Al-Akhawayn University

Mechanics of Materials
Section 2

The Stress-Strain curve and Young’s

Modulus

Lab report 02

Student Names:
Instructor:
Idriss SEFRIOUI
Zineb salma Bahri
Yassine JAMALI

Group Number 10
Group submission

08 February 2023
Contents

1 Introduction 2

2 Experimental Methods 2

3 Results and Discussion 3

4 Conclusion 5

1
1 Introduction

Strain is defined as the deformation of the material per unit

length due to the application of forces or stresses. The purpose
of this lab was to plot the stress-strain curve and use it to obtain
the specimen’s Young’s modulus. As such in this lab we will expand
on what we covered in the previous experiment and measure the
strain in addition to the stress.

2 Experimental Methods

After measuring the initial length of our aluminum specimen as

well as the dimensions required to calculate the area. We set up the
specimen in the MTTU and used the same methods as the previous
lab to measure the stress. For our strain measurements we used the
following equation:
δ
ε= (1)
L0
We will calculate the elongation δ using this next equation:

δ = Lup − ∆L (2)

1
We know that Lup increases by 0.5mm for each 3
turn of the
valve as such we can use the previous two equations to calculate
the strains and stresses and plot our Stress-Strain diagram. The
described process will also be used for the steel specimen which will
let us determine Young’s modulus for each specimen and later deter-
mine which specimen can support more stress before a permanent

2
strain is generated.

3 Results and Discussion

Table 1: Area and Initial Dimensions of the Aluminum Specimen

L0 21
RC0 1.17
A 5.738

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

RC ∆L Lup F Stress Elongation Strain
1.55 0.38 0.5 45.258 7.887417219 0.12 0.005714286
2.03 0.86 1 102.426 17.85047055 0.14 0.006666667
2.31 1.14 1.5 135.774 23.66225166 0.36 0.017142857
2.65 1.48 2 176.268 30.71941443 0.52 0.024761905
3.06 1.89 2.5 225.099 39.22952248 0.61 0.029047619
3.44 2.27 3 270.357 47.1169397 0.73 0.034761905
3.78 2.61 3.5 310.851 54.17410247 0.89 0.042380952

Figure 1: Stress-Strain Curves of the Aluminum Specimen

3
 Table 3: Area and Initial Dimensions of the Steel Specimen
L0 20
RC0 0.81
A 4.9042

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

RC ∆L Lup F Stress Elongation Strain
1.28 0.47 0.5 55.977 11.41409404 0.03 0.0015
1.77 0.96 1 114.336 23.31389421 0.04 0.002
2.25 1.44 1.5 171.504 34.97084132 0.06 0.003
2.35 1.54 2 183.414 37.39937197 0.46 0.023
2.75 1.94 2.5 231.054 47.11349456 0.56 0.028
3.19 2.38 3 283.458 57.7990294 0.62 0.031
3.7 2.89 3.5 344.199 70.1845357 0.61 0.0305

Figure 2: Stress-Strain Curves of the Steel Specimen

4
From figures 1 and 2 we can see that the that Young’s modulus for
aluminum is about 72 MPA and 183 MPA for steel which are close
to their actual values. This difference is due to error during the
manipulation of the MTTU. Since our specimen have close values
for the area if we compare similar values of the stress we see that
steel has a higher Young’s modulus and as such can support more
stress before a permanent strain is generated. That is because the
higher the value of Young’s modulus the stiffer and more resistant
to deformation the material is, and we can see from our curves that
steel has a steeper slope for the linear elastic region as such it has a
higher Young’s modulus. Another way to explain this difference in
Young’s modulus and by extension in the properties of the material
is by looking at the atomic structure from which we see that steel has
stronger bonds because it packed in a dense crystal lattice structure
while aluminum is packed in a less dense crystal structure.

4 Conclusion

In this lab we introduced the concept of strain which in addition

to what we covered in the previous experiment allowed us to plot a
stress-strain curve. We again used the MTTU to apply a tensile load
on our specimen, which were aluminum and steel, and analyzed the
stress-strain curves to determine that steel has the higher Young’s
modulus and by extension can withstand higher stress before a perm
ant strain is generated.