company/library/test-
types/compressiontest#:~:text=Compression%20tests%20are%20used%20to,on%20a%
20universal %20testing%20machine

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