Module 2

STRUCTURE-PROPERTY RELATIONSHIP
The crystal structure means type of crystals formed and their orientation is mainly responsible
for mechanical properties because of the shape/type of crystal and the boundaries between
crystals.
Between the atoms within a material, there is an attractive force due to the type of bonding
present. There is also a repulsive force due to resistance of overlapping of electron shells. The
overall force is attractive at larger distances, repulsive at smaller distances, and at some point is
zero (point of minimum potential energy). Elastic deformations represent small disturbances in
spacing from equilibrium, stretching the bonds but not breaking them, meaning when the
applied force is removed the system goes back to equilibrium. For a group of atoms in a
material, many factors effect the equilibrium arrangement - material, temperature, rate of
temperature change (how fast a metal was cooled), other metals added to form alloys, etc. This
means you can get a variety of properties from the same material by treating it differently
during production.
Plastic (permanent) deformations occur when the bonds are broken, resulting in the atoms
being rearranged. These can happen along all sorts of planes of failure.
Crystal structure affects how these plastic deformations occur. The orientation of the atoms
relative to one another determines the planes they fail on when loaded how much energy the
bonds can handle before breaking, the manner in which the bonds are likely to reform after a
plane slips, etc.

Mechanical properties
These properties are described in terms of the types of force or stress that the metal must
withstand and how these are resisted.
Compressive strength
Density

Ductility

Fatigue limit

Flexural modulus

Flexural strength

Fracture toughness

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Hardness

Plasticity (physics)

Poisson's ratio

Shear modulus

Shear strain

Shear strength

Softness

Specific modulus

Specific weight

Tensile strength

Yield strength

Young's modulus

Brittleness

Some properties are described below.

Strength
Strength is the property that enables a metal to resist deformation under load. The ultimate
strength is the maximum strain a material can withstand. Tensile strength is a measurement of
the resistance to being pulled apart when placed in a tension load.
Fatigue strength is the ability of material to resist various kinds of rapidly changing stresses and
is expressed by the magnitude of alternating stress for a specified number of cycles.
Impact strength is the ability of a metal to resist suddenly applied loads and is measured in
foot-pounds of force.
Hardness
Hardness is the property of a material to resist permanent indentation. Because there are
several methods of measuring hardness, the hardness of a material is always specified in terms
of the particular test that was used to measure this property. Rockwell, Vickers, or Brinell are
some of the methods of testing. Of these tests, Rockwell is the one most frequently used. The
basic principle used in the Rockwell testis that a hard material can penetrate a softer one. We
then measure the amount of penetration and compare it to a scale. For ferrous metals, which
are usually harder than nonferrous metals, a diamond tip is used and the hardness is indicated
by a Rockwell "C" number. On nonferrous metals, that are softer, a metal ball is used and the
hardness is indicated by a Rockwell "B" number. To get an idea of the property of hardness,

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compare lead and steel. Lead can be scratched with a pointed wooden stick but steel cannot
because it is harder than lead.
Toughness
Toughness is the property that enables a material to withstand shock and to be deformed
without rupturing. Toughness may be considered as a combination of strength and plasticity.
Table 1-2 shows the order of some of the more common materials for toughness as well as
other properties.
Elasticity
When a material has a load applied to it, the load causes the material to deform. Elasticity is the
ability of a material to return to its original shape after the load is removed. Theoretically, the
elastic limit of a material is the limit to which a material can be loaded and still recover its
original shape after the load is removed.
Plasticity
Plasticity is the ability of a material to deform permanently without breaking or rupturing. This
property is the opposite of strength. By careful alloying of metals, the combination of plasticity
and strength is used to manufacture large structural members. For example, should a member
of a bridge structure become overloaded, plasticity allows the overloaded member to flow
allowing the distribution of the load to other parts of the bridge structure.

Brittleness
Brittleness is the opposite of the property of plasticity. A brittle metal is one that breaks or
shatters before it deforms. White cast iron and glass are good examples of brittle material.
Generally, brittle metals are high in compressive strength but low in tensile strength. As an
example, you would not choose cast iron for fabricating support beams in a bridge.
Ductility and Malleability
Ductility is the property that enables a material to stretch, bend, or twist without cracking or
breaking. This property makes it possible for a material to be drawn out into a thin wire. In
comparison, malleability is the property that enables a material to deform by compressive
forces without developing defects. A malleable material is one that can be stamped,
hammered, forged, pressed, or rolled into thin sheets.

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STRESS-STRAIN DIAGRAM
Introduction
In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an
applied force (the deformation energy in this case is transferred through work) or a change in
temperature (the deformation energy in this case is transferred through heat). The first case
can be a result of tensile (pulling) forces, compressive (pushing) forces , shear,
bending or torsion (twisting). In the second case, the most significant factor, which is
determined by the temperature, is the mobility of the structural defects such as grain
boundaries, point vacancies, line and screw dislocations, stacking faults and twins in both
crystalline and non-crystalline solids. The movement or displacement of such mobile defects is
thermally activated, and thus limited by the rate of atomic diffusion. Deformation is often
described as strain.
As deformation occurs, internal inter-molecular forces arise that oppose the applied force. If
the applied force is not too large these forces may be sufficient to completely resist the applied
force, allowing the object to assume a new equilibrium state and to return to its original state
when the load is removed. A larger applied force may lead to a permanent deformation of the
object or even to its structural failure.
The concept of a rigid body can be applied if the deformation is negligible.

Types of deformation
Depending on the type of material, size and geometry of the object, and the forces applied,
various types of deformation may result. The image to the right shows the engineering stress
vs. strain diagram for a typical ductile material such as steel. Different deformation modes may
occur under different conditions, as can be depicted using a deformation mechanism map.

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Figure 1: Typical stress vs. strain diagram with the various stages of deformation.

Elastic deformation
This type of deformation is reversible. Once the forces are no longer applied, the object returns
to its original shape.Elastomers
Elastomers and shape memory metals such as Nitinolexhibit
exhibit large elastic
deformation ranges, as does rubber. Soft thermoplastics and conventional metals have
moderate elastic deformation ranges, while ceramics,crystals,, and hard thermosetting
plastics undergo almost no elastic
astic deformation.
Linear elastic deformation is governed by Hooke's law, which states:

Where is the applied stress

stress, E is a material constant called Young's modulus,
modulus and is the
resulting strain.. This relationship only applies in the elastic range and indicates that the
slope of the stress vs. strain curve can be used to find Young's modulus. Engineers often use
this calculation in tensile tests. The elastic range ends when the material reaches its yield
strength.. At this point plastic deformation begins.
Note that not all elastic materials undergo linear elastic deformation; some, such as
concrete, gray cast iron, and many polymers, respond nonlinearly. For these materials
Hooke's law is inapplicable.

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Plastic deformation
This type of deformation is irreversible. However, an object in the plastic deformation range
will first have undergone elastic deformation, which is reversible, so the object will return
part way to its original shape. Soft thermoplastics have a rather large plastic deformation
range as do ductile metals such as copper, silver, and gold. Steel does, too, but not cast
iron. Hard thermosetting plastics, rubber, crystals, and ceramics have minimal plastic
deformation ranges. One material with a large plastic deformation range is wet chewing
gum, which can be stretched dozens of times its original length.
Under tensile stress plastic deformation is characterized by a strain hardening region and
a necking region and finally, fracture (also called rupture). During strain hardening the
material becomes stronger through the movement of atomic dislocations. The necking
phase is indicated by a reduction in cross-sectional area of the specimen. Necking begins
after the ultimate strength is reached. During necking, the material can no longer withstand
the maximum stress and the strain in the specimen rapidly increases. Plastic deformation
ends with the fracture of the material.

Tensile test or Tension test

Figure 2: Tensile testing specimen

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Tensile testing, also known as tension testing

testing, is a fundamental materials science test in which a
sample is subjected to uniaxial tension until failure. The results from the test are commonly
used to select a material for an application, for quality control,, and to predict how a material
will react under other types of forces.. Properties that are directly measured via a tensile test
are ultimate tensile strength,, maximum elongation and reduction in area. From these
measurements the following properties can also be determined: Young's modulus,
modulus Poisson's
ratio,yield strength, and strain-hardening
hardening characteristics.
The test process involves placing the test specimen in the testing machine and applying tension
to it until it fractures.. During the application of tension, the elongation of the gage section is
recorded against the applied
d force. The data is manipulated so that it is not specific to the
geometry of the test sample. The elongation measurement is used to calculate
the engineering strain, ,, using the following equation:

where L is the change in gage length, L0 is the initial gage length, and L is the final length.
The force measurement is used to calculate the engineering stress,, , using the following
equation:

where F is the force and A is the cross

cross-section
section of the gage section. The machine does
these calculations as the force is increase so that the data points can be graphed into
a stress-strain curve.
Necking,, in engineering or materials science, is a mode of tensile deformation where relatively
large amounts of strain localize disproportionately in a small region of the material. The
resulting prominent decrease in local cross
cross-sectional area provides the basis
sis for the name
"neck". Because the local strains in the neck are large, necking is often closely associated
with yielding.

Metallic engineering materials are classif

classified as either ductile or brittle materials. A ductile
material is one having relatively large tensile strains up to the point of rupture like structural
steel and aluminum, whereas brittle materials has a relatively small strain up to the point of
rupture like cast iron and concrete. An arbitrary strain of 0.05 mm/mm is frequently taken as
the dividing line between these two classes.

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Figure 3: Stress
Stress-strain diagram of a medium-carbon structural steel

Proportional Limit (Hooke's Law)

From the origin O to the point called proportional limit, the stress
stress-strain
strain curve is a straight line.
This linear relation between elongation and the axial force causing was first noticed by Sir
Robert Hooke in 1678 and is called Hooke's Law that within the proportional llimit,
imit, the stress is
directly proportional to strain or
The constant of proportionality is called the Modulus of Elasticity
is equal to the slope of the stress
stress-strain diagram from O to P. Then

or Young's Modulus and

Elastic Limit
The elastic limit is the limit beyond which the material will no longer go back to its original
shape when the load is removed, or it is the maximum stress that may e developed such that
there is no permanent or residual deformation when the load is entirely removed.
Elastic and Plastic Ranges
The region in stress-strain
strain diagram from O to P is called the elastic range. The region from P to
R is called the plastic range.

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Yield Point
Yield point is the point at which the material will have an appreciable elongation or yielding
without any increase in load.
Ultimate Strength
The maximum ordinate in the stress-strain diagram is the ultimate strength or tensile strength.
Rapture Strength
Rapture strength is the strength of the material at rupture. This is also known as the breaking
strength.
Modulus of Resilience
Modulus of resilience is the work done on a unit volume of material as the force is gradually
increased from O to P, in Nm/m3. This may be calculated as the area under the stress-strain
curve from the origin O to up to the elastic limit E (the shaded area in the figure). The resilience
of the material is its ability to absorb energy without creating a permanent distortion.

Modulus of Toughness
Modulus of toughness is the work done on a unit volume of material as the force is gradually
increased from O to R, in Nm/m3. This may be calculated as the area under the entire stressstrain curve (from O to R). The toughness of a material is its ability to absorb energy without
causing it to break.
Working Stress, Allowable Stress, and Factor of Safety
Working stress is defined as the actual stress of a material under a given loading. The maximum
safe stress that a material can carry is termed as the allowable stress. The allowable stress
should be limited to values not exceeding the proportional limit. However, since proportional
limit is difficult to determine accurately, the allowable tress is taken as either the yield point or
ultimate strength divided by a factor of safety. The ratio of this strength (ultimate or yield
strength) to allowable strength is called the factor of safety.