Name of the Teacher-Chitra
Guest lecturer, Department of physics and Electronics
Name of the course- B.Sc. (H) Electronics
Semester- II
Name of the paper- Applied Physics
Unique paper code-32511204
Date: 24/03/2020 (10.40-12.40 am)
Applied Physics
Lecture-5 & 6
Unit II-Mechanical Properties of solids
Topics to be discussed in this lecture:
- A little more insight to Stress-Strain curve giving rise to definitions of the
following:
Yield point
Limit of proportionality
Elastic limit
Yield strength
Ultimate tensile strength
- Brittle materials
- Malleability and Ductility
Tensile test and Stress-Strain Diagram
Stress-Strain Diagram expresses a relationship between a load applied to a
material and the deformation of the material, caused by the load.
Stress-Strain Diagram is determined by tensile test.
Tensile tests are conducted in tensile test machines, providing controlled
uniformly increasing tension force, applied to the specimen.
The specimen’s ends are gripped and fixed in the machine and its gauge length
L0 (a calibrated distance between two marks on the specimen surface) is
continuously measured until the rupture.
Test specimen may be round or flat in the cross-section.
In the round specimens it is accepted, that L0 = 5 * diameter.
The specimen deformation (strain) is the ratio of the increase of the specimen
gauge length to its original gauge length:
δ = (L – L0) / L0
Tensile stress is the ratio of the tensile load F applied to the specimen to its
original cross-sectional area S0:
σ = F / S0
Let’s say we used mild steel as our specimen and the observed stress strain curve is
shown below:
The initial straight line (0P) of the curve characterizes proportional relationship
between the stress and the deformation (strain).
The stress value at the point P is called the limit of proportionality:
σp= FP / S0
This behavior conforms to the Hook’s Law:
σ = E*δ
where E is a constant, known as Young’s Modulus or Modulus of Elasticity
The value of Young’s Modulus is determined mainly by the nature of the material
and is nearly insensitive to the heat treatment and composition.
Modulus of elasticity determines stiffness - resistance of a body to elastic
deformation caused by an applied force.
The line 0E in the Stress-Strain curve indicates the range of elastic deformation –
removal of the load at any point of this part of the curve results in return of the
specimen length to its original value.
The elastic behavior is characterized by the elasticity limit (stress value at the
point E):
σel= FE / S0
For the most materials the points P and E coincide and therefore σel=σp.
σy= FY / S0
The highest stress (point YU) , occurring before the sudden deformation is
called upper yield limit .
The lower stress value, causing the sudden deformation (point YL) is called lower
yield limit.
The commonly used parameter of yield limit is actually lower yield limit.
If the load reaches the yield point the specimen undergoes plastic deformation – it
does not return to its original length after removal of the load.
Hard steels and non-ferrous metals do not have
defined yield limit, therefore a stress,
corresponding to a definite deformation (0.1% or
0.2%) is commonly used instead of yield limit.
This stress is called proof stress or offset yield
limit (offset yield strength):
σ0.2%= F0.2% / S0
The method of obtaining the proof stress is
shown in the picture (right).
As the load increase, the specimen continues to undergo plastic deformation and at
a certain stress value its cross-section decreases due to “necking” (point S in the
Stress-Strain Diagram). At this point the stress reaches the maximum value, which
is called ultimate tensile strength (tensile strength):
σt= FS / S0
Continuation of the deformation results in breaking the specimen - the point B in
the diagram.
The actual Stress-Strain curve is obtained by taking into account the true specimen
cross-section instead of the original value.
Other important characteristic of metals is ductility - ability of a material to
deform under tension without rupture, which we will be discussing in the end of
this lecture.
Ductile & Brittle Material
So what is a ductile material and what is a brittle material? Simply a ductile
material is a material that will typically deform when a large amount of energy is
absorbed into the material during short period of time, while a brittle material will
instead shatter when a large amount of energy is absorbed into the material in a
short amount of time.
Brittle Material
Unlike ductile material, a brittle material will have a very small plastic region in
comparison. Due to this fact once a brittle material leaves the elastic region it will
fail a lot quicker. The break will also be a lot cleaner since there will be less
necking.
The images below show what a ductile material break would be in comparison to a
brittle material. They also show what the stress strain curves would look like.
Figure 1 (a) Brittle break (b) Semi ductile break and (c) Ductile break (left), Stress-strain
curve for brittle and ductile materials (right)
The material in the figure marked with (a) shows what a brittle material will look
like after pulling on a cylinder of that material. Typically, there will be a large
audible snap sound when the brittle material breaks. A brittle material is also
known as a material having low ductility.
Looking at the stress strain curve above that is being used to compare a brittle
material to a ductile material one can notice that even though the brittle material
can’t absorb as much energy as the ductile material can it typically will have a
higher yield point than the ductile material. This means that neither a brittle nor a
ductile material is better than the other one. It really depends on what the part is
being used for.
You may be asking: why are ceramics so much more brittle than metals? It has
to do with the bonding. In metals, their metallic bonds allow the atoms to slide past
each other easily. In ceramics, due to their ionic bonds, there is a resistance to the
sliding. Since in ionic bonding every other atom is of opposite charge when a row
of atoms attempts to slide past another row, positive atoms encounter positive
atoms and negative atoms encounter negative atoms. This results in a huge
electrodynamic repulsion which inhibits rows of ceramic atoms from sliding past
other rows. In metals, the sliding of rows of atoms results in slip, which allows the
metal to deform plastically instead of fracturing. Since in ceramics the rows cannot
slide, the ceramic cannot plastically deform. Instead, it fractures, which makes it a
brittle material.
Malleability and Ductility
Malleability and ductility are related. A malleable material is one in which a thin
sheet can be easily formed by hammering or rolling. In other words, the material
has the ability to deform under compressive stress.
A malleable material is one in which a thin sheet can be easily formed by hammering. Gold is the
most malleable metal.
In contrast, ductility is the ability of a solid material to deform under tensile stress.
Practically, a ductile material is a material that can easily be stretched into a wire
when pulled as shown in the figure below. Recall pulling is applying tensile stress.
Ductility test.
So what makes a material ductile? A material that is ductile has the ability to
deform and essentially absorb quite a bit of energy before it will break. If you were
to look at the stress strain plot (figure 1) of a ductile material it would have a very
large plastic area that allows quite a bit of strain before the material reaches its
fracture stress. There will also be large amount of necking before the material fails
as shown in figure 1 (a) and (b).
Let’s come back to the TENSILE TEST which we have talked about in the
beginning of the lecture.
Ductility is the percentage elongation reported in a tensile test is defined as the
maximum elongation of the gage length divided by the original gage length. The
measurement is determined as shown in figure below:
Reduction of area is the proportional reduction
of the cross-sectional area of a tensile test
piece at the plane of fracture measured after
fracture.
The reduction of area is reported as additional information (to the percent
elongation) on the deformational characteristics of the material. The two are used
as the indicators of ductility, the ability of the material to be elongated in tension.
Because the elongation is not uniform over the entire gage length and is greatest at
the center of the neck, the percent elongation is not an absolute measure of
ductility (Because of this the gage length must always be stated when the percent
elongation is reported). The reduction of area, being measured at the minimum
diameter of the neck, is a better indicator of ductility.
