Tensile Testing of Materials

LOG SHEET

Name: Nizamuddin Patel Date: 15/11/2016 Module Code: ENGD2007

TENSILE TESTING DATA

Maximum Load at Failure Original Cross Original gauge Gauge length Tensile Strength at Ductility in
Load (N) (N) Sectional Area length (mm) after breaking Strength Failure (MNm- Percent
Specimen (mm2) (mm) (MNm-2) 2
) Elongation

Aluminium
6078 4217 20 25.25 29 303.9 210.9 14.85

Annealed mild
8298 5230 20 25.25 35.5 414.9 261.5 40.59
steel
Bright drawn
15013 10161 20 25.25 29.5 750.7 508.1 16.83
mild steel
Brass
9649 9042 20 25.25 30 482.5 452.1 18.81

Polystyrene
2034 2034 40 70 71 50.85 50.85 1.430

Toughened
796 535 30 70 71 26.53 17.83 1.430
polystyrene
Polycarbonate
2617 2404 40 70 142 65.43 60.10 102.9

Nylon 66
2354 2076 40 70 Did not break 58.85 Did not break Did not break

Figure 1

1
Observation and Discussion

1. Among all the metal samples, which one has the lowest tensile strength?

Among the metal samples, aluminium has the lowest tensile strength.

2. Among all the plastic samples, which one has the highest tensile strength?

Among the plastic samples, Polycarbonate had the highest tensile strength.

3. Compare the weakest metal sample with the strongest plastic sample, which is stronger? Give some explanations.

The weakest metal sample was aluminium which had a tensile strength of 303.9 MNm-2. The strongest plastic sample was Polycarbonate with
the highest tensile strength of 65.43 MNm-2 as shown in figure 1. As seen by the results, the weakest metal (aluminium) is 4.64 times stronger
than the strongest plastic (polycarbonate). The aluminium uses metallic bonding to keep the atoms in form whereas the polycarbonate uses
covalent bonding. Therefore, metallic bonding is stronger than covalent bonding because aluminium can handle a higher load, the aluminium
also has higher melting and boiling points due to the metallic bonding and Polycarbonate has lower melting and boiling points.

4. Which specimen did not break during the test? Explain why.

Nylon 66 did not break during the test as it is a very strong and ductile material and could have caused the test to fail. These properties are
close to ones of metals and can easily replace some metals in certain circumstances. Since the machine used for testing the tensile strength
of plastic materials was under a certain setting for the plastic samples, the properties of Nylon 66 could have caused the machine to fail if it
had been tested with the settings used for metals.

5. Is the following statement TRUE or FALSE? Comment on your answer.

“Materials having higher tensile strength normally have poorer ductility.”
False. The meaning of ductility is the capacity of a material to deform permanently in response to stress and as seen by figure 1, some metals
have different tensile strength but some have the same ductility. For example, aluminium has a tensile strength of 303.9 MNm-2 and bright
drawn mild steel has a tensile strength of 750.7 MNm-2 yet they have a similar ductility value. Therefore, materials with higher tensile strength
do not necessarily have poorer ductility.

2
 6. Compare the tensile strength and ductility of annealed mild steel with those of bright drawn mild steel; explain the differences and the
reasons.
The tensile strength of annealed mild steel is 414.9 MNm-2 and bright drawn mild steel is 750.7 MNm-2 (as seen from figure 1). The tensile
strength of annealed steel is less than bright drawn steel as the process used to create annealed steel causes it to soften and easy to bend.
Annealing is a heat treatment that alters the properties of a material to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, making it more workable
Whereas bright drawn steel has undergone a process of cold-finishing which increases the yield and tensile strengths, often eliminating
further costly thermal treatments1

7. If the Young’s modulus of the annealed mild steel is 205 GPa, estimate the Young’s modulus of the bright-drawn mild steel.

If the Young’s modulus of the annealed mild steel is 205GPa, the Young’s modulus of the bright-drawn steel should also be 205 GPa as it is
not affected by the strength of the material and all steels have a value between 180 – 210 GPa

8. Briefly explain why the strength at failure is lower than the tensile strength for almost all samples.
Using the rearranged formula, Force = Stress x Area. During the experiment, when the sample was approaching failure, it started to neck-in.
This decreased the cross-sectional area and the formula above shows that Force ∝ Area. This means that at this point, the force also
decreased. Therefore, the strength at failure is lower than the tensile strength.

9. List possible sources of error from the experiment.

There could have parallax error where the angle the reading is taken from is a cause of error due to the parallax when measuring the new
length of the tested sample. The original sample lengths were taken from the manufacturers which could have had a tolerance. Also, there
could have been hysteresis error which is the error that is a result of the histories that the piece of apparatus has gone through and apparatus
error which is due to the inaccuracy of the apparatus by default. The annealed mild steel was oxidized which made the piece slightly bigger.
This increased the cross sectional area which inadvertently increases the tensile strength.

10. Give reasons why ceramic samples were not used in this experiment.

Ceramic samples were not used in this experiment as they’re brittle and therefore it is hard to grip ceramic samples for tensile testing without
damaging it. Due to its brittleness, it is also difficult to machine ceramics into a shape that can fit into the machine.

For a ductile material, for example a metal, plastic deformation occurs when the maximum stress exceeds the yield strength. Therefore, the
results which could be obtained from testing ceramics would not be an exact measure of their strength.

1
http://metalsupermarkets.co.uk/blog/difference-between-black-steel-and-bright-drawn-steel/
3