Mechanical Properties of

materials
Learning Objectives
• Types of material testing
• Stress-strain diagram:
• Tensile tests
• Steel
• Aluminium alloy
• Rubber
• Compression
• Copper
• Nominal stress, nominal strain, true stress, true strain
• Elasticity, Plasticity, Creep
 Material testing
• The design of machines and • The usual procedure is to place
structures so that they will small specimens of the material
function properly requires that in testing machines, apply the
we understand the mechanical loads, and then measure the
behavior of the materials being resulting deformations (such as
used. changes in length and changes
• Ordinarily, the only way to in diameter).
determine how materials • Most materials-testing
behave when they are laboratories are equipped with
subjected to loads is to perform machines capable of loading
experiments in the laboratory. specimens in a variety of ways,
including both static and
dynamic loading in tension and
compression.
Tensile Testing Machine with automatic data
processing system
• The test specimen is
installed between the
two large grips of the
testing machine and
then loaded in tension.
• Measuring devices
record the
deformations, and the
automatic control and
data-processing • Displacement controlled test
systems tabulate and • 1mm/minute, 0.1 mm/minute etc..
graph the results. • Load controlled test
• 1N/min, 10N/minute etc…
Tensile Testing Machine with extensometer attached
• Extensometer measures the
elongation during loading
• In a properly designed specimen,
failure will occur in the prismatic Extensometer
portion of the specimen where
the stress distribution is uniform
and the bar is subjected only to
Gage
pure tension. Length
• Stress distribution near the grips Gage
is not uniform. Marks
• The ends of the circular
specimen are enlarged where
they fit in the grips so that failure
will not occur near the grips
themselves.
Terminology
• Gage Length: Distance between gage
points
• Static Test: Rate of load is very slow
and doesn’t influence material
response
• Dynamic Test: Rate of loading is high
and affects material response
Displacement loading rate:
1mm/minute, 10mm/minute,
500mm/minute
Strain rate: 0.01/min
Apply strain resulting in 0.01mm
extension per 1mm length of the
specimen in 1 minute
 Terminology
• CompressionTest:
• Metals
Cubes: 1”
Circular cylinders: 1”
diameter, Length 1” to 12”
Shortening measured over
gage length to avoid end
effects
• Concrete
Circular cylinders: 6”
diameter, Length 12”
Tested 28-day after curing
• Rock
Cylindrical sample cut from
rock
 Testing Standards
• ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
• ASA American Standards Association
• NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

• What they do?

• Publishes specifications and standards for materials and
testing
• Tensile testing ASTM standard: 0.505 in specimen
diameter, 2 in gage length
Stress-strain diagram
• Test results generally depend upon the dimensions of the
specimen being tested.
• Since it is unlikely that we will be designing a structure having
parts that are the same size as the test specimens, we need
to express the test results in a form that can be applied to
members of any size.
• A simple way to achieve this objective is to convert the test
results to stresses and strains.
• Characteristic of the particular material being tested
• Conveys important information about the mechanical
properties and type of behavior.
• Originated by Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) and J.V. Poncelet
(1788-1867)
 Stress-Strain Diagram
• Nominal Stress= P/ Ao • True Stress = P/Ac
• Nominal Strain = δ/Lo • True Strain dε= dL/L

Reference Reference
Undeformed
Ao Lo

Deformed/Current
P
AC Lo+δ
Stress-Strain Diagram: True strain
• True Strain: Change in length with respect to current length
• Let current length is Lc
• Increment in current length is ∆Lc
• Increment in true strain : ∆εt=∆Lc/Lc
• Total true strain
dL
dt 
L
L0  
dL
t  
L0
L
 L0   
 t  ln  
 L0 
Stress-Strain Diagram: Steel
Nominal Stress/Engineering Stress
• Proportional Limit
• Yield Limit
• Perfect plasticity or yielding
• Strain Hardening:
• Stress carrying capacity
increases.
• Area of cross-section starts
reducing.
• Ultimate stress is reached.
• Necking:
• Area of cross-section
reduces further
• fracture occurs
Stress-Strain Diagram
True stress
Stress-Strain Diagram: Steel: Ductility
• Ductile materials undergo
large permanent strains
before failure.
• Enables a bar of steel to be
bent into a circular arc or
drawn into a wire without
breaking.
• Visible distortions occur if the
loads become too large, thus
providing an opportunity to Stress strain
take remedial action before an diagram drawn to
actual fracture occurs. scale
• Capable of absorbing large
amounts of strain energy prior
to fracture.
Aluminium alloys
• Initial linear region with a
recognizable proportional
limit.
• Typically do not have a
clearly definable yield point
• Alloys produced for
structural purposes have
Proportional limits in the
range 10 to 60 ksi (70 to 410
MPa)
Ultimate stresses in the
range 20 to 80 ksi (140 to
550 MPa)
 Aluminium alloys: Yield Stress
• An arbitrary yield stress is
determined by offset offset yield
method stress
• Straight line is drawn on
stress strain diagram
parallel to initial part of the
curve but offset by some
standard strain, such as
0.002 (or 0.2%). • This stress is determined by an
arbitrary rule and is not an
• The intersection of the
inherent physical property of the
offset line and the stress-
material, it should be
strain curve (point A)
distinguished from a true yield
defines the yield stress.
stress by referring to it as the
offset yield stress
 Rubber:
• Linear relationship between
stress and strain up to
relatively large strains.
• The strain at the proportional
limit may be as high as 0.1
or 0.2 (10% or 20%).
• Beyond the proportional
limit, the behavior depends • The material eventually offers
upon the type of rubber increasing resistance to the
• Some kinds of soft rubber load, and the stress-strain
will stretch enormously curve turns markedly upward.
without failure, reaching • Not ductile but elastic as it
lengths several times their regains original length on
original lengths. unloading
Ductile Materials
L1  L0
• Percent Elongation= 100
L0

• Steel 3%- 40%

• Structural Steel 20%-30%
• Aluminium Alloys 1%-45%
Brittle materials
• Examples are concrete,
stone, cast iron, glass,
ceramics, and a variety of
metallic alloys.
• Fail in tension at relatively
low values of strain
• Fail with only little
elongation after proportional
limit
• Nominal stress is same as
true ultimate stress as
reduction in area is
negligible
 Compression
• Ductile metals such as
steel, aluminum, and
copper have proportional
limits in compression very
close to those in tension
• Initial regions of their
compressive and tensile
stress-strain diagrams are
about same
• Lateral expansion,
specimen bulges and it
flattens
 Compression
• After yielding begins:
• In a tension test, the specimen is
stretched, necking may occur, and
fracture ultimately takes place.
• When the material is compressed, it
bulges outward on the sides and
becomes barrel shaped, because
friction between the specimen and
the end plates prevents lateral
expansion.
• With increasing load, the specimen
is flattened out and offers greatly
increased resistance to further Stress strain diagram for
shortening (which means that the copper
stress-strain curve becomes very
steep).
Question
• Which is higher:
nominal stress or
true stress
• in compression loading?
• Nominal Stress= P/ Ao
• True Stress = P/Ac
Unloading response
Elastic
• What happens when
material is loaded to certain Limit
value and then unloaded i.e
load is removed gradually?
• Unloading from A:
Elastic response
No permanent deformation.
Unloading response
Elastic
• Unloading from point B
OC: Permanent strain or
Limit
residual strain
CD: Elastic recovery
When loaded into the
plastic range, the internal
structure of the material is
altered and its properties
change.
Unloading-Reloading response
• The new loading begins at Elastic
point C on the diagram and
continues upward to point B, Limit
the point at which unloading
began during the first loading
cycle.
• The material then follows the
original stress-strain curve
toward point F.
• For the second loading, we
can imagine that we have a
new stress strain diagram with
its origin at point C
Creep
• Creep: Time dependent
deformation
• ε=εelastic+εcreep
• Elastic Strain= εelastic
• Hooke’s law=εelastic=P/EA
• Creep Strain = εcreep
• Bar continues to elongate
under applied load P (which
is kept constant). Elastic
Strain
• Creep solution O
Creep
• Upward camber in bridges deformation
P

P
 Stress Relaxation
0

R R
Stress
• The elongation is kept Relaxation
constant.
• Reaction R reduces with
time.
• The internal stress in bar
given as σ=R/A reduces
with time.