Materials

FACE-CENTRED CUBIC (FCC) CRYSTAL STRUCTURE:

In the face-centred cubic (FCC) crystal structure, atoms are located at all
corner and face-centred positions. The atoms touch across a face
diagonal. The FCC structure is found in some common metals such as
gold, silver, aluminium and copper. The cube length a and the atomic
radius R are related through:
a=

4R
=2 2 R
2

The coordination number is 12.

The atomics packing factor (APF) is 0.74 this is the maximum packing
possible for spheres having the same radius. (insert diagram here ; insert
calculation and 2-D for APF calculation)
Metals typically have relatively large atomic packing factors to maximise
the shielding provided by the sea of delocalised electrons.

BODY-CENTRED CUBIC CRYSTAL STRUCTURE:

In the body-centred cubic (BCC) crystal structure, atoms are located at
corner and cell centre positions. Centre and corner atoms touch one
another along cube diagonals. Chromium, tungsten, iron (alpha), as well
as several other metals exhibit a BCC structure. The cube length a and the
atomic radius R are related through:
a=

4R
3

The coordination number is 8.

The atomics packing factor (APF) is 0.74 this is the maximum packing
possible for spheres having the same radius. (insert diagram here ; insert
calculation and 2-D for APF calculation)
Metals typically have relatively large atomic packing factors to maximise
the shielding provided by the sea of delocalised electrons.

Lecture 2 Mechanical Properties of Materials

Read pages 234 236 on Terminology for

Mechanical Properties in the 4th ed. Askeland
book!!!
Stress, in general, is defined as the force per unit area
Strain, in general, is defined as the change in length per unit length
True stress uses instantaneous area
True strain uses the integral of the reciprocal of the length
Tension Test:
In a tensile test, the strain rate (e dot) is controlled because mechanical
properties of many materials vary with the strain rate. Strain rate is the
rate of change in strain (deformation) of a material with respect to time.
Elastic strain is defined as fully recoverable strain resulting from an
applied stress. The strain is elastic if it develops instantaneously (i.e.,
the strain occurs as soon as the force is applied), remains as long as the
stress is applied, and disappears as soon as the force is withdrawn. A
material subjected to an elastic strain does not show any permanent
deformation (i.e., it returns to its original shape after the force or stress is
removed).
Permanent or plastic deformation in a material is known as the plastic
strain. In this case, when the stress is removed, the material does not go
back to its original shape.
Stiffness is a qualitative measure of the elastic deformation produced in a
material. A stiff material has a high modulus of elasticity and maintains its
size and shape even under an elastic load. Stiffness also depends upon
geometry.
The Young's modulus (E) describes tensile elasticity, or the tendency of an
object to deform along an axis when opposing forces are applied along
that axis; it is defined as the ratio of tensile stress to tensile strain. It is
often referred to simply as the elastic modulus or modulus of elasticity.
Poisson's ratio is the negative ratio of transverse to axial strain. When a
material is stretched in one direction, it usually tends to contract in the
other two directions perpendicular to the direction of stretching.
Conversely, if the material is compressed rather than stretched, it usually

tends to expand in the directions transverse to the direction of

compression. The Poissons ratio is about 0.3 for metals.

A tensile stress is to be applied along the long axis of a cylindrical brass

rod of Youngs modulus 97 MPa and diameter of 10mm. Determine the
magnitude of the load require to produce a 2.5x10-3 mm change in
diameter if the deformation is entirely elastic. (Ans: 71.3MPa)

An aluminium rod, with a Youngs modulus of 68.0 MPa is to withstand an

applied force of 200 kN. To assure sufficient safety, the maximum
allowable stress on the rod is limited to 170 MPa. The rod must be at least
3.8m long but must deform elastically no more than 6mm when the force
is applied. Design an appropriate rod. (Ans: the cross sectional area of the
rod must be at least 1820mm2)
Brittle materials fail without significant plastic strain (plastic deformation).
Examples include ceramics and glasses.
Ductility measures the amount of plastic deformation that a material can
withstand before fracture. It can either be quantified by % elongation,
%EL, (i.e. the engineering strain at the point of fracture in a tensile test)
or the % reduction in area, %RA, (i.e. the amount of thinning undergone
by the specimen during a tensile test). Ductility is important because a
ductile material will show obvious deformation before fracture (this acts as
a warning that the applied stress is too high), and it will usually absorb
more energy than a brittle material. Fabricators of engineering
components (metallic and polymers) want a ductile material in order to
form complicated shapes without breaking the material in the process.
Ductility depends on temperature and strain rate.
Difference between elastic limit and proportional limit?
The critical stress value needed to initiate plastic deformation is defined
as the elastic limit of the material.
The proportional limit is defined as the level of stress above which the
relationship between stress and strain in not linear.
In most materials the elastic limit (minimum stress required to initiate
plastic deformation, i.e. permanent, non-recoverable deformation) and the
proportional limit (stress above which the stress and strain relationship is
no longer linear) are quite close and cannot be determined precisely; and
so the yield strength is not well defined. We, therefore, use proof
strength (or offset yield strength) in place of yield strength in such
cases.

The proof strength is determined by drawing a line parallel to the linear

region on the stress-strain plot. This line is offset from the linear region by
a specific value of strain (usually 0.002 or 0.2%). The stress value
corresponding to the intersection of this line and the engineering stressstrain curve is defined as the proof strength.
Mechanical properties of materials depend on temperature (Figure 6-11).
Yield strength, tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity usually decrease
at higher temperatures, whereas ductility commonly increases.

Necking local deformation in a tensile specimen. Necking begins at the

ultimate tensile stress in an engineering stress-strain curve.
This is because beyond maximum load the distribution of strain along
gage length is not uniform. True stress continues to increase after necking
because, although the load required decreases, the area decreases even
more, so the stress is increasing up to the fracture.
For structural applications we often do not require true stress and true
strain. When we exceed the yield strength, the material deforms. The
component would fail because it can no longer support the applied stress.
Furthermore, a significant difference develops between the two curves
only when necking begins But when necking begins, our component is
grossly deformed and no longer satisfies its intended use.

The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is the maximum recorded tensile

stress on the engineering stress-strain curve. In many ductile materials
deformation does nor uniform. At some point, one region deforms more
than others and a large local decrease in the cross-sectional area occurs.
The region where this localised deformation occurs is called a neck. The
tensile strength is the stress at which necking begins in ductile materials.
The stress in a tensile test (calculated using the original area A0)
decreases once necking occurs, since the cross-sectional area in the
necked region decreases (less force required for smaller area to cause
same deformation).

Toughness a qualitative measure of the impact properties of a material.

A tough material resists failure by impact.
Toughness refers to the ability of a material to absorb energy before
fracturing. The area under a stress strain curve is a measure of toughness.
A material with a high toughness will have a better resistance to sudden
fracture, particularly if the material contains a crack or flaw.

Specimen geometry as well as the manner of load application are

important in toughness determinations. For dynamic (high strain rate)
loading conditions and when a notch (or point of stress concentration) is
present, notch toughness is assessed by using an impact test.
Furthermore, fracture toughness is a property indicative of a materials
resistance to fracture when a crack is present. For the static (low strain
rate) situation, toughness may be ascertained from the results of a tensile
stressstrain test. It is the area under the stress-strain curve up to the
point of fracture. The units for toughness are the same as for resilience
(i.e., energy per unit volume of material). For a material to be tough, it
must display both strength and ductility; often, ductile materials are
tougher than brittle ones. This is demonstrated in Figure 6.13, in which the
stressstrain curves are plotted for both material types. Hence, even
though the brittle material has higher yield and tensile strengths, it has a
lower toughness than the ductile one, by virtue of lack of ductility;