ME2302 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

Introduction: Often materials are subject to forces (loads) when they are used. Mechanical engineers
calculate those forces and material scientists how materials deform (elongate, compress, and twist) or
break as a function of applied load, time, temperature, and other conditions.

Materials scientists learn about these mechanical properties by testing materials. Results from the tests
depend on the size and shape of material to be tested (specimen), how it is held, and the way of
performing the test. That is why we use common procedures, or standards, which are published by the
ASTM.

Concepts of Stress and Strain

To compare specimens of different sizes, the load is calculated per unit area, also called normalization
to the area. Force divided by area is called stress. In tension and compression tests, the relevant area is
that perpendicular to the force. In shear or torsion tests, the area is perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

s = F/A0 tensile or compressive stress

τ = F/A0 shear stress
The unit is the Megapascal = 106 Newtons/m2.
There is a change in dimensions, or deformation elongation, DL as a result of a tensile or compressive
stress. To enable comparison with specimens of different length, the elongation is also normalized, this
time to the length L. This is called strain, e.
ε = dL/L
The change in dimensions is the reason we use A0 to indicate the initial area since it changes during
deformation. One could divide force by the actual area; this is called true stress.
For torsional or shear stress, the deformation is the angle of twist, θ and the shear strain is given by:
γ = tan θ

Stress—Strain Behavior

Elastic deformation.
When the stress is removed, the material returns to
the dimension it had before the load was applied.
Valid for small strains (except the case of rubbers).
Deformation is reversible, non permanent

Plastic deformation

When the stress is removed, the material does not

return to its previous dimension but there is a
permanent, irreversible deformation.
In tensile tests, if the deformation is elastic, the
stress-strain relationship is called Hooke's law:
σ=Eε
That is, E is the slope of the stress-strain curve. E is Young's modulus or modulus of elasticity. In some
cases, the relationship is not linear so that E can be defined alternatively as the local slope:
E = dσ/dε
Shear stresses produce strains according to:
τ = G γ, where G is the shear modulus.

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Elastic moduli measure the stiffness of the material. They are related to the second derivative of the
interatomic potential, or the first derivative of the force vs. internuclear distance. By examining these
curves we can tell which material has a higher modulus. Due to thermal vibrations the elastic modulus
decreases with temperature. E is large for ceramics (stronger ionic bond) and small for polymers (weak
covalent bond). Since the interatomic distances depend on direction in the crystal, E depends on
direction (i.e., it is anisotropic) for single crystals. For randomly oriented policrystals, E is isotropic.

Anelasticity

Here the behavior is elastic but not the stress-strain curve is not immediately reversible. It takes a
while for the strain to return to zero. The effect is normally small for metals but can be significant for
polymers.

Elastic Properties of Materials

Materials subject to tension shrink laterally. Those subject to compression, bulge. The ratio of lateral
and axial strains is called the Poisson's ratio n.
n = elateral/eaxial
The elastic modulus, shear modulus and Poisson's ratio are related by E = 2G(1+n)

Tensile Properties

UTSs
UYP
D
B
LYP E
Stress A C

Strain

Stress-strain curve for steel

Yield point. If the stress is too large, the strain deviates from being proportional to the stress. The
point at which this happens is the yield point because there the material yields, deforming permanently
(plastically).

Yield stress. Hooke's law is not valid beyond the yield point. The stress at the yield point is called
yield stress, and is an important measure of the mechanical properties of materials. In practice, the
yield stress is chosen as that causing a permanent strain of 0.002.

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The yield stress measures the resistance to plastic deformation.

The reason for plastic deformation, in normal materials, is not that the atomic bond is stretched beyond
repair, but the motion of dislocations, which involves breaking and reforming bonds.

Plastic deformation is caused by the motion of dislocations.

Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS)

The stress corresponding to the maximum load that the material can withstand before the initiation of
fracture is called the “Ultimate Tensile Strength.”
UTS = Pmax /AO
At this point, the sample develops a neck (the cross sectional area decreases). The load now acts on a
diminishing cross-sectional area and therefore, the stress decreases with further strain until the sample
fractures.
Note:
The UTS is the maximum level of stress that should neither exceed during metal working process nor
in service of a material.

Necking
begins

Tensile strength

When stress continues in the plastic regime, the stress-strain passes through a maximum, called the
tensile strength (sTS) , and then falls as the material starts to develop a neck and it finally breaks at the
fracture point

Note that it is called strength, not stress, but the units are the same, MPa.

For structural applications, the yield stress is usually a more important property than the tensile
strength, since once the it is passed, the structure has deformed beyond acceptable limits.

Proof Stress

The yield stress of a material is of greater importance

to structural and constructional engineering work.
However, in most soft (non-ferrous) metals there is no
sharp yield point.

From the viewpoint of designing, since it is necessary

to know a definite stress under which a material can be
stressed with safety without yielding, a substitute value
is derived for those materials that show no obvious
yield point. This is known as the proof stress. This is
the stress required to produce a specified amount of
plastic deformation (0.2% strain).

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Ductility

The ability to deform before braking. It is the opposite of brittleness. Ductility can be given either as
percent maximum elongation emax or maximum area reduction.
%EL = emax x 100 %
%AR = (A0 - Af)/A0
These are measured after fracture (repositioning the two pieces back together).

Resilience.

Capacity to absorb energy elastically. The energy per unit volume is the area under the strain-stress
curve in the elastic region.

Toughness

Ability to absorb energy up to fracture. The energy per unit volume is the total area under the strain-
stress curve. It is measured by an impact test.

Work done =  force (P)  increment of extension (dl)

P dl 
Work done / volume =     d
A l o
 E   1
=  E d =   
o 2  2 2
Therefore, the toughness is simply the area under the stress-true strain curve.

Impact test

The impact test is used to evaluate the fracture resistance of

a material when subjected to an impact loading. The
impact test measures the energy necessary to fracture a
standard notched bar by an impact load. This test gives an
indication of the toughness of a material under shock
loading.

The specimen is struck by a heavy hammer (pendulum)

released from a known height. This breaks the sample
before it continues its upward swing. If the mass of the
hammer and the difference between the initial and final
heights are known, the energy absorbed in fracture can be
calculated.

This test indicates that the material is highly sensitive to notches resulting from the presence of internal
cracks.

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 If the energy absorbed by the sample is low, the material is brittle and low in toughness.
 If the energy absorbed by the sample is high, the material is soft, ductile, and high in toughness.

From the graph, it could be observed that:

1. Most of the low-strength f.c.c. metals are tough at all temperatures.
2. High strength materials are always brittle and low in toughness.
3. The b.c.c. metals like iron and steel undergo a ductile to brittle transition as the temperature is
reduced. At low temperatures they are brittle (high strength) and at high temperatures they are
tough and low in strength.

True Stress and Strain

When one applies a constant tensile force the material will break after reaching the tensile strength.
The material starts necking (the transverse area decreases) but the stress cannot increase beyond s TS.
The ratio of the force to the initial area, what we normally do, is called the engineering stress. If the
ratio is to the actual area (that changes with stress) one obtains the true stress.

P
True Stress (t) =
Ai
li
dl
True Strain (t) =  = ln l  lli =
l
ln i = ln
l 0  l 
lo l 0 lo lo
 t = ln 1  e 

Theoretical Strength of a Material

By considering the bond energy and the interatomic distance of a bond, it is found that the theoretical
strength of a material is given by th = E/10
From the above given values it can be observed that the actual strengths of all metals and ceramics are
often far below than the strengths predicted by calculations.

The low strength values observed in real materials are mainly due to the defects existing in real
materials.
E(GPa) th (MPa) max (MPa)
Steel 210 21,000 400-2,000
Al alloys 70 7000 70-670
Alumina 390 39,000 5,000
Diamond 1000 100,000 50,000
max = Max. Tensile strength determined from a tensile test

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Elastic Recovery during Plastic Deformation

If a material is taken beyond the yield point (it is deformed plastically) and the stress is then released,
the material ends up with a permanent strain. If the stress is reapplied, the material again responds
elastically at the beginning up to a new yield point that is higher than the original yield point (strain
hardening. The amount of elastic strain that it will take before reaching the yield point is called elastic
strain recovery.

Compressive, Shear, and Tensional Deformation

Compressive and shear stresses give similar behavior to tensile

stresses, but in the case of compressive stresses there is no
maximum in the s-e curve, since no necking occurs. Specim
en
Compression test

Brittle materials are quite strong in compression and are often weak
in tension. Therefore, brittle materials are only tested under
compression loads.

These materials cannot be tested under tension, because:

 The presence of very small cracks which are oriented perpendicular to the direction of the applied
tensile stress propagate and failure occurs at very low stresses.
 The crack size varies from sample to sample and the f values show a large scatter.
 It is impossible to do a tensile test on brittle materials, as they tend to break in the grips.

Because the compression test increases the cross-sectional area of the sample, necking never occurs.
For ductile materials, comp  tensile
For brittle materials, comp  15 tensile

Cracks in compression propagate parallel to the compression

axis. Fracture is not caused by propagation of one crack, but the
slow extension of many cracks to form a crushed zone.
Therefore, the average crack size determines the strength.

Note: Brittle materials can also be tested by a bend test.

Malleability

This term refers to the extent to which a material can undergo deformation in compression before
failure occurs. All ductile materials are malleable but malleable materials are not necessarily always
ductile since a soft material may lack strength and thus tear apart very easily in tension. A malleable
material is required for such process as forging, rolling, and rivets heading (hammering).

Hardness

Hardness is the resistance to plastic

deformation (e.g., a local dent or
scratch). Thus, it is a measure of plastic
deformation, as is the tensile strength, so
they are well correlated. Historically, it
was measured on an empirically scale,
determined by the ability of a material to

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scratch another, diamond being the hardest and talc the softer. Now we use standard tests, where a ball,
or point is pressed into a material and the size of the dent is measured. There are a few different
hardness tests: Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers, etc. They are popular because they are easy and non-
destructive (except for the small indent).

Hardness testing is frequently used for quality control in production due to the following reasons:
1. Sample preparation is not required.
2. Test can be conducted easily and it is not time consuming.
3. There is a direct correlation between hardness and the UTS.

 Brinell hardness test – for low strength non-ferrous metals (lead, tin, aluminium) to relatively
high strength ferrous metals
 Vickers hardness test – for low strength non-ferrous metals of very thin sections to very high
strength metals
 Rockwell hardness test – for any type of metal – this is widely used in industry, as it is quick,
simple, and can directly read the hardness value.
 Shore hardness test – only for plastics and rubbers

Rockwell hardness test can also be used to measure hardness of polymeric materials, with a lower load
being applied. The hardness of ceramic materials cannot be tested by the above methods as it may
damage the indenter. The Moh’s scale is used to determine the hardness of ceramics, which gives a
relative value compared to other known materials.

Variability of Material Properties

Tests do not produce exactly the same result because of variations in the test equipment, procedures,
operator bias, specimen fabrication, etc. But, even if all those parameters are controlled within strict
limits, a variation remains in the materials, due to uncontrolled variations during fabrication, non
homogenous composition and structure, etc. The measured mechanical properties will show scatter,
which is often distributed in a Gaussian curve (bell-shaped), that is characterized by the mean value
and the standard deviation (width).

Design/Safety Factors

To take into account variability of properties, designers use, instead of an average value of, say, the
tensile strength, the probability that the yield strength is above the minimum value tolerable. This leads
to the use of a safety factor N > 1 (typ. 1.2 - 4). Thus, a working value for the tensile strength would be
sW = sTS / N.

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