Mechanical Behaviour of Materials and Alloy Theory and

Equilibrium Diagrams

Class notes
By Titus Mulembo
Department of Mechatronic Engineering, DEKUT
Overview
The mechanical properties of a material are those properties that involve a reaction to an
applied load. 

Why is an understanding of the mechanical behaviour of materials important?

• The mechanical properties of metals determine the range of usefulness of a material

and establish the service life that can be expected. 
• Mechanical properties are also used to help classify and identify material. 
• The most common properties considered are strength, ductility, hardness, impact
resistance, and fracture toughness.

Basic facts about Mechanincal properties of materials

• Most structural materials are anisotropic, which means that their material properties
vary with orientation. 
• Mechanical properties are generally specific to product form such as sheet, plate,
extrusion, casting, forging, and etc.
• The mechanical properties of a material are not constants and often change as a
function of several factors including temperature, rate of loading, and other conditions.
Modes of failure in materials

Depending on the mechanical properties of a material, there are several reasons/modes

of failure. These include:-
• Plastic deformation: Permanent distortion that occurs when a material is
subjected to tensile, compressive, bending, or torsion stresses that exceed its
yield strength and cause it to elongate, compress, buckle, bend, or twist.

Yield point

Elastic
deformation
region Plastic deformation region

Fig 1: Stress strain curve for conventional materials such as steel

• By yielding: Yield strength is the maximum stress that can be applied before a
material begins to change shape permanently.
• This is an approximation of a material’s elastic limit.
• If stress is added to a material but does not reach the yield point, the
material will return to its original shape after the stress is removed.

• By fracture: This is the separation or fragmentation

of a solid body into two or more parts under the
action of stresses. Fracture can be ductile or brittle.

• Ductile fracture involves a lot of plastic

deformation and can be detected beforehand.

• Brittle failure is the brisk propagation of cracks

through a material which typically occurs so
quickly that no plastic deformation takes place
Fig 2: Ductile and brittle fracture
before fracture occurs.
Modes of failure in materials

• By fatigue (delayed fracture): Fatigue failure is the formation and propagation of

cracks due to a repetitive or cyclic load. Most fatigue failures are caused by cyclic
loads significantly below the loads that would result in yielding of the material.

Fig 3: Fatigue failure demonstration.

Comparison of loading and

unloading cycles from nitinol
samples machined using micro-EDM
with different discharge energies

• By environmentally-assisted cracking (delayed fracture) e.g., by bending a

material back and forth under salty water.
• By corrosion and/or wear (surface damage)
Key mechanical properties of materials

Stress – When a force is applied on an elastic body, the body deforms and the way a body
deforms depends on the type of force applied.
• A compressive force makes the body shorter whereas a tensile force makes the
body longer. These are DIRECT FORCES.
• Shear forces are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one specific
direction, and another part of the body in the opposite direction.

Fig 4: Compressive, tensile and shear forces

Example: A steel rod is 2.5 mm in diameter and 2
mm long. A force of 12 N is applied to it and it
streches 0.3 mm. Assuming that the material is in
the elastic region, determine the stress and strain
in the steel rod.
Ans: σ = 2.44 Mpa and ε = 0.00015

Reading assignment: Distinguish between

engineering stress and stain vs true stress and Fig 5: Compressive and tensile forces and
their resulting elongations
strain.
Engineering vs true stress and strain

Engineering stress – This is the force

divided by the original area of the specimen
before loading: σ = F/Ao.

However, as a material is loaded, the area

decreases. Therefore, the true stress is the
value of stress in the material considering
the actual area of the specimen.

Because the area decreases as a material is

loaded, true stress is higher than
engineering stress.
Fig 6: True and Engineering Stress-Strain Curves
The engineering stress-strain curve drops
after the ultimate strength is reached
because the force that can be supported by
the material drops as it begins to neck down.
Fig 7: Illustration of modulous of toughness
Stress-Strain Curves for conventional materials – steel example

Characteristics

1. Recoverable elongagtions
usually less that 1%
2. Performs poorly under
cyclic loading (low fatigue
resistance)

Fig 8: Stress stain relationship for conventional materials such as steel

Stress-Strain Curves for superelastic materials – nitinol example

Characteristics

1. Recoverable elongagtions
of over 8% achievable
2. Performs well under cyclic
loading (high fatigue
resistance)

Fig 9: Stress stain relationship for superelastic nitinol

Superelasticity (pseudoelasticity) is the ability of a material to recover the original shape
after undergoing large deformations induced by mechanical loads.
• It is caused by a phase transformation between the austenitic and martensitic phases of
a crystal.
• It is exhibited in shape-memory alloys and allows for large stains of over 8% to be
recovered as is the case in nitinol (unlike 0.8% for steel).
• The superelastic nature of nitinol shape memory alloys alows the material to be applied
in areas where a lot of cyclic loading is involved such as in making stents body implants.
• As shown in Figure 9, nitinol's stress-
strain behaviour also exhibits a close
similarity to that of bone and tendon, as
opposed to steel which has a significantly
different stress-strain behaviour.
• This allows nitinol to be successfully
utilized in medical applications thus
leading to more rapid healing times and
less trauma infliction to surrounding
tissues.
NB: Read on other mechanical tests: hardness, impact, Fig 10: Typical stress - strain relationship for
creep, fatigue, bending, torshion, shearing etc nitinol, stainless steel, bone and tendon tissues
Phase diagrams
Introduction
Phase:
A region in a material that differs in structure and function from other regions.

Phase diagrams:
• Represents phases present in metal at different conditions (Temperature,
pressure and composition).

• Indicates equilibrium solid solubility of one element in another.

• Indicates temperature range under which solidification occurs.

• Indicates temperature at which different phases start to melt.

Phase diagrams of pure substances
• Pure substance exist as solid, liquid and vapor.
• Phases are separated by phase boundaries.
• Example : Water, Pure Iron.
• Different phases coexist at triple point.

Fig. 1(a): Pure water phase diagram Fig. 1(b): Pure iron phase diagram
Cooling curves
• Used to determine phase transition temperature.
• Temperature and time data of cooling molten metal is recorded and plotted.
• Thermal arrest : heat lost = heat supplied by solidifying metal
• Alloys solidify over a range of temperature (no thermal arrest)
• The liquidus temperature is the temperature above which a material is completely
liquid.
• The solidus temperature is the temperature which the alloy is 100% solid.
• The freezing range of the alloy is the temperature difference between the liquidus
and solidus where the two phases exists, ie., the liquid and solid.

Fig. 2(a): Pure metal cooling curve Fig. 2(b): Iron cooling curve
Lever rule
• The Lever rule gives the weight % of phases in any two phase regions.

Wt fraction of solid
phase
= Xs = w
w0s –– w 1
w1
Wt fraction of liquid
phase
= Xl = w
ws ––w 0s
w
W0 is the weight percentage of the alloy.
1
Ws is the weight percentage within the solid
phase
Fig. 7: Lever rule representation Wl is the weight percentage in the liquid phase
Iron-Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
• Iron is an allotropic
material (the existence of a
chemical element in two or
more forms).
• The temperature at which
the allotropic changes take
place in iron is influenced
by alloying elements, the
most important of which is
carbon.
• Phases present:
• α-Ferrite:
• Austenite (γ-phase of
iron)
• δ-ferrite
• Cementite (Fe3C)
Fig. 8: Iron-Carbide Equilibrium diagram
Iron-Carbon Equilibrium Diagram

Fig. 9: Iron-Carbide Equilibrium diagram