MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF

MATERIALS
• STRESS AND STRAIN
Force or load imposed on a material induce
stress and strain
Stress represents the intensity of the load
and is denoted by:
 = F/A
 is stress (N/m2)
F is the force (N)
A is the area (m2)
 STATIC FORCES
• Described by three mutually perpendicular
stresses on a body;
• Uniaxial
• Bi-axial
• Tri-axial

• If stress leads to closer contact of the

material – Compressive
• If it gives rise to separation – Tensile
• STRAIN-Is the alteration of the shape of a
body
 TENSILE
• A rod subject to a uniaxial tensile force F
will elongate in the direction of the force
• The elongation L = L-Lo
• Tensile strain et = (L-Lo)/Lo
et is the tensile strain
L is the actual length
Lo is the initial length
Compressive strain ec=(Lo-L)/Lo
Nominal stress n=F/Ao F is applied force
Ao is the initial area
• True stress tr = F/A A is the actual area
• In most cases nominal stress or engineering
stress is used for calculations in design .
Simply use  instead of n
• Tensile strain is also termed engineering
strain. Simply use e instead of et
• Note strain has dimensionless units
 Shear stress and strain
• A material can also be deformed under the
action of shear stress
• Shear stress  =S/A
S is the shear force
A is the surface area
• Shear strain  = a/h
– a is shear displacement
– h is the distance over which shear acts
– Note shear strain has dimensionless
units
 STRESS AND STRAIN CURVES
• Usually obtained by doing a tensile test
under strictly standardised conditions
• A metal sample pulled to failure at a
constant rate in a relatively short time.
• Following properties can be
determined:
• Elasticity, strength, ductility, resilience,
toughness etc.
 NOMINAL STRESS STRAIN
CURVE
• In nominal stress - strain test, stress and
strain values are based on original
proportions of the sample; Lo, Ao
• In first part of, the metal deforms
elastically- sample returns to original
dimensions after removal of force
• Elastic deformations for metals usually
less than 0.5%
NORMAL STRESS STRAIN
CURVES
• In general metals show a linear relationship
between stress and strain in the elastic part.
• For small deformations relationship described by
Hooke’s law  = E
– E is the modulus of elasticity (N/m2)
–  is the strain
Materials with high E are relatively stiff and do not
deflect easily
• Proportional limit - Greatest stress in elastic
region in which stress is proportional to strain
• Elastic limit E –greatest stress a material is
capable of withstanding without permanent set
deformation (plastic deformation)
• Strength- the ability to resist force without yielding
• Yield strength (proof stress)-strength at which a
metal or alloy show significant plastic
deformation.
• Yield strength chosen when 0.2 % plastic strain
has taken place. Found by drawing a line parallel
to the elastic part of the stress strain curve at e =
0.002
• The 0.2% yield stress is also called the 0.2%
offset yield strength
0.2% YIELD STRESS
STRESS STRAIN DIAGRAM
 YIELDING
• Some metals e.g mild steel show a
decreasing load (force, stress) after
the elastic region when increasing the
strain at a constant rate.
• The load increases again when the
strain is further increased
• Straining at this suddenly decreased
resistance is called YIELDING
YIELDING
 DEFINITIONS
• Ultimate tensile strength u- This is the
maximum stress a sample exhibits in the
plastic region
• Up to this point the strain is equally
distributed over the sample.
• Necking – Beyond the ultimate tensile
strength the specimen develops a
localised decrease in cross sectional area.
This is referred to as necking
NECKING
• Fracture stress – stress at which
fracture occurs
• Percent elongation at fracture –
This ia a measure of ductility-
Measurements done after fracture by
fitting the fractured surfaces together
and measuring the length between
the gauge marks
• Ductility is important when
measuring metal forming operations
• Resilience – This is the capacity of a
material to absorb energy in the
elastic region
• Resilience is important when
choosing materials for springs
• Toughness – This is the ability of a
material to absorb energy during
plastic deformation
• This is important when considering
safety aspects
• A material which fractures at a point
more to the left hand side is considered
to be a brittle material
• B’ can resist large forces but deforms
less easily
• B can not resist as large forces but it
deforms more
• The shaded area is a measure of
resilience
 Toughness Properties of
System
• The stress-strain curve indicates the material's toughness.

• Generally, the more deformation material will accept before

failure, the tougher and more crack-resistant
Toughness the under
(J/m3) = area materialthewill be.
curve.
• Conversely, a material with Combination of strength
a low strain to failure+ will
ductility
tend to be
brittle, which cracks easily.

It is important to match
this property to the
elongation of the material

20
 MEASURE OF RESILIENCE AND
TOUGHNESS
• If area under the curve is large – it took
very large energy to fracture the material
• Resilience R = (pp)/2 =(p2)/2E
• = (0.22)/2E
• Toughness T = (2/3) u. F
TRUE STRESS STRAIN CURVES
• From the stress strain curve one can
conclude that the fracture stress is
lower than the ultimate tensile
strength
• This is because the calculated stress
is based upon the original area
• True stress differs significantly from
engineering stress especially in the
neighbourhood of the fracture point
 TRUE STRESS TRUE STRAIN
• True strain = dtr = dl/l
– where l is the instantaneous length
• tr = lnl/l
• Consider the true stress strain curve
• The first part of the curve (1-2) describes
the elastic region.
• The relationship is described by Hooke’s
law tr = trE
• Plastic region entered after end of elastic
portion
TRUE STRESS STRAIN
CURVE
 PLASTIC REGION
• An empirical relationship gives an
approximation – the Nadai’s relation
• tr = Ctrn
• Where C the characteristic deformation
resistance
• N is the strain hardening exponent
• C and n are found by taking two points in
the plastic region and performing a
logarithmic transition
 TRUE STRESS STRAIN
• Consider two points P and Q in the
plastic region – not too close together
• trP = ctrPn
• trQ = ctrQn
• By taking logs on both sides c and n
can be found.
• E.g Ln trP = Lnc + nLn trP
• Ln trQ = Lnc + nLn trQ
 STRAIN HARDENING
• The stress increases if the
specimen is strained in the plastic
region. This is called strain
hardening.
• Consider the ideal plastic
behaviour
 TRUE STRAIN
• The definition of true strain is much better
than engineering strain
– True strain can be added
– tr= tr1 + tr2 + tr3 +…….+ tri
– Whereas e ≠ e1 + e2 + e3 +…..ei
• Suppose a specimen with original length
Lo is elongated to a length iLo and another
is compressed to a length Lo/I
• The value will be the same using true
strain definition and will be different when
engineering strain definition is used
• For very small elongations both definitions
result in same value.
 HARDNESS AND HARDNESS
TESTING
• Hardness is a measure of resistance of a
metal to plastic deformation.
• It can be measured by its resistance to
scratching
 HARDNESS MEASUREMENT
• The resistance to scratching is measured
by Moh’s hardness scale.
• The scratch resistance of a sample is
determined by comparing it to the scratch
resistance of one of the ten materials
numbered one up to ten.
• N=1 for Talc while n=10 for diamond
 HARDNESS TESTS
• These involve indentation by a hard
indeter
• There are 4 common hardness tests
namely:
• Brinell Vickers
• Knoop Rockwell
• The hardness value provides an
indication of strength
HARDNESS TRESTING
TECHNIQUES
ADVANTAGES OF HARDNESS
TESTS

• The hardness test is simpler than

the tensile test
• They have non destructive nature
• Hence widely used for quality
control
 FRACTURE AND IMPACT TEST
• Fracture is the separation of a solid
under stress creating new surfaces
• Fracture is classified as brittle or
ductile
• Ductile fracture occurs after
extensive plastic deformation and is
characterised by slow crack
propagation
 DUCTILE FRACTURE
• Specimen forms a neck
• Cavities form in the neck
• Some cavities join up to form a crack in the
centre of the specimen
• The crack grows perpendicular to the stress
direction
• When it nears surface it changes direction
to 45° to the tensile axis
• A so called a cup and cone fracture occurs
• The fractured surfaces appear dull, grey
and fibrous
DUCTILE FRACTURE
 BRITTLE FRACTURE
• Little plastic deformation
• Proceeds along specific crystallographic
planes – Cleavage planes
• Under stress normal to cleavage plane
• Encouraged by low temperature and high
stress application rates
• Fracture is granular and often possesses a
bright appearance owing to reflection of light
from individual crystal surfaces
BRITTLE FRACTURE
 OTHER FACTORS AFFECTING
BRITTLE FRACTURE
• Component geometry
– Stress concentration with sudden
change in section or presence of a
surface notch
• Surface conditions
• Temperature
• Brittle materials are more sensitive to
stress concentration than ductile ones
 IMPACT TESTING
• Toughness is a measure of the amount of
energy a material is able to absorb before
fracturing
• Toughness important in case ability of
material to withstand impact loads without
fracturing is considered.
• A standard impact testing machine is used
to measure toughness
 IMPACT TEST
• A heavy pendulum is released from a
known height and allowed to strike a
v – notch specimen on its downward
swing
• Knowing the mass of the pendulum
and the difference between the initial
and final height the energy absorbed
can be measured
 IMPACT TEST
• Energy absorbed by the specimen can be
measured
• When the hammer hits the specimen it
looses energy
• Energy to fracture specimen = mg(hA-hB)
• Test can also be used to determine
temperature range for transition from
ductile to brittle behaviour
• Also the influence of carbon content on
ductility
IMPACT TEST
 FATIGUE
• Metals subjected to repeated or cyclic
stresses will fail at much lower
stresses than they can withstand
under static loading
• Such failures are called fatigue
failures
• They occur regularly in parts such as
gears and shafts and other rotating
parts.
FATIGUE TEST
 STAGES IN FATIGUE FAILURE
• Originates at point of stress concentration
• Crack propagates across part during which
stage beach marks develop
• Finally the remaining section becomes too
small for the stresses applied and
complete failure occurs
• Two surfaces are recognisable on the
fracture surface
– Smooth surface due to rubbing action
between the open surfaces
– Rough surface formed at final fracture
FATIGUE FAILURE FRACTURE
SURFACE
 FATIGUE TESTING
• A common fatigue test is the rotating beam
test
• A standardised specimen is subjected to
alternating compression and tensile stresses
of equal magnitude during rotation
• Test results are plotted in the form of a so
called woller curve or SN curve
• The stress that causes failure is plotted
against the number of cycles at which failure
occurs
ROTATING BEAM TEST
 SN CURVES
• Two kind of curves:
1 Stress decreases with the number of cycles
until the endurance limit (e) or fatigue limit is
reached after which the stress won’t drop
further.
– For many ferous alloys e ≈ 1/2u
2 The stress drops when the number of cycles
increases and it reaches no limit
This applies to many non ferrous alloys such as
aluminium alloys
SN CURVES
 FACTORS THAT AFFECT
FATIGUE STRENGTH
• Stress concentration
– Key ways etc
• Surface conditions
– Roughness, heat treatment
• Environment (chemical attacks or
corrosion)
– Corroded parts give rise to fatigue
failure because corrosion increase
stress concentration
 CREEP
• When a metal is under a constant load it
may undergo progressive plastic
deformation over a period of time
• This time dependent strain is called Creep.
• Important in metals that are used at
elevated temperatures
• In many design creep is the limiting factor
with respect to operating temperatures
• Creep becomes significant at temperatures
higher than 0.4Tm – Tm is melting
temperature
 CREEP CURVE
• To produce a creep curve a specimen is
subjected to a constant load under under a
constant temperature
• The strain is then plotted against time
• o is the instantaneous elongation when the
mass is attached to the bar
• Bar elongates after some time
• Note L is not a constant but changes with
time
• The increment of strain with respect to time
is what is termed creep
CREEP CURVE
 STAGES IN CREEP
• STAGE I – PRIMARY CREEP
• The rate of change of strain d/dt
decreases –this is due to strain hardening
• It becomes increasingly difficult for the
mass to strain the bar
• STAGE II – SECONDARY CREEP
• d/dt is minimum
• Effect of strain hardening decreases in this
region
 STAGE III TERTIARY CREEP
• During this stage d/dt increases
because
– The specimen is necking
– Internal cavities form reducing the
resistance of specimen to strain
 EFFECT OF STRESS
ANDTEMPERATURE ON CREEP
• At constant temperature creep rate increases
as stress increase
• Keeping the load constant, process of
straining will be much easier as temperature
increases