Mechanical Properties Notes

Engr. Lina D. dela Cruz

Chemical Engineering Department
Technological Institute of the Philippines
 Mechanical properties are
characteristics of materials that are
revealed when that material is
subjected to mechanical loading.
 The mechanical properties of
engineering materials depend
strongly upon microstructure.
It is therefore important that
engineers should possess a basic
understanding of how the
microstructure is formed, and how
this structure influences the
engineering properties.
 The selection criteria used by materials
engineers in choosing from a group of
materials includes a list of qualities that
are either desirable or necessary.
 Unfortunately, the optimum properties
associated with each selection criteria can
seldom be all found in a single material,
especially when the operating conditions
become aggressive.
Elastic deformation – (reversible) when
stress is removed, material returns to
original size
Plastic deformation – (irreversible)
when stress is remove material
does not return to original
dimension.
Deformation in which stress and
strain are proportional is called
elastic deformation.
Elastic deformation is non permanent
which means that when the applied
load is released, the piece returns
to its original length.
Engineering stress – the
instantaneous load applied to a
specimen divided by its cross
sectional area before any
deformation
 Engineering strain – the change in
gauge length of a specimen (in the
direction of applied stress) divided
by its original gauge length
Plastic Deformation
For most metals, elastic
deformation persists only to strain
of about .005.
As the material is deformed beyond
these points, stress is no longer
proportional to strain; and
permanent, non reversible or plastic
deformation occur. The transition
from elastic to plastic is gradual.
From an atomic perspective, plastic
deformation corresponds to the
breaking of bonds with original
atom neighbor and reforming bonds
with new neighbors.
When this occur, upon removal of
stress they do not return to its
original position and becomes a
permanent deformation called slip.
Tensile Properties: Yielding
When designing a material, most
materials are designed to ensure
that only elastic deformation will
result when stress is applied.
It is therefore desirable to know the
stress level at which plastic
deformation begins, or the
phenomenon of yielding occurs.
Yielding – means the beginning of
plastic deformation.
For metals that experience this
gradual elastic-plastic transition, the
point of yielding maybe determined
as the departure from linearity of
the stress – strain curve; this is
called proportionality limit.
Proportionality limit – the point on a
stress strain curve at which the
straight line proportionality between
stress and strain ceases.
Yield strength – stress required to
produce a slight yet specified
amount of plastic strain.
Tensile Strength
After yielding, the stress necessary to
continue plastic deformation in metals
increases to a maximum point M, then
decreases to fracture point F.
The tensile strength is the stress at the
maximum on the stress strain curve.
Tensile strength is the maximum stress that
can be sustained by a structure, and if
stress is applied or maintained , fracture
will result.
Deformation up to the tensile
strength is uniform, but once
maximum stress is applied.
Constriction or neck begins to
form at some point.
Tensile Properties: Ductility
Ductility – is another important
mechanical property.
It is a measure of the degree of
plastic deformation that has been
sustained at fracture.
A material that experiences very little
or no plastic deformation upon
fracture is termed brittle.
Ductility maybe expressed quantitatively as
either percent elongation or percent
reduction in area.
A knowledge of ductility of material is
important due to two reasons: (1) it
indicates to a designer the degree to
which a structure will deform practically
before fracture , (2) it specifies the
degree of allowable deformation during
fabrication operations.
Toughness – the measure of the
ability of a material to absorb
energy up to fracture. Toughness is
measured by an impact tester.
Fracture toughness is a property
indicative of a material resistance to
fracture when a crack is present.
For a material to be tough, it must
display strength and ductility; and
often, ductile materials are tougher
than brittle ones.
Safe Deformation
Design Safety Factors – there will
always be uncertainties in
characterizing the magnitude of
applied load, and their associated
stress levels for service applications
or load calculations are only
approximate.
Furthermore, all engineering
materials exhibit a variability in
their measured mechanical
properties.
Consequently, design allowances
must be made to protect against
unanticipated failure.
This maybe accomplished by
establishing a design stress.
Thus the material to be used for a
particular application is chosen so as
to have a yield strength at least as
high as the value of design stress.
Safe Stress – it is the yield strength
divided by the factor of safety.
Utilization of design stress is
preferred since it is based on the
anticipated maximum applied stress
instead of the yield strength of the
material.
Make sure that safe stress is greater
than design stress.
Problem

1. A piece of copper originally 305

mm long is pulled in tension with a
stress of 276 MPa. If the
deformation is entirely elastic,
what will be the resultant
elongation? E is 110 GPa. 1 GPa
= 103MPa
Problem

2. A cylindrical specimen of steel

having an original diameter of
12.8mm is tensile tested to fracture
and found to have an engineering
fracture strength of 460 MPa. If
the cross sectional diameter at
fracture is 10.7 mm, determine: a)
ductility in terms of % reduction; b)
true stress