MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

Tensile Test and Impact Test

Material Characterization
It is known from experience that for a given load different materials deform by different
amounts. The purpose of tests such as the uniaxial tensile test is to provide information on this
behavior of the material.
Consider the deformation of three rods made of identical material but having different
dimensions. For each bar, the load increases gradually, leading to the change in length (∆L). For
The corresponding P~∆L plots will be represented by either (b) or (c). The P~∆L curves is
dependent upon the dimension of the specimen.

Linear Nonlinear

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1: Typical P vs ∆ L plots of linear and nonlinear materials under tensile loading.

In order to evaluate the intrinsic properties of materials, the dimension effect should be
eliminated. By re-plotting the data with the load divided by the area (P/A) and the elongation
divided by the original length (∆L/L), the test results for the three bars can be represented by a
single curve.

Figure 2: Typical P/A vs ∆ L/L plots of linear and nonlinear materials under tensile loading.

Being able to represent data from different specimens by a single curve greatly simplifies the
problem of determining the load-deformation behavior of materials. That is, it is necessary to
test only one specimen and present the data in the form of (P/A) versus (∆L/L).
The quantities (P/A) and (∆L/L) are called the stress and strain respectively i.e.
P ∆L
stress: σ = strain: ε =
A L
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

and both are of vital importance in discussing the mechanics of deformable bodies. They are
what are called local measures, i.e. they can be directly associated with a group of molecules,
and this is why they were successful in combining the data from three different specimens onto
one curve.

Linear Elasticity
If the material is linear elastic, then the slope of the stress-strain curve is a constant, i.e.
σ
= constant = E or σ = Eε (1)
ε
E is called the Young's modulus of the material, and relation (1) is usually referred to as the
uniaxial Hooke's Law.
During the uniaxial tensile test, it is found that the specimen exhibits a lateral contraction.
Further, for linear elastic materials there is a definite ratio between the lateral (εT) and
longitudinal (εL) strains, i.e.
εT
= constant = - ν (2)
εL
The constant v is referred to as Poisson's ratio.

Some typical values for E and v are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Typical values of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio.

Material E E ν
(psi) (N/m2)
Tungsten Carbide 80 x 106 500 x 109 0.35
Steel 30 x 106 200 x 109 0.28
Aluminum 10 x 106 70 x 109 0.33
Wood 1 x 106 7 x 109 -
Epoxy 80 x 103 600 x 106 0.4
Rubber 400 3 x 106 0.5

These are only representative values and a handbook on material properties should be consulted
if an accurate value for a particular type of material is required. Material properties such as these
exist for advanced materials such as laminated composites, but the properties depend on the
geometry of the composite fibers and fiber and matrix materials.
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

Tensile Test
Usually in the performance of a tensile test, load and extension data are collected. When these
are put on the reduced stress-strain plots they may look like one of the following

Figure 3: Schematic map of δ vs ε plot of linear and nonlinear multi-grain materials.

To be able to describe these curves a number of terms have been introduced. These terms do not
always have an exact number associated with them but they are useful in aiding a discussion.
Proportionality Limit: Last point where stress and strain are linearly related. (Point a.)
Elastic Limit: Last point from which after removal of load, there is no permanent strain.
(Point b.)
Yield Point: Technically the same as the elastic limit but usually associated with the gross
onset of permanent strain. Many materials do not exhibit a clearly defined
yield point and so this point is often taken to correspond to a certain offset
of strain. Point c is the yield point for 0.2% (0.002 strain) offset.
Yield Strength: Stress at yield point, σy.
Tensile Strength: Sometimes called the Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) and is the
maximum stress reached during the loading. Point d.
Material Toughness: The area under the elastic and the plastic portion of the stress-strain
curve. It is the total energy required to stress the material to the
point of fracture.
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

Material Property Aluminum Specimen Plexiglas Steel Specimen

6061-T6 1018

Elastic Modulus, E (Msi) 9.9 0.48 30

Shear Modulus, G (Msi) 3.8 12

Poisson's Ratio, ν 0.33 0.32

Yield Stress, σy (ksi) 36 4.83 36

Ultimate Stress, σu (ksi) 42 6.43 55

Ultimate Strain, εu (%in/in) 10 1.85 26

Toughness (lb/in) 5400 71

Tensile test machine

The INSTRON machine is extensively use for tension or compression testing (Figure 4).
A piston drives the table up, or down, when pressurized hydraulically. The test specimen is fixed
relative to the top bar and the shaded cross bar by the grips; the shaded cross bar is fixed in
space. Hence, the specimen is subject to a tensile load as the table moves downward. The load
cell measures the tensile load. And the strain is recorded by the extensometer

Fig.4 LVDT
Fig.5 INSTRON
extensometer
universal [2,3]
machine [1],

The

commonly used extensometer is based on a linear

variable differential transformer (LVDT) (Figure 5) in which a movable magnetic core passes
through one primary and two secondary coils. An AC voltage is applied to the primary coil
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

inducing an AC voltage in each secondary coil, with a magnitude that depends on the proximity
of the magnetic core to each secondary coil.

Impact Test
Impact testing is widely employed as part of the material characterization process, since it
provides the TOUGHNESS property and related features of material behavior, such as its
resistance to fracture, its ability to absorb and dissipate mechanical energy through plastic
deformations. The standard types of impact tests that are commonly used in the United States are
referred to as Charpy and Izod procedures. As shown in Fig.6 below, one typical apparatus for an
impact test is centered around a hammer that is mounted and operated as nearly nearly
frictionless pendulum.

The hammer is released from a specified height, h, and strikes the test specimen at the bottom of
its arc. The specimen is subjected to an extremely HIGH strain rate during the very short
duration of impact, which is much more likely to cause fracture, rather than plastic flow or
elastic deformation. The fracture of the specimen in such a test is precipitated also by the
TRIAXIAL state of stress that emerges on the side of the bar that is subjected to the tensile
loading, as a result of the notch which is designed and built in advance in that region. The
specimen temperature can also be varied during testing, thus allowing the experimental analysis
of the effects that temperature variations might have on the energy absorbed during the impact
and ensuing fracture process.

Impact Energy

The swing motion of the hammer continues subsequent to it’s striking-and breaking-the
specimen, though it rises to a height, h', which is always lower than the original height “h”, from
where the hammer was initially released. The difference in potential energy (Fig.6) between
these two limiting positions in the motion of the hammer is the energy expended in the process of
fracturing the specimen. It is commonly referred as “Impact Energy”. The physical phenomena
that absorbed this energy involve the work required for elastic deformation of the material prior
to fracture, as well as the work associated with crack nucleation and propagation through the
material. It should be pointed out that the latter is often a fairly small fraction of the total amount
of “impact energy” expended in such a test.

CV = mg(h-h') (3)

where:

CV : Impact Energy; m : Mass of the pendulum

g: Acceleration of gravity h : Original height of pendulum
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

h' : Final height of pendulum

(a) Diagram of the impact machine

(b) Standard Charpy-V notch specimen [4]

Figure 6: Schematic of a Charpy V-notch impact test.

Fracture Surface
MAE244 Tensile Test and Impact Test Lab 3-1

Useful information can be obtained through visual inspection of the fracture surface of the
impacted specimen. For a metal, the surface may be fibrous, indicating ductile fracture, or shiny
and “crystalline”, providing evidence of “cleavage”. In the case of materials whose mode of
fracture may change with temperature, the fracture surface may be part fibrous and part cleavage.
The cleavage portion is found in such a case in the central section of the specimen, and it is
surrounded around its periphery by a region of fibrous failure. The percentage of fibrous fracture
increases with increasing the temperature during a test.

Figure 5: The fracture appearance of impact specimens, broken at different test

temperatures, of a steel that undergoes a ductile-to-brittle transition.
(A) at low temperature, the fracture surface is flat and shiny;
(B) at intermediate temperature, the interior of the specimen still manifests a
shiny "crystalline" appearance, but the periphery is dull;
C) at higher temperature, the surface is entirely dull.

References
[1] http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Civil-and-Environmental-Engineering/1-105Solid-Mechanics-
LaboratoryFall2003/6A26B452-3018-44A8-A09B-DA991045D499/0/exp3_03.pdf
[2] http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/eng-manuals/em1110-2-1908/c-4.pdf
[3] http://www.rdpelectrosense.com/displacement/lvdt/lvdt-principles.htm
[4] http://www.twi.co.uk/j32k/protected/band_3/jk71.html