Chap 1:Introduction, Strength,

Processing, structure, properties

Introduction
What material should be chosen for a nuclear
pressure vessels to ensure 40 years of safe
operation?
How can an aircraft wing skin be made ligher
without compromising its load bearing
capacity?
Why did a particular power plant generator
shaft break in service?

 Need to understand the interplay between:

Material properties
Design choices
=> Path to safe, efficient and effective engineered
structures

Mechanical testing
Material properties are determined using a
wide variety of mechanical tests
Variety of specimen shapes and test
conditions
2 mechanical tests:
Control the load and measure the displacement
Control the displacement and measure the load

 Which test to use is determined by the

objective of the test
One may wish to evaluate the fundamental
material properties
Compare different type of materials
Use simple, standardized specimen shapes and
simple loading conditions

a) Cellular phone testing by bending b) Tensile testing for fundamental material properties using a
standardized tensile specimen c) Bend testing using a standardized fracture speciment

 3 basics categories of mechanical response to

an applied load:
Elasticity
Plasticity
Failure

Elasticity: fully recoverable response

No permanent change of the shape or integrity
when loading is removed

 Plasticity and fracture: involve permanent

shape changes under load but their are
distinct
Plasticity: shape change without cracking
Fracture: involves the creation or propagation
of a crack that separates a portion of the
component to the remainder

Schematic depictions of typical engineering stress-strain curves for (a) Ceramic and glass, (b-d)metals, (e-h)
polymer Polymer: 4 distinct curves
e: brittle, f: plastic but limited ductility, g: plastic with significant ductility and strengthening, h: elastic (but
nonlinear) to large strains.
Metals: (b-d) different metal or alloys but polymer curves (e-g) could be different polymer or the same polymer
tested under different strain rates or temperature conditions

Strength of materials
Strength of materials
Relationship between internal forces,
deformation and external loads
Assume equilibrium and continuous body with no
voids:
Identical properties at all points

Most engineering materials:

More than one phase
Different mechanical properties
Heterogeneous

 Even single-phase metal exhibit chemical

segregation
Metals are made up of an aggregate of crystal
grains having different properties in different
crystallographic structures

 Isotropic: the mechanical properties does

not vary with direction or orientation
Anisotropic: Property varies with
orientation with respect to some system of
axes
Reasons why the equations of strength of
materials describe the behavior of metals
The crystal grains are so small that for
specimen of any macroscopic volume, the
materials are statistically homogenous and
isotropic
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 However, when metals are deformed in a

particular direction (example in rolling,
forging), mechanical properties may be
anisotropic on a macro scale
Other examples of anisotropy:
Fiber reinforced composite, single crystal

Elastic and plastic behavior

Experience shows that all solids materials can
be deformed when subjected to an external
load
At certain limiting loads, a solid will recover its
original dimensions when the load is removed
Elastic behavior

Limiting load beyond which the material no

longer behaves elastically is the elastic limit

 If elastic limit is exceed

Permanent change of shape or deformation when the
load is removed
Plastic deformation

For most material, as long as the load does not

exceed the elastic limit
The deformation is proportional to the load
Known as Hooks law
Stress is proportional to strain

For most metals, there is a narrow range of loads

over which Hookes law strictly applies

Average stress and strain

Average Linear strain

Stress

Derived from
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 In general the stress is not uniform therefore the

stress equation represents an average stress
Anisotropy between grains in a polycrystalline
metal rules out the possibility of a complete
uniformity of stress over a body of macroscopic
size
Presence of more than one phase gives rise to
nonuniformity
Nonuniformity occurs if the bar is not straight ,
not centrally loaded, or with the presence of
stress raisers or stress concentration.

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 Below the elastic limit, Hooks Law can be

considered valid so that the average stress is
proportional to the average strain:

The constant E is the modulus of elasticity or Young

Modulus

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Tensile deformation of ductile metal

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 Point A is the elastic limit:

Greatest stress that the metal can withstand without
experiencing a permanent strain when the load is removed

Point A is the proportional limit

The stress at which the stress-strain curve deviates from
linearity.

The yield strength is defined as the stress which will

produce a small amount of permanent deformation,
equal to a strain of 0.002 (OC)
Plastic deformation begins when the limit is exceeded

Ductile versus Brittle behaviour

The general behavior of materials can be
classified as:
Ductile
brittle

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Ductile versus Brittle behaviour

Ductility is an important material characteristic
Allows the material to redistribute localized stresses
(at notches or other points of stress concentrations)

With brittle materials, localized stresses continue

to build up when there is no local yielding
Cracks will form at one or more points of stress
concentrations and spread rapidly over the section

 Brittleness is not an absolute metal property

Tungsten is brittle at room temperature but
ductile at an elevated temp.
A metal which is brittle in tension may be ductile
under hydrostatic compression
A metal which is ductile in tension at RT can
become brittle in the presence of notches, low
temperature, high rates of loading or embrittling
agents (hydrogen)

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Resilience
Resilience: amount of energy per unit volume
That can be absorbed under elastic loading and
That is completely released when the load is removed.

Toughness
Toughness is another measure of resistance to
fracture
Measured in units of energy

Brittle material absorbs little energy while a

touch material would require a large
expenditure of energy in the fracture process

What constitutes failure?

Structural members and machines can fail
for perform their intended function in three
general ways:
Excessive elastic deformation
Yielding or excessive plastic deformation
Fracture

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 Two general types of excessive elastic deformation

Excessive deflection
Sudden deflection or buckling

Yield occurs when the elastic limit of the material

has been exceeded
Permanent change of shape
In a ductile metal, yielding rarely results in fracture
under static loading at RT because the metal strain
hardens as it deforms and an increased stress is
required to produce further deformation

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 Failure by excessive plastic deformation is

controlled by the yield strength of the metal for
a uniaxial loading condition
At temperature significantly greater that RT,
metals can continuously deform at constant
stress in a time dependant yielding known as
CREEP
Failure criterion under creep conditions is
complicated by:
Stress and strain are not proportional
Mechanical properties may change
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 Metal fail by fracture in three ways

Sudden Brittle fracture (DTBT)
Fatigue (failure under cyclic loading)
Delayed fracture (stress-rupture in creep or
hydrogen embrittlement at RT)

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 All engineering materials show a variability

in mechanical properties
Mechanical properties can be influenced by
change in heat treatment or fabrication
Provide a margin of safety and protect
again failure from unpredictable cause
Safe stress or Working stress

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 Values of the working stress are set by local, federal

and technical agencies (ASME).

For static applications, the working stress of ductile

metals is based on the yield strength and for brittle
materials on the ultimate tensile strength
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Concept of Stress and type of Stress

Stress:
is force per unit area
not uniformly distributed

Surface forces:
Hydrostatic pressure

Body forces encountered in engineering practice

Centrifugal forces due to high speed rotation
Thermal stresses due to temperature differential over
the body
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Stress at the point O on plane mm

Of body 2

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 The total stress can be resolved in:

Normal stress
Shear stress

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 Normal stress

Shear stress

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Concept of Strain and type of Strain

Linear strain

True strain

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 Elastic deformation may result in a change of

any initial angle between 2 lines

Shear strain: angular change

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Example

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Elastic Stress-Strain relationship

Strain Energy

Structure, Processing, & Properties

Properties depend on structure

ex: hardness vs structure of steel

(d)

6 00

Hardness (BHN)

5 00
4 00

(a)

(b)
4 mm

3 00
2 00
100

30 mm

(c)

30 mm

0.01 0.1

30 mm

1
10 100 1000
Cooling Rate (C/s)

Processing can change structure

ex: structure vs cooling rate of steel

The Materials Selection Process

1.

Pick Application

2.

Properties

Determine required Properties

Identify candidate Material(s)

Material: structure, composition.

3.

Material

Identify required Processing

Processing: changes structure and overall shape

ex: casting, sintering, vapor deposition, doping
forming, joining, annealing.

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