MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

Contents for this page

Introduction
Types of forces acting on materials
Hooke's law
Plasticity, creep and fracture
Microscopic view of material strength
Additional questions

Introduction:

A major question that confronts engineers and architects is whether the materials that they are considering using
are fit for the purpose to which they are intended. No material lasts for ever or is always completely dependable
when subjected to various forces. The problem is to choose a material whose strength is such that it will withstand
such failures as creep, fracture and metal fatigue indefinitely, and not deform within certain permissible limits,
when subjected to the sort of forces that are likely to be applied to the final product. This, in short, is the area of
materials science known as STRENGTH OF MATERIALS.

In antiquity, large structures were built out of wood or solid stone, an example being the Parthenon, built some
2500 years ago. Nowaday, we have at our disposal all sorts of materials, each with their own physical
characteristics, that can be used for specific purposes. This enables engineers to construct such technological
marvels as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (in 2010, the world's tallest building, 828 metres) and the Akashi-Kaikyo
Bridge in Japan (in 2008, the world's longest suspension bridge, with a span of 1991 metres). A knowledge of the
PERFORMANCE of materials is crucial if structures from which they are constructed are to avoid FAILURE.

Types of forces acting on materials:

When forces act on materials, DEFORMATION tends to occur. By this we mean that the material tends to
change its shape under the influence of the forces that are applied. This change may be large or small, reversible
or permanent, depending on the type of force and the material involved. Ultimately, the material will undergo
FRACTURE, which is a nice way of saying that it will break!
 The deformation that takes place is called the STRAIN, while the force causing the
deformation is known as the STRESS. The strain may be a change in size (length,
area or volume), while the stress may be

 forces of tension (that tend to increase length),

 compression (that tend to reduce length), or,
 shear (where parallel planes of a body tend to slide over each other.

How to remember which is which?

strEss relates to forcE

strAin relates to deformaAtion

Stress is measured in units of force per unit area of cross-section (N.m-2), and is commonly given the symbol σ
(greek "sigma"). Since the dimensions of stress are the same as those for pressure, stress is frequently measured in
pascals. Strain is a pure number, and is given the symbol ε (greek "epsilon").

A material may also be subjected to bending and twisting forces. The diagram above shows a beam, mounted in
two different ways. The beam will tend to bend under the force of gravity, and undergo both compression and
tension. Some materials are very strong under compression but relatively weak under tension (stone, concrete).
Others, such as wood or steel are strong under tension.

Hooke's law:

A material is said to be ELASTIC if, when deformed by an

applied force, it returns to its original shape when the force
is removed. There are many familiar examples of this, such
as a steel springs, rubber bands, rubber balls, bows, and so
on. Permanent deformation may occur if the stress is too
large. However, many structural materials also present the
property of RIGIDITY, in that they will offer resistance to
stress.

The relationship between stress and strain in elastic

materials was investigated by Robert Hooke, and led to
what is known as Hooke's law.
 Hooke's Law
"For an elastic material, the strain is directly proportional to the stress."

In mathematical terms, a stress F = kX, where F is the stress, and X is the strain. k is a constant called the
ELASTIC MODULUS or YOUNG'S MODULUS of the material.

This is easily demonstrated using a spring. When no weight is applied to the spring, the strain is zero, and we can
measure its length, L. We can now attach various known masses to the spring, and determine the extensions, x, that
is, the strains, caused by the stresses mg. A graph of strain against stress will be a straight line for a certain range of
stresses. Beyond a certain limit, called the LINEAR LIMIT, Hooke's law is no longer obeyed. Within the linear
region, the stress F = kx, where k is the SPRING CONSTANT ( ). The spring constant has units of N.m-1 if the
extension is given in metres, or simply N if the extension is expressed as a fraction or percentage of the original
length.

Hooke's law is the principle underlying the spring balance. It consists of a spring
fitted in ahousing, which bears a scale calibrated in mass units. A pointer attached to
the spring indicates zero when nothing is attached to the balance. The "mass" of an
object is detrmined from the pointer. The following points are worth remembering
about a spring balance:

 It does not measure mass, but the force applied to it.

 Consequently, the extension of the spring will depend not only on the mass,
but also on the value of g, the acceleration due to gravity at the point of use.
On the moon, for example, the reading on the balance would be about one-
sixth the reading on the earth for any given mass.
 If the spring has been stretched at any time beyond it elastic limit, the balance
will be faulty.

Mathematical treatment of elasticity:

Consider a metal bar of cross-sectional area, A, and length, L, subjected to tension forces that tend to cause an
increase in length. We define the TENSILE STRESS, σ as the force applied per unit area of the bar, that is,

σ = F/A

Note that the unit of tensile stress is the pascal, the same unit as pressure. The TENSILE STRAIN, ε, is the ratio
of the increase in length, ΔL to the original length, that is,

ε = ΔL/L

ε is dimensionless. For relatively low values of ΔL, Hooke's law is obeyed, and we have

where Y is knows as YOUNG'S MODULUS, with units of pascals (see some values). It is a measure of the
STIFFNESS of a material, namely, that material's resistance to deformation under stress. A material is stiff if a
large applied force is required to produce a small strain. This is another statement of Hooke's law, as applied to
rods, cylinders and wires of material under tension (or compression). It is instructive to examine in detail what
happens when a wide range of stresses is applied to an elastic material:

 In the stress range up to A, the LINEAR LIMIT, Hooke's law is

obeyed.
 From A to B, Hooke's law is no longer obeyed, but removal of
the stress cause the material to return to its original length. In
other words, the deformation is reversible. B is known as the
ELASTIC LIMIT, and the range up to B is called the
ELASTIC RANGE. The stress corresponding to the point B is
called the YIELD STRENGTH or YIELD POINT of the
material.
 In the range B to D, called the PLASTIC REGION, the stress
causes permanent deformation. We call this PLASTIC
DEFORMATION. In this range, relatively large deformations
occur for small additional stresses. In this range, the cross-
sectional area of the material may decrease, a phenomenon
called "necking-down", until the material breaks at D, the
FRACTURE POINT. The stress corresponding to point C is
called the ULTIMATE TENSILE STRENTH of the material.
When we talk about the "strength" of a material, we refer to its
ability to resist fracture under high stresses.
 The TOUGHNESS of a material refers to that material's ability
to absorb large amounts of stress, deforming plastically before
breaking. Polythene and steel are examples of tough materials.
On the other hand, a BRITTLE material, such as glass, is elastic
over a very limited range of stresses, and undergoes fracture
without plastic deformation.
 RESILIENT materials are those that can absorb large stresses
before they deform plastically. Coil springs are examples of this.

Plasticity, creep and fracture:

Plasticity:

Plasticity is the property of a material to undergo significant permanent deformation without undergoing fracture,
when subjected to a stress. This happens to elastic materials when the stress exceeds a certain limit, known as the
YIELD STRENGTH or YIELD POINT for that material. This would be the stress at the point labelled B in the
graph shown above on the left. Normally, plastic materials undergo large deformation for a relatively small stress.
A perfectly plastic material shows no tendencyto revert to its original shape once it has been subjected to a stress.

Creep:

Creep is the permanent deformation that a material experiences when it is subjected to stresses below the yield
strength for extended periods of time. For example, if a spring is kept in a stretched or compressed state within
the elastic region for long periods of time, the spring may not revert to its original, unstressed length. Creep is
more likely to occur at elevated temperatures, and is a problem for materials subjected to high stresses at high
temperatures, such as, for examples, the turbine blades of jet engines. Zinc, tin and lead, their alloys, as well as
most polymers, can show creep at room temperature.

Fracture:

A fracture occurs when a material separates into two or more fragments when subjected to a stress. Materials that
are particularly subject to fracture are called BRITTLE MATERIALS. Glass is an example of this. Materials
that can be subjected to significant stresses without fracture are called DUCTILE MATERIALS. Most metals
are ductile.

However, a ductile material, when subjected to repeated stresses that may well be below the ultimate tension
strength, may develop microscopic cracks that lead eventually to fracture. This is known as METAL FATIGUE,
a phenomenon that came into prominence in the 1950's, when the world's first jet airliner, the Comet, experienced
several disastrous crashes with considerable losses of life.

Microscopic view of material strength:

Metals are malleable () and ductile (). Part of the reason for this is that the metal crystal consists of planes of
atoms surrounded by delocalised electrons. It is therefore relatively easy to slip one plane over another when
subjected to forces (shown as red arrows in the diagram below):

It turns out that metals (and other crystalline materials) are more easily deformed than expected in the light of the
above "slip" model. The reason for this is that crystals are very seldom perfect, and contain what is known as
DISLOCATIONS. One such dislocation is a VACANCY, where a row of atoms is incomplete:

What happens in effect is that the dislocation moves one atom at a time, a process that requires much less energy
than if a whole plane of atoms were to be moved, as occurs in the "slip".

Grains and grain boundaries:

Crystals, unless specially "grown", do not consist of one large crystal, but rather of
microcrystalline grains separated by GRAIN BOUNDARIES, as ilustrated in the
diagram on the right. The smaller these grains, the more difficult it is for dislocations
to move across the whole of the sample. The dislocations become tangled, and layers
are not able to slip very far in any one direction. Metals can be made stronger, by a
method called WORK HARDENING, in which the metal is repeatedly deformed
plastically.

Another way in which metals can be made stronger, is to introduce "foreign" atoms
into their crystal structures. These atoms then cause dislocations. For example, adding
small quantities of carbon to iron produces steel, a much stronger material. Alloys
made of two or more different metals can also display more strength than the
individual metals.

Additional questions
Some values of Young's modulus for various materials:
Note that for homogeneous materials, such as metals, Young's modulus for tension and compression are usually
the same. This is not true for inhomogeneous materials such as stone or concrete.

Material Young's modulus (Pa)

Aluminium 7x1010
Brass 9x1010
Copper 11x1010
Glass 7x1010
Nylon 3x109 - 7x109
Steel 2x1011

A material is ductile if it can be

drawn into wires.
A material is malleable if it can
be beaten or rolled into thin
sheets.
Note that the spring constant for a coiled spring is NOT the same as Young's modulus for the material of the spring.