ME414 Advanced Mechanics & Dynamics

1 Elastic and Plastic Deformation of Metals

This section of the course notes reviews some basic concepts in elastic and plastic deformation
of materials, particularly metals, that underpin understanding of ductile failure mechanisms in
engineering structures.

1.1 The Tensile Test

The most widely used method for
determining elastic-plastic material
properties is the tensile or tension test.
This is done on specialist test machines
according to national or international
standards for different types of materials
and test environments: for example, ISO
6892-1:2009 specifies the method for
tensile testing of metallic materials at
room temperature.
A wide range of test machines of varying
load capacity, instrumentation and control
systems are available commercially. The
main features of a tensile test machine are
a load frame, load cell and extensometer.
The load frame has a fixed crosshead and
a moving crosshead. A material specimen is mounted in the load frame between the fixed
crosshead and moving crosshead and is loaded by displacing the moving cross head by a
controlled amount. The specimen resists this imposed displacement by virtue of its stiffness,
giving rise to an axial force F in the specimen, which is measured by the load cell.
Tensile test specimens are designed such that they have a region of constant cross sectional
area over which the axial load is uniformly distributed. The axial extension of the specimen is
measured over part of this region defined as the gauge length, by a high precision extensometer
that can measure very small changes in length.
The size and form of tensile test specimen varies
between different test standards but they are
usually basically round or flat. The ends of the
specimens, which are clamped or screwed into the
load frame, experience complex local loading
during testing and are made thicker than the gauge
length section to prevent them breaking during the
test.
The tensile test characterises the elastic-plastic
behaviour of a material in terms of the relationship
between stress and strain as the test progresses.
The definitions of engineering stress  and strain 
are:
𝐹 𝑢
𝜎= 𝜀= (1.1a,b)
𝐴𝑜 𝐿𝑜

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 ME414 Advanced Mechanics & Dynamics

where F is the axial force measured by the load cell, 𝐴𝑜 is the gauge length cross sectional area
of an unloaded specimen and u is the axial extension measured over the gauge length Lo.

1.2 Linear Elastic Material

Up to a critical load level, structural metals and alloys exhibit a
linear relationship between stress and strain and when the load
is removed the specimen returns to its original shape and size.
This is called linear elastic behaviour.
The slope of the uniaxial stress strain curve is the linear elastic
material property Young’s modulus or elastic modulus, E:
𝜎
𝐸= (1.2)
𝜀
Young’s modulus characterises the intrinsic elastic stiffness of
a material: it is independent of the size of the test specimen.
The elastic stiffness of a metal is determined by the atomic
structure of the material and the stiffness of the bonds between atoms. In most solids, including
all metals, atoms are held together in regular crystalline arrays by atomic bonding forces.
In three-dimensional crystalline materials, the atoms
are held together in regular three dimensional arrays.
The surface of an array can be seen in a Scanning
Tunnelling Microscope image of the surface of
Nickel 1101.
The bond forces are made up of two components,
attraction and repulsion, which vary nonlinearly with
respect to the distance between the atoms.
The attraction
force is dominant
when the atoms
are relatively far apart. It is an electrostatic force
determined by the type of chemical bond between the
atoms. In metallic bonds, the electrostatic attraction is
between positively charged metal ion cores (the atom
nucleus plus inner
shell electrons) and
delocalised outer
shell electrons that
freely move between these ion cores.
The repulsion force is dominant when the atoms are
close enough for them to push into the electron orbital
space of adjacent atoms, reducing the electrostatic
screening effect of the electrons.

1
http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view_project_subpage.php?id=4250

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 ME414 Advanced Mechanics & Dynamics

If no external forces are acting on the material, the atoms

take up their equilibrium position, in which the atomic
spacing gives equal and opposite attraction and repulsion
forces and the net bond force is zero.
Although the net bond force curve is highly non-linear
with respect to overall atomic spacing, under normal
service loads the atoms of most engineering materials are
not usually moved by more than ±2% from their
equilibrium spacing. Within this range, the bond force-
atomic distance curve is almost a straight line and the
bond stiffness is the slope k of the bond force-deformation
curve. The stiffness of the material arises from the individual bond stiffness and the number of
bonds. Solid bodies are made of huge numbers of atoms, so there are a lot of bonds (for
example, 12 grams of carbon consists of approximately 6.0 x 1023 atoms: Avogadro’s
number1).
Within the ±2% deformation range, the complex
atomic bonds can be thought of as linear springs of
stiffness k connecting adjacent atoms in a three
dimensional array. When external loads are
applied to the material, the atoms are moved from
their equilibrium position, stretching or
compressing the bonds. Tensile force pulls the
atoms apart, compressive force pushes them closer
together. When the external load is removed, the
out-of-balance bond forces pull or push the atoms
back to their equilibrium position.
When a three dimensional linear elastic material is
stretched in one direction, it thins or contracts perpendicular to the direction of loading. These
axial and transverse strains are linearly related by the material property Poisson’s ratio . For
a material loaded uniaxially in the x direction, Poisson’s ratio is defined by:
𝜀𝑦 = 𝜀𝑧 = −𝜈𝜀𝑥 (1.3)
Poisson’s ratio for most metals and alloys
falls within the range 0.27 ≤  ≤ 0.33.
Elastic deformation causes a change of
volume or dilation of the material. It can be
shown (Tutorial 1) that provided the
deformation is small, the change in volume
of the material is approximately:
Δ𝑉 = 𝑉(1 − 2𝜐)𝜀𝑥 (1.4)

1
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/an-exact-value-for-avogadros-number

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 ME414 Advanced Mechanics & Dynamics

1.3 Brittle and Ductile Materials

When the stress in a tensile test specimen of brittle
material reaches a critical value, the material suddenly
breaks or fractures with little or no permanent
deformation. Materials such as glass, ceramics, brick and
rock are brittle at “normal” temperatures and pressures1.
Most of the materials generically referred to as plastics,
(i.e. synthetic organic materials), are also brittle at room
temperature (thermoplastic polymers can be moulded
when heated, thermosetting polymers cannot be re-
moulded after they have initially set). Some metal alloys,
particularly cast alloys, are brittle: cast iron is a
particularly well known example of a brittle material2.
Brittle materials are usually much stronger in
compression than in tension and are extremely vulnerable
to failure under dynamic or impact loading: they cannot
absorb impact energy without fracturing.
When the stress in a tensile test specimen of
ductile material reaches a critical value, the
specimen begins to permanently change shape
without breaking. This permanent deformation
is called plastic deformation. (Metals that
exhibit plastic deformation when deformed by
compressive are said to be malleable, although
the term ductile is often used to cover both
tensile and compressive deformation.) Most
materials considered to be ductile under
“normal” conditions are metallic. Pure metals
such as gold, aluminium and iron are so easily
plastically deformed that they are not suitable
for load-bearing applications. Most metal structures are made from alloys that are stronger than
their parent materials but still exhibit plastic deformation. These range from low strength alloys
such as wrought iron to high strength alloy steels. Ductile materials can absorb impact energy
through plastic deformation of their structure3 and are less susceptible to catastrophic failure
than brittle materials.

1
Materials such as rock and ice may be plastically deformed at “high” temperatures or pressures. Some specialist glasses are
ductile at room temperature and traditional glass can also deform plastically over long periods of time through a mechanism
called creep.
2
http://www.pbase.com/john_cooper/image/88539392
3 https://p.gr-assets.com/540x540/fit/hostedimages/1402923880/10013298.jpg

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1.4 Yield in Ductile Materials

The critical value of stress at which a ductile material changes from
linear elastic to plastic behaviour is called the yield stress 𝜎𝑌 of the
material. The yield stress identifies the elastic limit of the material
and is a basic material strength property.
When a material is deformed beyond its elastic limit, the stress-
strain relationship becomes non-linear and some of the
deformation becomes permanent or plastic.
Pure metals and many alloys, such as medium carbon and low alloy
steels, exhibit continuous yielding. When the material yields, the
stress-strain curve gradually becomes non-linear, such that
changes in strain are associated with increasingly smaller changes
in stress. This behaviour is called work hardening or strain
hardening. The gradual nature of the change from elastic to elastic-
plastic deformation makes it difficult to identify a specific value of stress at which the
behaviour changes. In this situation, the yield stress is usually defined as the stress required to
cause a specific measurable amount of plastic strain in the specimen: this is called the material
proof stress.
Some materials that have relatively low amounts of
alloying elements or contain low levels of impurity exhibit
discontinuous yielding. Materials such as mild or structural
steel exhibit a distinct yielding event at a critical value of
stress called the upper yield point. As test machine
continues to deform the material, the stress in the specimen
drops slightly and the specimen continues to deform at this
almost constant lower value of stress. The stress-strain
curve then dips to a lower yield point, after which the
material begins to strain harden and the stress increase with
continuing deformation. In this type of material, the lower
yield strength value is usually used in design and integrity
assessment.
An ideal crystalline material consists of sheets or planes
of atoms stacked upon each other. When a material
plastically deforms it changes shape, therefore plastic
deformation requires a change in the arrangement of the
atoms, which in turn requires atomic bonds between
sheets of atoms to break and reform in new arrangements.
However, the theoretical stress required to break a row of
bonds in an ideal crystal (based on known individual
bond strength) is much greater than the measured stress
at which yield occurs in real materials.
Real materials, even crystals carefully cultured under laboratory conditions, contain huge
numbers of defects in the crystal structure. The main type of defect associated with plastic
deformation is called a dislocation. Dislocations are discontinuities in the material’s crystal
structure that occur in three forms: edge, screw and mixed. The edge dislocation is easiest to
visualise and illustrates the effect of the other two forms on material deformation.

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An edge dislocation is an incomplete plane of atoms that

terminates within the crystal, such that the atom at the base of
the dislocation is not bonded to an atom in the plane below it.
The dislocation distorts the crystal lattice, stretching and
effectively weakening the bonds between atoms adjacent to
the end of the dislocation.
Dislocations, in conjunction with an applied shear stress,
provide a mechanism by which individual bonds can break
and atoms rearrange within the crystal at stress levels much lower than the theoretical strength
of a perfect material.
Shear force and shear stress act on a plane across a material. Shear stress  is defined as the
transverse force per unit area:
𝐹
𝜏= (1.5)
𝐴
If the lattice is subject to a shear stress , all of the bonds
between layers in the lattice are distorted. However, the
combination of distortion due to the presence of the
dislocation plus the applied shear stress means that the
lattice bond to the bottom-right of the dislocation is
stretched more than the others. This bond is the weak link
in the lattice and will break when the shear stress reaches
a critical value.
When this bond breaks, the atom in the lower
layer is free to establish a new bond with the
bottom atom of the dislocation, forming a new full
plane of atoms. This leaves the atoms to the right
of the original dislocation disconnected from the
layer below: a new dislocation has formed one
lattice space along from the original dislocation.

If the load is removed after the dislocation

moves, the dislocation stays in its new
position and no further changes occur in the
lattice. This dislocation movement is the basic
mechanism of plastic deformation of metals
under low to moderate test strain rates.

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If the shear load is maintained after the initial

dislocation movement, the process repeats
until eventually the dislocation emerges from
the crystal, leaving a half-plane step of
material on the outside surface of the crystal.
This permanent deformation mechanism is
called slip of atoms on crystallographic
planes called slip planes. The effect of slip is
apparent on the surface of large crystals in the
form of step markings or slip bands1.

Plastic deformation is a distortion mechanism driven by shear stress. Experimental

observations show that is not accompanied by any significant change in volume or dilation of
the material. Therefore, when the material is deforming plastically, equation (1.4) becomes:
Δ𝑉 = 𝑉(1 − 2𝜐)𝜀𝑥 ≈ 0
indicating that the Poisson’s ratio of a plastically deforming material tends towards a value of
=0.5.
So far we have defined the stress in the tensile
specimen in terms of the direct stress 𝜎𝑥 acting on a
reference plane perpendicular to the axis of the
specimen. However, if a reference plane inclined at
an angle  to the
perpendicular is
considered, two
stresses act on the
plane: a normal
stress  and a shear stress .
The values of the normal and shear stress vary with angle :
We will study these stress transformations in some detail in
Section # but the important feature to notice here is that as
soon as the reference plane changes from the perpendicular
plane, a shear stress is present. This means that any slip plane that lies at an angle to the axial
direction is subject to shear stress, which can cause dislocation movement when it reaches a
critical value. The largest value of shear stress occurs on a plane at 𝜃 = 45𝑜 and has a value of
x.

1
A. Nadai. Theory of Flow and Fracture of Solids. McGraw-Hill. New York, 1950

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Very few load bearing metals consist of a

single crystal1. Almost all structural metals and
alloys are polycrystalline, consisting of many
small, randomly oriented crystals or grains that
meet at grain boundaries in the material, as
shown in a 500x micrograph of a medium
carbon steel.
Each individual crystal has its own orientation
and crystallographic slip plane directions. In a
tensile test, the grains most susceptible to
plastic deformation will have slip planes at
around 45𝑜 to the direction of axial stress and
will yield when the axial stress reaches the yield stress value Y. The corresponding value of
shear stress on the 45𝑜 plane at which yielding occurs will therefore be Y.
Real materials contain huge numbers of dislocations and other defects that interact and affect
the plastic deformation of the material. Materials that exhibit continuous yielding are usually
pure metals or metals with numerous evenly distributed alloying elements. In continuous
yielding materials, the dislocations start to move when the stress reaches a critical value. As
the dislocations move through the crystal, they become entangled with other inclusions and
higher applied stress is required to keep them moving. This required increase in stress is called
strain hardening or work hardening.
Materials that exhibit discontinuous yielding have very low levels of alloying elements that are
sparsely distributed through the array. These atoms are attracted to interstitial positions at
dislocations, changing the form of distortion of the array. This effectively evens-out the local
distortion, reducing the high distortion of the bond to the bottom right of the dislocation. As a
consequence, a relatively high shear stress is required to break this bond and allow the
dislocation to move through the crystal. The impurity atom is said to pin the dislocation.

Once the dislocation has moved past the impurity atom, the bond at the bottom-right of the
dislocation is highly distorted. The shear stress required to break this bond and keep the
dislocation moving is lower than that needed to “unpin” the dislocation. This behaviour is seen
in a tensile test stress strain curve as a drop in stress after upper yield. Dislocations move
through the material at this lower stress value until the material begins to work harden.

1
Single crystal gas turbine blades are an example of loaded components consisting of a single crystal.

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1.5 Work Hardening

The stress strain curve of a ductile metal up
to the yield stress, y, is linear elastic. Any
dislocations in the material are stationary
and the material stiffness, Young’s
modulus E, is determined by the bond
stiffness and crystal structure of the
material. When the loading exceeds yield,
strain hardening occurs as large numbers of
dislocations begin to move through the
lattice, causing permanent or plastic
deformation of the material. This plastic
deformation is accompanied by continued
elastic straining of the crystal lattice.
Therefore post-yield, the total strain 𝜀𝑡
comprises of two components: elastic
strain 𝜀𝑒 and plastic strain 𝜀𝑝 .
The elastic and plastic components of the total
strain are determined by unloading the
specimen. When the load is reduced, the
dislocations remain stationary in their new
positions and, as the stretched lattice bonds pull
the atoms towards their equilibrium spacing, the
material unloads with the same slope as the
initial elastic loading: Young’s modulus E.
When the external force is zero, the stress is
zero but the specimen has been permanently
deformed: there is a plastic strain p. The total
strain, plastic strain and elastic strain are related
by:
𝜀𝑡 = 𝜀𝑝 + 𝜀𝑒 (1.6)
The plastic strain corresponding to a stress 𝜎 > 𝜎𝑌 is therefore given by:
𝜎
𝜀𝑝 = 𝜀𝑡 − (1.7)
𝐸
If the specimen is subsequently reloaded,
it exhibits linear elastic deformation at
stress levels from zero through the initial
yield stress and almost right up to the
unloading stress. No plastic deformation
occurs as all the dislocations that could
move at stresses up to this level had
already moved during the initial loading,
so the deformation is purely due to
elastic distortion of the crystal lattice.
However, once the unloading stress is
reached, dislocations begins to move
again and further plastic deformation

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occurs at stress y’. This is called the elevated yield point: the apparent yield stress of the
material has been increased due to the plastic deformation of the material.

1.6 Tensile Strength, Necking and Rupture

In a continuous tensile test, post-yield strain
hardening continues with increasing deformation
until the stress-strain curve reaches a maximum
point, after which it begins to fall away. The highest
stress the material can support is the Tensile
Strength, TS, of the material. When the Tensile
Strength is reached, the form of the specimen
deformation begins to change from uniform
deformation over the gauge length to localised
deformation at a section across the specimen which
begins to visibly thin or neck.

As the test progresses, plastic

deformation is confined to the
neck region. The local diameter
continues to decrease and material
damage occurs inside the
specimen, causing the formation
and growth of voids in the
material. The material in the neck
region continues to strengthen due
to work hardening but the
specimen is now losing significant
load carrying cross-section area
due to the reducing diameter of the
neck and the coalescing voids.
The specimen finally fails along
bands of high shear stress from the
voids to the outer surface of the specimen until ductile rupture occurs.

1.7 Proof Stress

In practice it can be difficult to identify the yield
stress of a continuously yielding material, where
the transition from wholly elastic to elastic-plastic
deformation is gradual. For this type of material,
the yield stress is defined as the stress required to
cause a specific measurable amount of plastic
strain in the specimen.
This is called the offset yield strength or proof
stress. The proof stress is usually defined for 0.2%
or 0.1% plastic strain (i.e. 𝜀𝑝 = 0.002 or 0.001).

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1.8 True Stress and Natural Strain

The loss of specimen cross sectional area at high plastic strain highlights a limitation of the
engineering definitions of stress and strain: both are based on the initial geometry of the
specimen. A more accurate characterisation of the material response at high strain is given by
true stress and natural strain.
True stress 𝜎𝑡 is based on the instantaneous cross section area A corresponding to the applied
load F:
𝐹
𝜎𝑡 = (1.8)
𝐴
Natural (or true) strain is defined by assuming the load gradually increases from zero by a
succession of infinitely small load steps or increments, dF. For every load increment dF there
is a corresponding change in length dL. The associated strain increment d is defined as the
incremental change in length over the instantaneous length at the start of the increment, L
𝑑𝐿
𝑑𝜀 = (1.9)
𝐿
The total true strain is the integral of the incremental strains from the initial length Lo to the
final length L:
𝐿 𝐿
𝑑𝐿 𝐿 (1.10)
𝜀𝑡 = ∫ 𝑑𝜀 = ∫ = 𝑙𝑛
𝐿𝑜 𝐿𝑜 𝐿 𝐿𝑜
When the strain is small, the true stress-strain curve
is similar in form to the engineering stress strain
curve but at large strains the curves are very
different: the engineering stress-strain curve falls
away after the Tensile Strength is reached, whilst the
true stress strain curve continues to rise until ductile
rupture occurs.
The Tensile Strength on a true stress-strain curve is
defined by the onset of necking in the specimen. At
this point, the increase in strength due to strain
hardening is exactly balanced by the decrease in
strength due to loss of cross section, such that the
specimen cannot support any further increase in
applied load F.
It can be shown (Tutorial 1) that the true Tensile
Strength is reached when the slope of the true stress-
strain curve is equal to the value of true stress:
dσ
=σ (1.11)
dε
The true stress-strain curve is sometimes referred to as the flow curve, (more so in material
forming analysis than in structural analysis), as it defines the stress required to cause the
material to plastically flow to a specific strain.

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1.9 Yield in Compression

Determining the stress strain
behaviour of ductile materials
under compressive loading is more
difficult that under tensile loading
as compression tests tend to cause
non-uniform deformation of the
test specimens.
Compression tests usually use
cylindrical specimens located
between two loading plates. As the
magnitude of compressive load
increases, the specimen tends to
expand radially due to the Poisson effect. However, friction between the specimen and the
loading plates constrains this radial expansion at the ends of the specimen and uneven
deformation called barrelling occurs along the length of the cylinder.
The form of a true stress-strain curve obtained from a compression test is similar to that given
by a tensile test. Engineering stress-strain curves have different post yield forms in tension and
compression because of the significant increase in cross sectional area during the compression
test.

1.10 The Bauschinger Effect

The values of yield stress in tension and in compression are
obtained from tensile and compression tests on different test
specimens. In most metals, the yield stress has the same
magnitude in tension and compression: ±𝜎𝑌 . However, if a
specimen that has previously been plastically deformed in
one loading direction (tension or compression) is
subsequently tested in the opposite direction, yield will
occur at a stress magnitude less than 𝜎𝑌 . For example, if a
test specimen is initially loaded in tension, yielding will
occur in tension at 𝜎𝑌 . If the specimen is loaded beyond
yield and the stress reduced to zero, the specimen will
unload elastically. If the specimen is then loaded in
compression, the elastic limit will be reached at a
compressive stress less than the measured yield stress in
compression, −𝜎𝑌 . This yielding behaviour is known as the
Bauschinger effect. The stress at which yielding occurs in
the compression part of the cycle is such that the stress range
between the highest tensile stress and yield in compression is usually around twice the yield
stress of the material, 2𝜎𝑌 .
The Bauschinger effect arises from a number of complex mechanisms related to the
microstructure of the material. One contributory factor is thought to be residual stress
established in the specimen during the initial loading-unloading part of the cycle.

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