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Material Testing

Measurement of the characteristics and behavior of such substances as metals, ceramics,


or plastics under various conditions.
The data thus obtained can be used in specifying the suitability of materials for various
applicationse.g., building or aircraft construction, machinery, or packing.

Why are metals tested?


Ensure quality
Test properties
Prevent failure in use
Make informed choices in using materials
Factor of Safety
Is the ratio comparing the actual stress on a material and the safe useable stress?

Two forms of testing


1. Mechanical tests /destructive testing/
The material may be physically tested to destruction.
Will normally specify a value for properties such as strength, hardness, toughness,etc
2. Non-destructive tests (NDT)
Samples or finished articles are tested before being used.

Types of Testing
Mechanical testing:
Tensile Hardness
Creep Impact
Compression torsion
Fatigue

Non-destructive tests:
Magnetic Ultrasound
Dyes

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Mechanical testing
Introduction
Mechanical testing plays an important role in:-
Evaluating fundamental properties of engineering materials
In developing new materials and
Controlling the quality of materials for use in design and construction.
For example:- If a material is to be used as part of an engineering structure that will be
subjected to a load, it is important to know that the material is strong enough and rigid enough to
withstand the loads that it will experience in service. As a result engineers have developed a
number of experimental techniques for mechanical testing of engineering materials subjected to
tension, compression, Fatigue, bending or torsion loading.

Exp. 1: Tensile testing


Objectives
The objectives of this experiment are:-
To perform a tensile test on metals.
To demonstrate the elastic and plastic properties of metals.
To learn the Measurements of stress and strain in tensile tests
To learn Interpretation of stress strain curves
To determine the major parameters that describe the stress-strain curve obtained during
the tension test.

These parameters are


The tensile strength (UTS),
Yield strength or yield point (y),
Elastic modulus (E),
Percent elongation (L %) and
The reduction in area (RA %).
Toughness, Resilience, Poissons ratio () can also be found by the use of this testing
technique.

Specimen : -mild steel with 55mm gage length and 5 mm diameter.

Apparatus
1. Universal materials tester
2. v.caliper
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Introduction
The tensile test, also known as tension test, is one of the most important and most fundamental
tests in mechanical testing of materials.
It provides information on the strength and ductility of materials under uniaxial tensile stresses
for almost all types of materials.
Tensile tests are simple, relatively inexpensive, and fully standardized.
The result of the tensile test is the so-called stress-strain-curve.
From this curve, several material properties can be derived, like
elastic (Youngs) modulus,
yield stress,
tensile strength and
Strain at fracture.
elastic limit or proportional limit,
Reduction of area and other properties.
This information may be useful in
comparisons of materials,
alloy development,
quality control, and
Design under certain circumstances.
The direct, but simplified result of the test uses the engineering stress and engineering strain. An
advanced evaluation of the test yields also true stresses and true strains.
Test principles
The tensile test is performed by gripping the ends of the sample and elongating the sample.
The force, acting on the sample, is measured by a load cell continuously during the experiment
and may be plotted versus the elongation.
I.e. we measure and record the force, necessary to obtain the elongation of the sample during the
experiment.
The basic result is the so-called engineering stress engineering strain curve.
The engineering stress is the force acting on the sample divided by the minimal initial cross
sectional area.

The engineering strain, measured at the gauge length, is

Before starting the test, the initial dimensions of the sample must be measured using a vernier
caliper and entered into the computer program.
The sample shall then be fixed in the machine.
The elongation of the gauge length will be measured during the test with the extensometer.

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Evaluation of the Test
In the stress strain diagram different parts can be distinguished:
1. The elastic region:-In the elastic region the stress is proportional to the strain and the
curve is a straight line here.
If the sample will be unloaded in this region, it will return to its original size and shape.
2. At a certain point, the curve will depart from the linear relationship between stress and
strain. The part of the curve from this point till the rupture point is called the plastic
region.
If the sample will be unloaded in this region, it will not return to its original size.
3. Some materials, e.g. interstitial alloys like steels show the so-called yield point elongation
(yield point phenomenon), where the plastic deformation is initiated at the upper yield point with
an actual decrease in stress. Then, the stress is oscillating about a constant stress.
4. Metals exhibit strain hardening, which causes an increase of the necessary force and stress
with continuing plastic deformation. In the stress-strain-curve the hardening region is
characterized by a non-linear cause with increasing stress.
5. Most materials, which can be deformed plastically, will exhibit a localization of the plastic
deformation at a certain plastic strain. This effect gives rise to a rapid local decrease of the cross
section, which is called necking. As the true cross section becomes smaller, the actual force,
necessary to continue the deformation decreases which causes a decreasing engineering stress.
Thus, the necking phenomenon causes a maximum in the stress-strain-curve and the necking
region is characterized by decreasing engineering stresses.
The following material properties can be derived from the stress-strain-curve:
Elastic Modulus E: The elastic modulus (or Youngs modulus) is the constant of proportionality
between stress and strain by Hooks law. It is the slope of the linear segment of the stress-strain-
curve in the elastic region.
Yield stress: The yield stress characterizes the onset of plastic deformation. Depending on the
characteristics of the stress-strain-curve, different measures are defined:
The proportional limit is the point, where the stress-strain-curve deviates from linear elastic
behavior.

Stress strain curves and derived properties

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0.2% proof stress: The proportional limit is often difficult to determine precisely. Instead, the
intersection of the stress-strain-curve with a straight line parallel to the elastic part of the curve is
used to characterize the yield strength. The strain-offset of this straight line has to be specified
and is usually 0.2%. The stress is often called proof stress.
Upper yield stress: Materials which exhibit the yield point phenomenon, this stress
characterizes the onset of plastic deformation.
Lower yield stress: is the lower stress bound during the yield point elongation.
Tensile strength (ultimate strength) is the maximum engineering stress. Several elongation and
strain measures are additionally used to describe the elastic-plastic response of a material. These
are: elastic strain, yield point elongation, uniform elongation or strain, total elongation and strain
at fracture. As the deformation after the onset of necking is no longer homogeneous over the
sample, for all properties derived after uniform strain, the gauge length must be specified, as
these properties depend then on the sample size and geometry.
Additionally, the reduction of cross-section area at fracture is often used to characterize the
ductility of a material. The reduced area is the minimum cross section at the location of fracture.
The reduction of area is then divided by initial cross section and is usually given in percent (%).

Note, that the engineering strain is an approximation to the true strain for small deformations but
usually sufficient to characterize the mechanical behavior. The true strain is the logarithmic
strain:

The true stress takes into account the actual instantaneous cross section area A, which is always
small than the instantaneous cross section A0.

For the true-stress-curve the minimal cross section has to be used, which is often difficult to
determine during the experiment, when necking occurs. For the elastic region, the cross section
and thus the true stress can be calculated, if Poissons ratio is known.

For the uniform strain plastic strain region, Poissons ratio is approximately 0.5 and then)

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Engineering stress and true stress curves

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
1. Before the test run, check the free movement of the upper traverse.
2. Turn the system on from the main switch and so do the hydraulic pump switch.
3. Set the speed and force adjusters to the desired values.
4. Measure the gauge length of the specimen usingca1iper.
5. Mount the specimen first into the lower grip head and then into the upper.
6. Loosen the grip chuck with the hand lever and move it back, the hand lever sits in a loose
position.
7. Insert the specimen deep enough and centered. The specimen will sit is the whole length
of the
grip.
8. Lock the grip by pressing the release lever and
9. Before applying tension in the second grip set the corresponding distance between the
grip heads and lock it
10. Apply the tensile load by pressing the push button up. And observe carefully until
fracture occurs.
Assignment
Calculate the strength parameters;
a. Yield stress (0.2 % off-set), y [MPa]
b. Youngs modulus, E [Gpa]
c. Ultimate tensile strength, UTS [MPa]
d. Fracture Stress, f [MPa]
Calculate the ductility parameters;
a) Percent elongation, %L
b) Percent reduction in area, %RA

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