Tensile strength σUTS, or SU

measures the engineering stress applied (to something such as rope,

wire, or a structural beam) at the point when it fails. It is an intensive property
of the material, which not only depends on the type of material but
also the preparation of the specimen and the temperature of the test.

Explanation

The tensile strength (TS) is the stress at the maximum on the stress-strain curve.

There are three definitions of tensile strength:

Yield strength
The stress at which material strain changes from elastic deformation to plastic
deformation, causing it to deform permanently.
Ultimate strength
The maximum stress a material can withstand.
Breaking strength
The stress coordinate on the stress-strain curve at the point of rupture.

Concept
The various definitions of tensile strength are shown in the following stress-strain graph for low-
carbon steel:
Stress vs. Strain curve typical of structural steel
1. Ultimate Strength
2. Yield Strength
3. Tensile strength
4. Strain hardening region
5. Necking region.

Metals including steel have a linear stress-strain relationship up

to the yield point, as shown in the figure. In some steels the stress
falls after the yield point. This is due to the interaction of carbon
atoms and dislocations in the stressed steel. Cold worked
and alloy steels do not show this effect. For most metals yield point
is not sharply defined. Below the yield strength all deformation is
recoverable, and the material will return to its initial shape when the
load is removed. For stresses above the yield point the deformation is
not recoverable, and the material will not return to its initial shape.
This unrecoverable deformation is known as plastic deformation. For many applications plastic
deformation is unacceptable, and the yield strength is used as the design limitation.

After the yield point, steel and many other ductile metals will undergo a period of strain
hardening, in which the stress increases again with increasing strain up to the ultimate strength.
If the material is unloaded at this point, the stress-strain curve will
be parallel to that portion of the curve between the origin and the
yield point. If it is re-loaded it will follow the unloading curve up
again to the ultimate strength, which has become the new yield strength.

After a metal has been loaded to its yield strength it begins to

"neck" as the cross-sectional area of the specimen decreases due to
plastic flow. When necking
becomes substantial, it may cause a reversal of the engineering
stress-strain curve, where decreasing stress correlates to increasing
strain because of geometric effects. This is because the engineering
stress and engineering strain are calculated assuming the original
cross-sectional area before necking. If the graph is plotted in terms
of true stress and true strain the curve will always
slope upwards and never reverse, as true stress is corrected for the
decrease in cross-sectional area. Necking is not observed for materials
loaded in compression. The peak stress on the engineering stress-strain
curve is known as the ultimate strength. After a period of
necking, the material will rupture and the stored elastic energy is
released as noise and heat. The stress on the material at the time of
rupture is known as the tensile strength.

Ductile metals do not have a well defined yield point. The yield
strength is typically defined by the "0.2% offset strain". The yield
strength at 0.2% offset is determined by finding the intersection of
the stress-strain curve with a line parallel to the initial slope of
the curve and which intercepts the abscissa at 0.002. A stress-strain
curve typical of aluminum along with the 0.2% offset line is shown in
the figure below.

Stress vs. Strain curve typical of aluminum

1. Ultimate Strength
2. Yield strength
3. Proportional Limit Stress
4. Tensile strength
5. Offset Strain (typically 0.002).

Brittle materials such as concrete and carbon fiber

do not have a yield point, and do not strain-harden which means that
the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same. A most
unusual stress-strain curve is shown in the figure below. Typical
brittle materials do not show any plastic deformation but fail while
the deformation is elastic. One of the characteristics of a brittle
failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to produce the
same shape as the original component. A typical stress strain curve for
a brittle material will be linear. Testing of several identical
specimens will result in different failure stresses. The curve shown
below would be typical of a brittle polymer tested at very slow strain
rates at a temperature above its glass transition temperature. Some
engineering ceramics show a small amount of ductile behaviour at
stresses just below that causing failure but the initial part of the
curve is a linear.
Stress vs. Strain curve of a very untypical brittle material
1. Ultimate Strength
2. Tensile strength.

Tensile strength is measured in units of force per unit area. In the SI system, the units are
newtons per square metre (N/m²) or pascals (Pa), with prefixes as appropriate. The non-metric
units are pounds-force per square inch (lbf/in² or PSI). Engineers in North America usually use
units of ksi which is a thousand psi.

The breaking strength of a rope

is specified in units of force, such as newtons, without specifying the
cross-sectional area of the rope. This is often loosely called tensile
strength, but this is not a strictly correct use of the term.

In brittle materials such as rock, concrete, cast iron, or soil,

tensile strength is negligible compared to the compressive strength and
it is assumed zero for many engineering applications. Glass fibers have
a tensile strength stronger than steel, but bulk glass usually does not. This is due to the Stress
Intensity Factor
associated with defects in the material. As the size of the sample gets
larger, the size of defects also grows. In general, the tensile
strength of a rope is always less than the tensile strength of its
individual fibers.

Tensile strength can be defined for liquids as well as solids. For example, when a tree draws
water from its roots to its upper leaves by transpiration, the column of water is pulled upwards
from the top by capillary action,
and this force is transmitted down the column by its tensile strength.
Air pressure from below also plays a small part in a tree's ability to
draw up water, but this alone would only be sufficient to push the
column of water to a height of about ten metres, and trees can grow
much higher than that. 

Typical tensile strengths

Some typical tensile strengths of some materials:

Yield strength Ultimate strength Density

Material
(MPa) (MPa) (g/cm³)
Structural steel ASTM A36 steel 250 400 7.8
Steel, API 5L X65 (Fikret Mert Veral) 448 531 7.8
Steel, high strength alloy ASTM A514 690 760 7.8
Steel, prestressing strands 1650 1860 7.8
Steel Wire     7.8
Steel (AISI 1060 0.6% carbon) Piano wire 2200-2482 MPa   7.8
High density polyethylene (HDPE) 26-33 37 0.95
Polypropylene 12-43 19.7-80 0.91
Stainless steel AISI 302 - Cold-rolled 520 860  
Cast iron 4.5% C, ASTM A-48 130 200  
Titanium alloy (6% Al, 4% V) 830 900 4.51
Aluminium alloy 2014-T6 400 455 2.7
Copper 99.9% Cu 70 220 8.92
Cupronickel 10% Ni, 1.6% Fe, 1% Mn, balance
130 350 8.94
Cu
Brass approx. 200+ 550 5.3
Tungsten   1510 19.25
Glass   50 (in compression) 2.53
E-Glass N/A 3450 2.57
S-Glass N/A 4710 2.48
Basalt fiber N/A 4840 2.7
Marble N/A 15  
Concrete N/A 3  
Carbon Fiber N/A 5650 1.75
Spider silk 1150 (??) 1200  
Silkworm silk 500    
Aramid (Kevlar or Twaron) 3620   1.44
UHMWPE 23 46 0.97
UHMWPE fibers (Dyneema or Spectra)   2300-3500 0.97
Vectran   2850-3340  
Polybenzoxazole (Zylon)   5800  
Pine Wood (parallel to grain)   40  
Bone (limb) 104-121 130 1.6
Nylon, type 6/6 45 75 1.15
Rubber - 15  
Boron N/A 3100 2.46
Silicon, monocrystalline (m-Si) N/A 7000 2.33
Silicon carbide (SiC) N/A 3440  
Sapphire (Al2O3) N/A 1900 3.9-4.1
Carbon nanotube (see note below) N/A 62000 1.34

 Note: Multiwalled carbon nanotubes

have the highest tensile strength of any material yet measured, with
labs producing them at a tensile strength of 63 GPa, still well below
their theoretical limit of 300 GPa. However as of 2004, no macroscopic
object constructed of carbon nanotubes has had a tensile strength
remotely approaching this figure, or substantially exceeding that of
high-strength materials like Kevlar.
 Note: many of the values depend on manufacturing process and purity/composition.

Young's Modulus Proof or yield stress Ultimate strength

Elements in the annealed state
(GPa) (MPa) (MPa)
Aluminium 70 15-20 40-50
Copper 130 33 210
Gold 79   100
Iron 211 80-100 350
Lead 16   12
Nickel 170 14-35 140-195
Silicon 107 5000-9000  
Silver 83   170
Tantalum 186 180 200
Tin 47 9-14 15-200
Titanium 120 100-225 240-370
Tungsten 411 550 550-620
Zinc (wrought) 105   110-200