Material Technology
By Syeda Fatima Jafari
Materials
Definition:
The matter from which a thing is or
can be made.
e.g.
Plastics, metal, wood, rubber,
leather etc
Mechanical Properties
Different metals have different
characteristics which help
determine their particular use.
The amount and ways by which
they can be deformed before they
fracture must be considered in
order to help this determination.
Properties
1. Hardness:
Ability of a metal to resist
abrasion, penetration, cutting
action, or permanent distortion.
The resistance of a material to
penetrate in response to a
compression load.
Hardness can be increased by
• Heat treatment
• Cold working ( for steel, titanium
and aluminum alloys).
Hardness test:
A small dent in the surface of a test
piece is induced by using a
compressive force, the hardness
number is then calculated as force
used divided by surface area of the
Impression produced by it.
• Hardness No. =
Force/ Surface area of impression
2. Toughness:
The toughness of metal refers to
its ability to withstand bending
without fracture.
When a metal can withstand
tearing or shearing and may be
stretched or otherwise deformed
without breaking.
E.g. Copper is a very tough material,
it can be bent to and fro many times
before it fractures
Methods to measure toughness:
• Toughness is a measure of a material
s ability to absorb energy.
• It is measured by two methods.
1. Integration of stress strain curve.
2. Charpy test.
3. Brittleness:
The property of a metal that
breaks relatively easy by bending.
The property of a metal that
allows little bending or
deformation without shattering.
It is opposite property of
toughness.
e.g. cast iron can easily fracture
on bending.
4. Malleability:
Ability of a metal to be
hammered, forged, rolled or
pressed into various shapes
without cracking or breaking or
other detrimental effects.
A metal is said to be malleable if
it can be deformed considerably
by compression before it shows
signs of cracking.
Malleable metals can be rolled,
forged, or extruded, since all of
these are processes by which the
metal is shaped under pressure.
Malleability generally increases
with temperature and so these
processes are generally carried
out on hot metals.
e.g. Steel, Lead.
5. Ductility:
A property of the metal that
permits the metal to be
permanently drawn, bent or
twisted without breaking.
A metal is said to be ductile
when it can be deformed
considerably in tension before it
fractures.
The ability of a material to
undergo permanent change of
shape without rupture.
While all ductile metals are
malleable , the converse is not
always true.
The ductility of metal decreases
as the temperature increases.
6. Elasticity:
Property that enables a metal to
return to its original shape.
e.g. Aluminum, Rubber.
Formula:
Calculated by Young s elastic
modulus.
E= Stress/ Strain
7. Fusibility:
Ability of a metal to become
liquid by the application of heat.
E.g. bronze, brass, iron.
8. Strength:
The ability of a material to sustain
the external force before the
breakage.
9. Stiffness:
The amount of deformation ( e.g.
bending or compression) that
happens when the load is applied
to material.
10. Durability:
The ability of a material to resist
the cyclic loading without breaking.
11. Density:
A material weight per volume.
Tests to Measure
Mechanical Characteristics
1. Tensile Test:
Use to measure elasticity and
tensile strength.
The tensile strength of a
material is the stress required to
cause fracture of a test piece in
tension.
Significance:
When tensile strength is an
important guide to mechanical
properties indicates materials are
not used beyond their elastic limit.
Tensile strength = Maximum
force used/ Original are of cross
section
Steps:
The tensile test is carried out on
a test piece of known dimensions
and
a tensile load is applied which is
increased by small increments.
For each increment of force, the
amount of extension of a known
length ( the gauge length) is
accurately measured.
The test is continued until the
specimen is broken.
Results:
Results
At first the amount of extension
is low , compared with the
increasing force. Such extension is
directly proportion to the force,
that is a straight line.
If the force is released at any
point before A the test piece will
return to its original length. Thus
the extension between O and A
is elastic and the material obeys
Hook’s law.
So
Stress/ Strain = Young’s Modulus
Stress:
• Stress is the force applied per unit
are of cross section of a specimen.
• FORMULA:
• Stress = F/A
Strain:
• Strain is the increase in length per
unit original length.
• Formula:
• Strain = Elongation/Original
Length
If the test piece is stressed past A
known as the elastic limit or
proportionality, the material
suddenly gives, i.e. material will
deform elastically and will return to
its original shape with a little
permanent extension when the
applied stress is removed. This is
called yield point.
Force extension diagram for
heated treated steels and for
most other alloys, do not often
show a well defined yield point,
and the “ elastic portion” of the
graph merges gradually in the “
plastic section”. This makes it
almost impossible to assess the
yield strength for these metals.
In cases like these yield stress is
replaced by a value known as
proof stress.
Proof stress:
• The 0.1% proof stress of such a
metal is that stress which will
produce a permanent extension
of 0.1% in the gauge length of the
test piece.
• This is roughly equivalent to the
permanent extension remaining
in a normalized steel at its yield
point.
• 0.1% Proof stress= Proof force/
Original cross sectional area of
test piece
As the force further increases the
material stretches rapidly, first
uniformly along its entire length
and then locally to form a neck.
This necking occurs just after the
maximum force has been
reached.
Since the cross sectional area
decreases rapidly at the neck, the
force at B required to break the
specimen, is less than the
maximum load. At this point the
material will break called fracture.
2. Percentage elongation:
The percentage elongation of the
work piece on fracture can also be
calculated.
% Elongation=
Increase in gauge length/ Original
gauge length * 100
This is a measure of ductility of
the material.
3. Brinell test:
A harder steel ball is forced into
the surface of a test piece by
means a suitable standard load.
The diameter of the impression is
then measured, using some of the
calibrated microscope.
And then the Brinell Hardness
number (BH) is found from
Formula:
BH = Load / Area of curved surface
of the impression
4. Vickers Pyramid Hardness Test:
This test uses a square based
diamond pyramid as the indenter.
In this test the diagonal length of
the square impression is
measured by means of a
microscope which has a variable
slit built into eye piece.
The diagonal length is obtained by
means of a small instrument geared
to the movement of slit.
The reading thus obtained is
converted to the Vickers Pyramid
Hardness Number (VPN) by
reference table.
The size of the impression is related
to hardness in the same way as the
BN.
