Sean Bruegman 10/26/2015

MMAE 419-01
Prof. Murat Vural

Torsion Testing
Abstract:
The objective of this lab was to use universal torsion testing machine to test
round steel, brass, and aluminum specimens in order to observe the effects of shear
stress on different materials.
Introduction:
A moment is a force applied to an object about an axis. If the axis runs
longitudinally through the beam, such that it causes twisting, that is called torque. The
strain in this case would be measured as the angle of twist. Torque and angle of twist
are described by the equations:

𝜏𝐽
𝑇= (9-1)
𝑐
𝑇𝐿
𝛷 = 𝐺𝐽 (9-2)

Where T is torque, 𝜏 is the shear stress, J is the polar moment of inertia of the
cross-section, c is the radius of the cross-section, L is the length of the bar, and G is the
shear modulus.
The angle of twist is measured by an instrument known as a troptometer. When
performing torsion tests, the angle of twist and the input torque are both measured.
This particular machine will display units of degrees for angle of twist, and ft-lbs for
torque. However, since the measurements of the specimen’s dimensions will be in
inches, the units will be converted in the analysis. Also, the angle of twist shall be
converted to degrees.
The data measured can also be used to determine the offset torsional yield
strength. The slope of the elastic regime of the Torque vs Angle of Twist curve will be
used as the slope for the offset line, and will be shifted to the right along the Angle of
Twist axis by a phase of 0.002. The slope is the same, but the line is shifted by 0.2%.
The following equation will find the offset torsional yield strength:

16𝑇
𝜏𝑀𝐴𝑋 = 𝜋𝐷3 (9-3)

Where D is the cross-sectional diameter of the beam. The proportional limit of

the specimen can also be determined as the point of the Torque vs Angle of Twist curve
between the linear elastic region and the plastic region. The shear modulus of elasticity
can be determined as the slope of the elastic regime:

1
 𝜏 𝑇𝐿
𝐺= 
= 𝐽𝛷 (9-4)

Where  is the shear strain. Note that for small values of shear stress that
equation 9-3 is sufficiently accurate. However for large values, the following should be
used:
1 𝛷′ 𝑑𝑇
𝜏𝑎 = 2𝜋𝑎3 [ 𝑑𝛷′ + 3𝑇] (9-5)

𝛷
𝛷′ =
𝐿
Where Φ’ is the in radians and a is the radius. For this particular lab, the
interesting data lies within the elastic regime, thus equation 9-3 will be used in large part
for the calculations. The modulus of rupture can be found via:

3𝑇MAX
τu = (9-6)
2πa3

Where TMAX is the value of torque at which the specimen will fracture at necking.

Materials:
-Micrometer
-Calipers
-Universal Torsion Testing Machine
-Troptometer
-Naval Brass Specimen
-Aluminum Alloy 6061 Specimen
-Steel 1045 Hot Rolled Specimen
-Steel 1018 Hot Rolled Specimen

Experimental Procedure:
First, the specimen was measured for cross-sectional diameter and for gage
length. Then, a scribe line was drawn along the specimen. The specimen was then
loaded into the machine in the square grip collets. The end was tightened such that the
specimen could not move by a hand twist, for the specimen needs to stay unmoved to
allow all of the torque to apply to twisting the specimen. The machine was turned on,
and a constant rate of twist speed was applied. The twist speed, which was specified
by ASTM, was slow up until the yield stress. After achieving the proportional limit, the
machine was allowed to speed up the rate of twisting. Now the specimen is tested until
fracture. After fracture, the specimen was removed from the machine. The scribe lines
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from before can be observed. The gage length was measured, to see how it differed
from before. This was repeated for all the specimens involved.

Fig. 1 – The specimens, Naval Brass, Steel 1045, and Steel 1018.

Fig. 2 – The testing equipment including the universal torsion

testing machine and the angle of twist speed controller.

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Analysis:
Steel 1045HR: Aluminum 6061:

d initial [in] 0.376

d initial [in] 0.377
d final [in] 0.376
L initial [in] 2.86
L initial [in] 2.88
L final [in] 2.88
L final [in] 2.92
G= 10238202.93
G= 6010065.97
offset(Psi)= 42589.93
offset(Psi)= 16444.88
Proportional
Proportional
Limit= 37857.71
Limit= 14095.61
Modulus of
Modulus of
Rupture= 7399671.50
Rupture= 2977353.68
Ductility= 0.738
Ductility= 0.327
Steel 1018HR: Naval Brass

d initial [in] 0.379

d initial [in] 0.376
d final [in] 0.379
d final [in] 0.382
L initial [in] 2.86
L initial [in] 2.88
L final [in] 2.94
L final [in] 2.91
G= 7423131.25
G(Psi)= 12226923.5
offset(Psi)= 28438.45
offset(Psi)= 46191.96
Proportional
Proportional
Limit= 23698.71
Limit= 42421.19
Modulus of
Modulus of
Rupture= 4722911.17
Rupture= 5612458.7
Ductility= 0.342
Ductility= 1.411
 Stress vs Strain
Steel 1045HR
120000
Equation 1
100000
Equation 2

80000

Shear Stress
60000
[psi]

40000

20000

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Shear Strain

Torque vs Angle of Twist

Steel 1045HR
1200

1000

800
Torque
600
[in-lbs]
Torque
400

200

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Angle of Twist [Rad]
 Torque vs Angle of Twist
Steel 1018HR
800

700

600

500
Torque
400
[in-lbs]
300

200

100

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Angle of Twist [Radians]

Shear Stress vs Shear Strain

Steel 1018HR
80000
70000
60000
50000
Shear Stress
40000
[psi] Equ 1
30000
Equ 2
20000
10000
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Shear Strain
 Stress Vs Strain
Al 6061
45000
40000
35000
30000
Shear Stress 25000
[psi] 20000 Equ 1
15000 Equ 2
10000
5000
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Shear Strain

Torque vs Angle of Twist

Al 6061
500
450
400
350
300
Torque
250
[in-lbs]
200 Torque
150
100
50
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Angle of Twist [Rad]

1
 Shear Stress vs Shear Strain
Naval Brass
70000

60000

50000

40000
Shear Stress
[psi] Equ 1
30000
Equ 2
20000

10000

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Shear Strain

Torque vs Angle of Twist

Naval Brass
800
700
600
500
Torque
400
[in-lb]
300 Torque

200
100
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Angle of Twist [Rad]

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Discussion:
The data seems to line up with industry standards for torsion testing results. Due
to the massive quantity of data collected, in order to analyze and calculate some of the
derived information, averages were necessary. Because of these averages, the
analysis does not exactly resemble what was collected, and may explain variations from
certain expected values. Also, the location of where the averages were collected may
differ based on the experimenter’s choice, and thus explains even more deviation.
The specimens were not polished, and the majority of the measurements came
from the universal torsion testing machine. This means that the human error in
measurements is limited to the measurements of the diameter, as the gage length was
made by a two-inch punch, such that each specimen should have exactly the same
gage length.
In the raw data tables in Microsoft Excel, the one could observe that there was a great
deal of noise in the system. Due to this noise, some of the averaging of values was
clearly inconsistent with the data, and thus certain parts of the curves were omitted in
order to provide clear data. An example would be a value of -5000psi for shear stress
at the beginning of the test. This type of data is allowable for omission as it clearly is
due to a fault and is not part of the official experiment or true data collected.
It appears that the torsion test runs similarly to the tension test. In both, the
specimen is subjected to a stress until fracture. The data collected in both can portray a
stress-strain curve, which can be used to find certain material properties such as
proportional limits, moduli, 2% offsets, etc.

Conclusion:
The results of this lab suggest that there are many ways of testing a material to
find similar, if not the same material properties. In this lab, certain torsional and shear
material properties of engineering materials were found. These properties, such as
proportional limit, 2% offsets, the moduli, etc., are important engineering values as they
describe certain levels of loading that the material can take before they attain a status of
what the engineer may consider failure.