Mechanical Properties of Solids

Plastic Deformation
Tensile Strength
• After yielding, the stress necessary to continue plastic
deformation in metals increases to a maximum, point
M in Figure, and then decreases to a fracture point F.
• The tensile strength TS
(MPa or psi) is the stress
at the maximum on the
engineering stress–strain
curve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8U4G5kcpc
M
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Tensile Strength (TS)
• TS corresponds to the maximum stress that can be
sustained by a structure in tension; if this stress is applied
and maintained, fracture will result.
• All deformation up to this point is uniform
throughout the narrow region of the tensile specimen.
• However, at this maximum stress, a small constriction or
neck begins to form at some point, and all subsequent
deformation is confined at this neck, as indicated by the
schematic specimen inset.
• This phenomenon is termed necking, and fracture
ultimately occurs at the neck.
• The fracture strength corresponds to the stress at fracture
point (FS).
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Tensile Strength (TS)
• Tensile strengths may vary anywhere from 50 MPa (7000
psi) for an aluminum to as high as 3000 MPa (450,000 psi)
for the high-strength steels.
• Usually, when the strength of a metal is written for a design
purpose, the yield strength is used.
• This is because by the time a stress corresponding to the
tensile strength has been applied, often a structure has
experienced so much plastic deformation that it is no more
useful.
• Furthermore, fracture strengths are not normally specified
for engineering design purposes.
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Ductility
• Ductility is another important mechanical property.
• It is a measure of the degree of plastic deformation that has
been sustained at fracture.
• Amount of plastic deformation endured by the material up to
fracture is called ductility.
• A material that experiences very little or
no plastic deformation upon fracture is
termed as brittle.
• See the difference in tensile tress-strain
behaviors for both ductile and brittle
metals in Figure.
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Ductility
• Quantitatively, ductility can be measured as either percent
elongation (%EL) or percent reduction in area (%RA).
• The percent elongation %EL is the percentage of plastic strain at
fracture:

• Where lf is the fracture length, lo is the original gauge length, Af

is cross section at fracture point and Ao is original cross sectional
area.

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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Ductility
• As a significant proportion of the plastic deformation at fracture
is confined to the neck region, so the magnitude of %EL will
depend on gauge length. The shorter lo, the greater the fraction
of total elongation from the neck and, consequently, the higher
the value of %EL. Therefore, lo (gauge length) should be
specified when percent elongation values are mentioned (i.e.
commonly 50 mm (2 in.)).
• Percent reduction in area values are independent of both lo and
Ao.
• Furthermore, for a given material the magnitudes of %EL and
%RA will, in general, be different.
• Most metals possess at least a moderate degree of ductility at
room temperature; however, some become brittle as the
temperature
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Plastic Deformation
Ductility
• A knowledge of the ductility of materials is important for at least
two reasons.
• First, it indicates to a designer the degree to which a structure
will deform plastically before fracture.
• Second, it specifies the degree of allowable deformation during
fabrication operations.
• Brittle materials are approximately considered to be those
having a fracture strain of less than about 5%.

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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties

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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties
Resilience
• Resilience is the capacity of a material to
absorb energy when it is deformed
elastically and then, upon unloading, to
have this energy recovered.
• The associated property is the modulus of
resilience, Ur, which is the strain energy per
unit volume required to stress a material
from an unloaded state up to the point of
yielding.
• Computationally, the modulus of resilience
for a specimen subjected to a uniaxial
tension test is just the area under the
engineering stress–strain curve up to the
yield point.
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties
Resilience
• The modulus of resilience, Ur, can be
determined by:

Assuming a linear elastic region,

in which ϵy is the strain at yielding

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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties
Resilience
• The units of resilience are the product of the units from each of
the two axes of the stress–strain plot. For SI units, this is joules
per cubic meter (J/m3, equivalent to Pa),
• As joules are units of energy, and thus this area under the
stress-strain curve represents energy absorption per unit
volume (in cubic meters) of material.
• As σy = Eϵy so Ur can be written as:

• Remember that the resilient materials are those which possess

high yield strengths and low moduli of elasticity; such alloys
would be used in spring applications.
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties
Toughness
• Toughness is a mechanical term that may be used in several
contexts. However, here we will define for the situation when
strain rate is low.
• A way of defining toughness is as the ability of a material to
absorb energy and plastically deform before fracturing.
• When strain rate is low, the toughness of materials can be
computed from the results of a tensile stress–strain test. It is
the area under the σ-ϵ curve up to the point of fracture.
• The units are the same as for resilience (i.e., energy per unit
volume of material). For a metal to be tough, it must display
both strength and ductility. (see figures on next slide)
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 Mechanical Properties of Solids
Mechanical Properties
Toughness

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