CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL

PROPERTIES OF MATERIAL

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 CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
After discussing this chapter, the student must be able to:

✓ Relate stress and strain by using experimental methods to

determine the stress- strain diagram for a specific material
✓ Interpret the stress- strain diagram for materials commonly
used in engineering
✓ Discuss other mechanical properties for the strength of
materials.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
THE TENSION AND COMPRESSION TESTS
Many mechanical properties of materials are
determined from tests, some of which give
relationships between stresses and strains.

To obtain the stress-strain diagram of a

material, one usually conducts a tensile test on
a specimen of the material.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
THE TENSION AND COMPRESSION TESTS

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
THE TENSION AND COMPRESSION TESTS
The testing machine elongates the specimen at a slow, constant
rate until the specimen ruptures. During the test, continuous
readings are taken of the applied load and the elongation of the
gage length. These data are then converted to stress and strain.
𝑃
The stress is obtained from 𝜎 = where P is the load and A
𝐴
represents the original cross-sectional area of the specimen.

The strain is computed from 𝜖 = 𝛿/𝐿0 where d is the elongation

between the gage marks and L is the original gage length. These
results, which are based on the original area and the original gage
length, are referred to as nominal stress and nominal strain.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram

A plot of results from the

tension-compression test
about the stress and strain of
a material is called the
stress-strain diagram.
Horizontal axis – strain
Vertical axis - stress

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram The stress-strain diagram is a
straight line from the origin O to a
point called the proportional limit.
This plot is a manifestation of
Hooke’s law: Stress is
proportional to strain; that is,
𝜎 = 𝐸𝜖
where E is a material property
known as the modulus of
elasticity or Young’s
modulus.
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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram
Note that Hooke’s Law does not
apply to the entire diagram; its
validity ends at the proportional
limit. Beyond this point, stress is
no longer proportional to strain.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram The point where the stress-strain diagram
becomes almost horizontal is called the yield
point, and the corresponding stress is known
as the yield stress or yield strength. Beyond
the yield point there is an appreciable
elongation, or yielding, of the material
without a corresponding increase in load.
Indeed, the load may actually decrease
while the yielding occurs.

However, the phenomenon of yielding is

unique to structural steel.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram The ultimate stress or ultimate
strength, as it is often called, is
the highest stress on the stress-
strain curve.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
Stress-Strain Diagram The rupture stress or rupture strength is the
stress at which failure occurs.

For structural steel, the nominal rupture

strength is considerably lower than the
ultimate strength because the nominal
rupture strength is computed by dividing the
load at rupture by the original cross sectional
area.
The true rupture strength is calculated using
the reduced area of the cross section where
the fracture occurred. The difference in the
two values results from a phenomenon
known as necking.
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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
✓ The ductility of a material can be specified by the specimen’s percent
elongation or the percent reduction in area.

✓ If a material does not have a distinct yield point, a yield strength can be
specified using a graphical procedure such as the offset method.
✓ Brittle materials, such as gray cast iron, have very little or no yielding
and so they can fracture suddenly.

✓ Strain hardening is used to establish a higher yield point for a material.

This is done by straining the material beyond the elastic limit, then
releasing the load. The modulus of elasticity remains the same;
however, the material’s ductility decreases.
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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
✓ Strain energy is energy stored in a material due to its deformation. This
energy per unit volume is called strain-energy density. If it is measured
up to the proportional limit, it is referred to as the modulus of
resilience, and if it is measured up to the point of fracture, it is called
the modulus of toughness. It can be determined from the area under
the diagram.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
✓ Poisson’s ratio, 𝒗 , is a ratio of the lateral strain of a
homogeneous and isotropic material to its longitudinal strain.
Generally these strains are of opposite signs, that is, if one is
an elongation, the other will be a contraction.
✓ The shear stress–strain diagram is a plot of the shear
stress versus the shear strain. If the material is homogeneous
and isotropic, and is also linear elastic, the slope of the
straight line within the elastic region is called the modulus of
rigidity or the shear modulus, G.

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CHAPTER 3: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERAL
✓ Creep is the time-dependent deformation of a material for which stress
and/or temperature play an important role. Members are designed to
resist the effects of creep based on their material creep strength, which
is the largest initial stress a material can withstand during a specified
time without exceeding a specified creep strain.
✓ Fatigue occurs in metals when the stress or strain is cycled. This
phenomenon causes brittle fracture of the material. Members are
designed to resist fatigue by ensuring that the stress in the member
does not exceed its endurance or fatigue limit. This value is determined
from an S–N diagram as the maximum stress the material can resist
when subjected to a specified number of cycles of loading.

ESci 132 STRENGTH OF MATERIALS