INSPECTION & TESTING OF MATERIALS

28-01-09 1st Lecture

Introduction
Testing of metallic materials is a common engineering subject. It deals with the various testing techniques
and calculation of the different strengths and values. With the advances made in the field of Materials
Science, present-day testing has changed its character. From the old method of reporting test results, the
interpretation of the results has taken over a prominent position.
There are hundreds of materials and their uses are also unlimited. This large number of materials came into
existence because of the various numbers of industrial needs for them. The particular property or
combination of properties a material should possess depends on its specific use and the service conditions.
The material properties can be classified into three major headings:
i.
ii.
iii.

Physical,
Chemical, and
Mechanical.

Physical Properties
Density or specific gravity, porosity, moisture content, melting point, etc.
Chemical Properties
Acidity, alkalinity, reactivity and corrosion. The most important of these is corrosion which in other words
can be explained as the resistance of the material to decay while in continuous use in a particular
environment.
Mechanical Properties
It includes the strength properties like tensile, compression, shear, torsion, impact, fatigue and creep. The
tensile strength of a material is obtained by dividing the maximum load which the specimen bears by the area
of cross-section of the specimen. In the tensile test, the material is loaded in such a way that tensile forces are
axial to the specimen. The test specimen is fixed at one end and loaded at the other, the load acting as if it is
elongating the specimen.
Exactly opposite to the tension type of loading occurs in compression testing. The two loads are axial and
opposite to each other.
In shear, the same conditions of compression testing prevail except that the two opposing loads are not in the
same axis.
The torsion test consists of twisting the body of a specimen over its length while fixing at one end.
In the impact test, a sudden or shock load is used to bring about the failure of the material and the energy
absorbed is noted.

Fatigue is a long-time test in which the specimen is subjected to repeated loads of a small magnitude,
whereas the creep test can be practically considered as a high temperature tensile test.
Besides these, a very common test is that of hardness. Various types of hardness tests are in vogue depending
upon the nature of hardness to be determined.
All these tests can be classified into two major categories:
i.
ii.

Reactive Tests
Service condition tests

All the tests except impact, creep, and fatigue can be classed as reactive tests. Fatigue, creep, and impact
tests represent to a large extent, the actual service conditions of the object under consideration.
In any testing process, the actual use of the material is kept in view and the necessity for the test is first
decided. If a material is to be used for the manufacture of a lathe chuck, its hardness as well as compression
and shear strengths should be appreciably high. If a material is to be used for a bearing bush, however, its
porosity is the major consideration, so as to facilitate a liberal oil absorption; it should also be relatively soft
compared to the shaft or spindle on which it is to work, because it would be very expensive to replace a shaft
itself, if it is worn out. On the other hand, if the bush is worn out quickly, it is easier and cheaper to replace.
A chisel steel should be hard and possess a high impact strength and so on.
Testing as it is, is an innate human tendency. A layman who purchases a glass tumbler, rings it with his
fingernails to check any internal defects or cracks in the form of a dull sound. Nobody wants to be a loser in
the bargain. This is one aspect of testing.
Next, when one wishes to order a particular object or commodity, he should describe it in full, so as to enable
the supplier to understand his need. A description to the size and shape would do if it is an ordinary object
like paper, a pencil, or such. But in the case of an engineering object it will serve properly only when it suits
the purpose from all standpoints. In such a case, the type of loads it experiences in service and their
magnitude are to be taken into account and minimum values for the same should be specified besides its
dimensions and the environment in which it is to be used. Such a description of the object is termed as its
specifications.
Thus, after realizing the need for a specification, attempts were made to perfectly an comprehensively
specify the various characteristics and properties. To safeguard the interests of all the stakeholders need for
standardization of materials and their testing methods was felt. Various standards organizations sucha as the
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), British
Standards Institution (BSI) and so on, have standardized and are still standardizing various products and
testing methods.
A majority of the mechanical tests are of a destructive type, i.e., the specimen tested is either broken or
becomes unusable after the test. Methods of non-destructive testing are also available but their application is
limited.
While we can appreciate the importance and significance of materials testing, we will also realize that if we
go on testing every product manufactured (and thereby breaking it) there will be nothing left to market. We
cannot afford to do so. A hundred per cent check may be made for dimensions, or some other property that

may be revealed by a non-destructive method, but it will be insensible to conduct tensile or fatigue tests on a
hundred per cent of the production. The ready solution to this problem is the testing of representative
samples. In this, a sample which represents a batch of the product, is taken and tested. In the case of
engineering items, samples are taken at a prescribed frequency during manufacture. There are methods
prescribed in the statistical quality control methods. These are also standardized.
Next to taking the sample, comes the testing proper. When we test a piece of wood of the order of the trunk
of a small tree (approx. 15 cm dia) we record a particular load when it breaks. If we test a piece of copper I
the form of a thick wire, we may get the same breaking load but we cannot say that both the materials are
equally strong. Again, if we take two pieces of the same metal, one double the other in size, and test them,
we record differing loads of breakage for the two. This type of testing leads us nowhere, for when we
perform a test it should be capable of (i) being repeated, and representative of the material concerned, and
(ii) serving as a standard or basis for comparison. For this reason, we should take a specimen. The specimen
should be of a definite size and shape so that we test the other materials also in the same form, identical
conditions of testing are maintained. Then alone can we obtain results worth comparison and classification.
Standard test specimens for different forms of materials, such as those in the form of wire, plate, tubing, and
solids, specified for each type of test will be discussed.

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
Mechanical properties describe the behavior of a material subjected to mechanical forces. Materials used in load
bearing applications are called structural materials and may be metals, ceramics, polymers, or composites. Most
structural materials are anisotropic, which means that their material properties vary with orientation. The variation in
properties can be due to directionality in the microstructure (texture) from forming or cold working operation, the
controlled alignment of fiber reinforcement and a variety of other causes. Mechanical properties are generally specific
to product form such as sheet, plate, extrusion, casting, forging, and etc. Additionally, it is common to see mechanical
property listed by the directional grain structure of the material. In products such as sheet and plate, the rolling
direction is called the longitudinal direction, the width of the product is called the transverse direction, and the
thickness is called the short transverse direction.

Loading
The application of a force to an object is known as loading. Materials can be subjected to many different
loading scenarios and a materials performance is dependent on the loading conditions. There are five
fundamental loading conditions; tension, compression, bending, shear, and torsion. Tension is the type of
loading in which the two sections of material on either side of a plane tend to be pulled apart or elongated.
Compression is the reverse of tensile loading and involves pressing the material together. Loading by
bending involves applying a load in a manner that causes a material to curve and results in compressing the
material on one side and stretching it on the other. Shear involves applying a load parallel to a plane which
caused the material on one side of the plane to want to slide across the material on the other side of the plane.
Torsion is the application of a force that causes twisting in a material.

If a material is subjected to a constant force, it is called static loading. If the loading of the material is not
constant but instead fluctuates, it is called dynamic or cyclic loading. The way a material is loaded greatly
affects its mechanical properties and largely determines how, or if, a component will fail; and whether it will
show warning signs before failure actually occurs.