CHAPTER 10

YOUNGS MODULUS OF ELASTICITY

[ 123 ]

INTRODUCTION The concept of material stiffness was the invention of Thomas Young (1773-1829). Hence, stiffness is usually referred to as Youngs Modulus of Elasticity (or E), which is a constant for all linearly elastic material (when E is known, the material is known). Youngs modulus is determined by experiment; by measuring the force required to stretch and the stretch that occurs in an arbitrarily selected gage length of a cylindrical test specimen (the details of the process are defined in ASTM E111-04 For Youngs Modulus, Tangent Modulus and the Chord Modulus). Also, consider the novel method for graphically drawing the stiffness of a material [1]. THE CYLINDRICAL TEST SPECIMEN The experiments that determine many properties of materials are usually obtained from tensile tests. A typical tensile test specimen is about 8 to 10 inches in length, with the central 4 to 8 inches machined to a uniform diameter, typically one half inch. The ends of the test specimen are either clamped in the test machine, or threaded to fit the threaded grip of a testing machine. Typically, an extensometer is clamped to the central portion of the specimen. Ordinarily, an extensometer has a gage length of two inches (the characteristic distance between a fixed and a rotating support). There are several material properties obtained from the measurements made during and preceding this experiment. In addition to the stress-strain curve, other properties obtained with the extensometer are the stress at yield, the modulus of resilience, both the strain and stress at the onset of strain hardening, and without the extensometer the ultimate strength of a material as well as the percent elongation, stress at rupture and the toughness of a material. THE STRESS-STRAIN CURVE Before the results of an experiment are shown graphically (plotted), the units of stretch are changed to strain and the units of the stretching force are changed to stress. Figure 2 shows strain as = e/L, in which e is the stretch that occurs in gage length L. Stress, , is a calculated material property, = F/A, in which F is the force causing the stretch and A is the measured cross-sectional area of the test specimen. *
O P

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: Two stress-strain curves for linearly elastic materials are shown schematically in (a) and (b). The linear features are defined by the straight line O-P in (a) and (b). The slope of the line OP, Tan or Tan , define Youngs modulus of elasticity (the stiffness). The material in (a) is stiffer than is the material in (b) because Tan > Tan . Both curves depict a material with linear strain at yield; that is, while the material of the specimen is stretched by the testing machine, the measured force resisting the stretch is constant (the stretch continues until strain-hardening occurs in the test material). For clarity, and as shown here, the vertical and horizontal scales are greatly expanded. Originally, this diagram was drawn with stress on the abscissa and strain on the ordinate, and thus a proper stress-strain curve. It is likely the abscissa and ordinate were exchanged because of improvements made in testing machines, but by the time of these improvements the term stress-strain had become well established.

[ 124 ]

YOUNGS MODULUS OF ELASTICITY

Originally, stress lay on the abscissa of a graph while strain described the ordinate. Hence, the mathematical name of the curve was correctly identified as a stress-strain curve. In time, however, the data was plotted differently. Stress became the ordinate and strain the abscissa. The new drawing should have been called a strain-stress curve, but this change in name did not occur, probably because the term stress-strain was already well established. It is the linear slope of the initial portion of the strain-stress curve (see Fig. 1) that defines the stiffness of a material, or Youngs Modulus of Elasticity; that is, E = /. HOW IT WORKS Only one experimental procedure is known to alter the modulus of elasticity. There are three more tests which may alter the modulus of elasticity. All of the tests are like the tests used to determine the properties of a material, except that each is performed more than once. Originally, four experiments were imagined using five or six test specimens for each material examined. The four tests imagined are described next, but of these only Test 1 was performed. A TEST FOR REDUCING THE MODULUS OF ELASTICITY (1) A series of tensile tests, performed after repeated removal of material. A TEST FOR POSSIBLY INCREASING THE MODULUS OF ELASTICITY (2) A sequential compressive test after repeatedly adding material by welding. OTHER IMAGINED TESTS (3) A sequential tensile test after repeatedly adding material by welding. (4) A sequential compressive test after repeated removal of material using a lathe. Experiments 2, 3 and 4 were not performed, even though one or more of these tests may have yielded new information about Youngs Modulus of Elasticity. The high cost of the equipment required made it impossible to perform exploratory experiments 2, 3 and 4. However, they are listed here for reference purposes. r F
d 1 d 2 d 3 d 4

r
C L

Figure 2: Half of a tensile test specimen is shown (the center line is the vertical line marked C at the top and L at the bottom). Segments A, B, C and D are cylindrically shaped. The forces F are those required for a tensile test of segments B, C and D. The diameter of the original or stock material is in segment A. The radii of the test cylinder in segments C and D are shown reduced. In the machining of a test specimen all sharp corners (shown 90 for convenience) are eliminated by using convenient radii.

CONCLUSIONS The stiffness of a material, since Youngs initial work, has been a constant. As a consequence, when the material stiffness is known, so too is the material. However, the results of this experiment indicate that the stiffness of a material can be altered. The initial shape of the material tested was that of a 3/4 inch cylinder. From this

CHAPTER 10

[ 125 ]

material six test specimen were made, each with a six inch test segment that was 1/2 inch in diameter (uniform). One material was tested; it was a low-carbon cold rolled steel rod (0.10% C by weight alloyed with iron). Each test performed was a tensile test. The cross sectional area of each specimen was measured. Then, each test began with an extensometer mounted on the 1/2 inch diameter portion of rod. The stretch and the force required to produce that stretch was recorded, with each test stopped at the yield point stress, *. The extensometer was removed and the tensile force removed. Afterward, the diameter of the test section was reduced by a small amount, about forty thousandths of an inch (r = 0.020 in Fig 2). This procedure, loading to *, mechanically reducing the diameter of the tensile test specimen and reloading to * was repeated five times for each test specimen. A stress-strain curve was drawn after each successive loading to the yield stress *. At the end of five repetitions, it was discovered that the stiffness of cold rolled steel decreased by 21.7%; from 29.8 million pounds per square inch to 23.3 million pounds per square inch. The test machine was initially calibrated, and then recalibrated at the end of the experiment. No changes were necessary or made to the testing machine. There were changes observed in the grain structure of the material. And finally, an altered material, with reduced modulus of elasticity, absorbs more energy than an unaltered material. REFERENCE 1. Stanovsky, J.J.: Sematograph, Machine Design, Pentron Publ., May 1979, p. 134. 2. Stanovsky, J.J.: The Stiffness-Strain Diagram: A Viable Alternative to the Stress Strain Curve, SAE, 1978
ABOUT NEWTONS SECOND LAW (Opinion) Newton published three laws in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. Newtons 2nd law is a conceptual statement only. This conceptual statement has few, if any applications because Newtons 2nd law does not apply to large bodies on surface of earth nor does it apply to a particle in which mass changes as a function of time. Thus, Newtons 2nd is useless in any attempt to evaluate an explosion. Furthermore, Newtons particle had dimensions so small that particle rotation was neither mentioned or examined: hence there was no moment or torque equation (most recognized this error). It was more than 100 years after Newtons Principia was published that Leonhard Euler , Jean DAlembert and many others fixed Newtons 2nd law so it was no longer just a conceptual statement. Force F was defined as the time rate of change of linear momentum, or F = d(mv)/dt. As a consequence the definition of force becomes, after the differentiation is performed, F = v d(m)dt + m d(v)/dt, in which the first term permits a change of mass with respect to time while the second term is F = m a. ABOUT THE ICE AGE (Opinion) The experiments of Forest Ray Moulton (1872-1952) indicate the optical diameter of Sun in early January (Perihelion) intercepts an arc of thirty-two minutes and thirty-six seconds (32 36) but only 31 30 in early July (Aphelion). This result supposedly shows that Earth at Perihelion is closer to the Sun than it is at Aphelion. It is this difference in distance that is interpreted to mean that winters are warmer at Perigee while the summers at Aphelion are cooler. Both conditions are saied to correlate with a general warming trend that may have begun as early as 20,000 years ago, and that still continues.