1.

0 Introduction

For safe design of structural components in bridges, railway lines, marine ships,
aircrafts, pressure vessel etc., the tensile properties of materials should be analyzed.
Hence the tensile strength of the materials should meet the strength requirements of
the structural applications. The mechanical properties of the metals determine the kind
of engineering application to be used for. Experiments on tensile tests can be used to
predict the tensile properties and they are conducted by application of axial or
longitudinal forces to a specimen with known dimension. These forces are applied on
the specimen until deformation causes failure. The tensile load and corresponding
extensions are then recorded for calculations and determination of stress-strain
relationship of material specimen. The tensile test experiment can be used to
determine other mechanical characteristics of the specimen like yield strength,
percentage elongation, and ultimate strength among others.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
2.1 To develop an understanding of stress-strain curve
2.2 To determine the various mechanical properties of engineering materials.

1
3.0 Procedure

1. From Figure 8, Vernier caliper was used to measure the original diameter of
the specimen. Three locations and average of measurement was taken.
2. The value of gauge length was calculated and two marks had been marked on
the parallel part of the specimen to register the gauge length. The specimen
had been in the gripping heads of the machine.
3. The required parameters had been set on the control panel.
4. The load recorder had been adjusted on the front panel controller to zero, to
read load applied.
5. Start button had been pressed to start the tensile test.
6. The sample was monitored and had been noted when constriction begins.
From now on, the force will no longer increase, but instead, will tend to
decrease until fracture occurs.
7. The tested specimen had been removed from the gripping heads, and
dimensions of tested specimen were measured. The broken parts had been fit
together and reduced diameter and final gauge length was measured.

2
Tensile test

4.0 Results:

Material Initial Final width Thickness Length Final Final

Width (cm) (cm) (cm) (cm) Thickness Length
(cm) (cm)
Steel 1.70 1.60 0.284 5.050 0.270 6.239
ABS 1.70 1.55 0.330 4.860 0.310 5.286
HDPE 1.67 1.50 0.362 4.992 0.341 9.252
PP 1.72 1.47 0.284 5.001 0.255 11.513
Table 1 shows the measurement of the specimens.

Material Original cross- Final cross- Percent Percent

sectional area, sectional area, elongation reduction
A0 (cm2) A0 (cm2) (%) in area (%)
Steel 0.4828 0.4320 23.54 10.52
ABS 0.5610 0.5215 08.77 08.82
HDPE 0.6045 0.5115 85.37 15.38
PP 0.4885 0.3749 130.21 23.27
Table 2 shows the change in measurement of the specimens.

Material Young’s modulus, E (pa)

Steel 169.51
ABS 9.57
HDPE 6.67
PP 6.25
Table 3 shows the young’s modulus of the specimens.

3
 0
200
400
600
800
1000
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400

-200
1200
-1000
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000

0 0 0
3.0333 0.5415732 0.5415732 0
6.06672 1.083266 1.083266 0.3250157
9.099901 1.625019 1.625019 0.6500314
12.13338 2.166711 2.166711 0.9749873
15.16662 2.708404 2.708404 1.300003
18.19998 3.250097 3.250097 1.624899
21.23322 3.79167 3.79167 1.949915
24.26664 4.333423 4.333423 2.27499
27.3 4.874936 4.874936 2.600006
30.33324 5.416629 5.416629 2.924962
33.36672 5.958322 5.958322 3.249977
36.39996 6.500015 6.500015 3.574933
39.43338 7.041707 7.041707 3.899949
42.46668 7.58346 7.58346 4.224905
45.49998 8.125033 8.125033 4.549921

4
48.53334 8.666785 8.666785 4.875055
51.56659 9.208478 5.200012
9.208478
9.749992 5.525028
54.59994 9.749992
10.29156 5.850043
57.63318 10.29156
10.83332 6.174999
60.66666 10.83332
11.37507 6.499895
63.6999 11.37507
11.91664 6.824851
66.73332 11.91664
7.149926

Load against displacement(PP)

Load against displacment(ABS)

69.76662 12.4584 12.4584

Load against displacment(HDPE)

load against displacement(STEEL)

7.475002
72.79992 13.00003 13.00003
7.800017
75.83335 13.54178 13.54178
8.124973
78.86658 14.08341 14.08341
8.450049
81.90006 14.62499 14.62499
8.774945
84.9333 15.16662 15.16662
9.099901
87.96667 15.70831 15.70831
9.425036
90.99991 16.25001 16.25001
9.749992
94.03326 16.7917 16.7917
10.07501
97.06669 17.33345 17.33345
10.40002
 0
5
10
15
20
25
30

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160

-20
0
0 1.226832
0.7456745 2.453546
UTS

Yield stress
1.491349 3.680259
2.236905 4.907091
2.98246 6.133686
3.728135 7.360399
4.473928 8.586993 Elastic region

Elastic region
5.219721 9.813588
Yield stress

5.965514 11.04042
Proportional limit

6.710951 12.26702

Proportional limit
7.456745 13.49373

UTS
8.202418 14.72056
8.948093 15.94727
9.693887 17.17399
10.43956 18.40082

Plastic region
11.18488 19.62765

5
11.93055 20.85437
12.67623 22.08108
Plastic region

13.42202 23.30755
Stress-strain graph(ABS)

Stress-strain graph(Steel)
Necking region

14.1677 24.53438
14.91349 25.76098
15.65916 26.9877
16.40496 28.21441
17.15063 29.441
17.89631 30.6676
18.64186 31.89431
19.38754 33.12102

Necking region
Fracture stress

20.13333 34.34785
Fracture stress

20.87877
 0
5
10
20
25
30

15

-5
5
10
15
25
30

0
20
0 0
6.873826 6.700691
13.74777 13.40162
20.6216 20.10219
27.4953 26.80313
34.36925 33.5037

Yield stress
Proportional limit

Yield stress

40.20451

Proportional limit

Elastic region
UTS
41.24319 Elastic region
48.11714 46.90508
54.99084 53.60589
61.86491 60.30682
68.73849 67.00751
75.61268 73.70821
UTS

82.48639 80.40913
89.36045 87.10982
96.23415 93.81064
103.1082 100.5113
109.9818 107.212

6
116.856 113.9127
120.6135

Necking region
123.7297

Plastic region
127.3142
130.6037
stress-strain graph(PP)

134.0149
stress-strain graph(HDPE)

137.4776
140.7158
144.3514
Necking region

147.4166
151.2253
154.1173
158.0992
160.818
164.973
167.5188
171.847
174.2195
178.7209
Plastic region

180.9201
185.5947
187.6209
192.4687
Fracture stress

Fracture stress

194.3217
Discussion

The shape and magnitude of the stress-strain curve of a metal will depend on
its composition, heat treatment, prior history of plastic deformation, and the strain
rate, temperature, and state of stress imposed during the testing. The parameters,
which are used to describe the stress-strain curve of a metal, are the tensile strength,
yield strength or yield point, percent elongation, and reduction of area. Eventually a
point is reached where the decrease in specimen cross-sectional area is greater than
the increase in deformation load arising from strain hardening. This condition will be
reached first at some point in the specimen that is slightly weaker than the rest. All
further plastic deformation is concentrated in this region, and the specimen begins to
neck or thin down locally because the cross-sectional area now is decreasing far more
rapidly than strain hardening increases the deformation load, the actual load required
to deform the specimen falls off and the engineering stress likewise continues to
decrease until fracture occurs.

The result of this test is a graph of load (amount of weight) versus

displacement (amount it stretched). Since the amount of weight needed to stretch the
material depends on the size of the material (and of course the properties of the
material), comparison between materials can be very challenging. The ability to make
a proper comparison can be very important to someone designing for structural
applications where the material must withstand certain forces. By looking at the
engineering stress-strain response of a material we can compare the strength of
different materials, independently of their sizes.

The difference between Engineering stress and true stress are the engineering
stress is the load divided by this initial cross-sectional area. While you are pulling, the
length increases, but the width and thickness shrink. At any load, the true stress is the
load divided by the cross-area at that instant. Unless thickness and width are being
monitored continuously during the test, you cannot calculate true stress. It is,
however, a much better representation of how the material behaves as it is being
deformed, which explains its use in forming simulations. Significant difference
between these values at failure is the maximum true stress values are almost 15%
higher than that of the maximum engineering stress values while the maximum true
strain failure values are 1.5% smaller than the maximum engineering strain.

7
 Necking process occurs in metals tested in tension when the rate of work
hardening is lower than the flow stress. This corresponds to the point of highest load
in the load displacement curve, well before failure and any cracks have appeared in
the material. Apart from necking, the voids also cause the material cross-section to
reduce. The stress now acts on an increasingly smaller cross-section, which enhances
this process still further. As the tensile test continues the necking increases until the
tapered cross-section can no longer withstand the stress. This is when the metal bar
tears at the weakest point.

The mechanical properties are the Ultimate Tensile Strength that a material
can experienced before it fractured. The higher the tensile strength of a material, the
harder it is. From results, steel has the highest tensile strength, followed by ABS, PP
and HDPE. Since tensile strength of a material is the maximum amounts of tensile
stress that it can be subjected to before failure therefore. Since steel has the highest
tensile strength, it is the hardest amongst the four materials tested, whereas HDPE is
the softest as it has the lowest tensile strength. Next is the percentage of elongation is
used to represent the ductility of the material. The higher percentage of elongation of
the material means it is more ductile and it can resist more stress than the others.
From results, it is observed that HDPE has the highest maximum percent strain and
followed by P, ABS and Steel. This also means that HDPE has the highest ductility
compared to other polymers thus it can be stretched longer before it deforms.

In addition, the higher the value of Young’s Modulus of a material, the higher the
capability of that material to resist elastic deformation and it is more stiff and rigid.
From results, we can find that Steel has the highest value of Young Modulus followed
by ABS, PP and HPDE. This indicates that Steel has the highest tensile modulus,
which means it resists deformation the most. While HDPE has the lowest tensile
modulus, which means it is easily deformed. It also shows that Steel is the most rigid
material of all the four.

Factor that can affected the experiment is recording small displacements of the
sample is imprecise due to the measuring equipment. Next is the factor such as creep
can contribute to the strain. When exerting large forces the equipment can begin to
flex, and the displacement of the machine is mistakenly read as a displacement of the
sample.

8
 6.0 CONCLUSION

This experiment was able to successfully tensile test steel, brass, and copper
using the universal testing machine. From the data obtained this experiment was able
to successfully obtain the young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, yield stress ad
fracture stress value of all specimens. By comparing the values of the specimens, it is
shown that poly propylene has higher values in all of the properties which means it is
stronger and more ductile than steel, ABS and HDPE.

Many engineering applications that require high tensile strength. Steels has found
many uses in design that require low density materials like aerodynamics and some
motor vehicles. Steel experience high toughness rates compared to ABS,HDPE and PP
and have low values of young’s modulus, a factor that determines deflections in
structural components. This experiment therefore gives close relationship of tensile
strength to theoretical data.

9
 COMPRESSION TEST

1.0 Introduction

Compressive strength is determined by crushing cubes or cylinders to failure. The

compression test is simply the opposite of the tensile test with respect to the direction
of loading. A compressed sample is usually shortened in the direction of the applied
forces and expands in the direction perpendicular to the force. This can determine the
behaviour or response of a material while it experiences a compressive load by
measuring fundamental variables, such as, strain, stress, and deformation. The values
associated with a specific material it may be determined whether or not the material is
suited for specific applications.

2.0 Objective

The objectives of this experiments are:

2.1 To study and observe the techniques of the compression testing.

2.2 To determine the mechanical properties on three different sizes of the tested
specimens.

10
3.0 Procedure

1. Vernier caliper was used to measure the original size of the specimen.
2. The specimen had been centered between the compression test plates.
3. The required parameters were set on the control panel.
4. The load recorder had been adjusted on the front panel controller to zero, to
read load applied.
5. Start button had been pressed to start the compression test.
6. The specimen was observed, as the load was gradually applied.
7. The maximum load had been recorded and continued loading until complete
failure.
8. The machine was stopped and the specimen was removed.
9. Experiment was repeated with other specimens.
10. The type of failure was observed and described or each specimen.
Precautions
I. Never operate the UTM when someone’s hands are between the grips.
II. Ensure all lab participants are clear of equipment before beginning or
resuming testing.
III. Stop the UTM as soon as the specimen fails.

11
Compression test

4.0 Results:

Pipe

Diameter, di (cm) Diameter, de (cm) Thickness Length

(cm) (cm)
1 2 3 Avg 1 2 3 Avg 0.3 2.640
2.380 2.382 2.380 2.381 2.684 2.684 2.684 2.684
Table 1 shows the original measurement for the pipe.

Wooden block

Width (cm) Length

2.650 2.696
Table 2 shows the original measurement for the wooden block.

Cylinder block

Width (cm) Diameter (cm)

2.638 1 2 3 Avg
2.172 2.168 2.172 2.170
Table 3 shows the original measurement for the cylinder block.

Material Original cross-sectional area (cm2)

Pipe 1.210
Wooden block 7.144
Cylinder block 5.722
Table 4 shows the original cross-sectional area for each specimen.

12
 -8000
-7000
-6000
-5000
-4000
-3000
-2000
0
1000

-1000

-25000
-20000
-15000
-10000
-5000
0
5000
-18000
-16000
-14000
-12000
-10000
-8000
-6000
-4000
-2000
0
2000
0
0 0
-0.7166369 -0.7165772 -0.7166968
-1.433453 -1.433274 -1.433274
-2.149971 -2.149971 -2.149971
-2.866727 -2.866667 -2.866667
-3.583364 -3.583244 -3.583244
-4.300001 -4.300061 -4.299941
-5.016758 -5.016638 -5.016698
-5.733395 -5.733275 -5.733215
-6.449972 -6.449972 -6.449972
-7.166788 -7.166549 -7.166609
-7.883365 -7.883306 -7.883246
-8.600063 -8.600002 -8.600063

13
-9.316818 -9.31652 -9.316639
-10.0334 -10.03334 -10.03328
-10.75003 -10.74997 -10.74997
-11.46673 -11.46661 -11.46661
-12.18337 -12.18337 -12.18325
Maximum load, Fmax=--6783.45

-12.90006 -12.89994 -12.89994

-13.61676 -13.61652 -13.61652
-14.33328 -14.33328 -14.33322
Load against displacement (pipe)

-15.05003 -15.04991 -15.05003

Load at failure, Ff= -23264.1

Maximum load, Fmax-23264.1

-15.76679 -15.76661 -15.76655

load against displacement (cylinder block)

Load at failure, Ff= -17098.4
-16.48331 -16.48331 -16.48331
Load against displacement (wooden block)

Maximum load, Fmax=--17098.4

-17.20006 -17.19988 -17.2
-17.91676 -17.91658 -17.91652
-18.63334 -18.63334 -18.63328
Load at failure, Ff= -3567.63

-19.35009 -19.34992 -19.34998

 -5
0
5
10
15
25
30
35

20

-10
0
10
20
30
50
60
70
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60

40
0 0 0
2.643903 2.645697 2.677218

UCS

UCS
5.288491 5.291623 5.355593
7.931936 7.937777 8.033505
UCS

10.57607 10.58393 10.71072

13.22043 13.22986 13.3884
15.86433 15.87578 16.06655
18.50801 18.52239 18.74446
21.15191 21.16786 21.42191
23.79604 23.81379 24.09982
26.44017 26.45994 26.7775
29.08407 29.10633 29.45518
31.75202

proportional limit
31.72775 32.13287
proportional limit

proportional limit
34.37234 34.39795 34.81078

14
37.01624 37.04387 37.48892
39.65968 39.69049 40.1666
42.30381 42.33618 42.84382
Yield stress = 40.00175 Mpa

Yield stress = 24.01616 Mpa

Yield stress = 54.1235 Mpa

44.94817 44.98188 45.5215
47.59208 47.62803 48.19964

Modulus of elasticity = 09.86 Mpa

Modulus of elasticity = 28.67Mpa

50.23575 50.27419 50.87756
52.87988 52.92034 53.55477
55.52424 55.56604 56.23292
58.16792 58.21196 58.91083
60.81159 60.85812 61.58828
compressive stress against strain(pipe)

63.45596 63.50427 64.26596

Modulus of elasticity = 12.21 Mpa

66.09985 66.14996 66.94387

Compressive stress against strain (cylinder block)

Compressive stress against strain (wooden block)

68.74422 68.79613 69.62202

71.38766 71.4425 72.29947
74.03156 74.08797 74.97714
5.0 Discussion

Compression testing is a very common testing method that is used to establish the
compressive force or crush resistance of a material and the ability of the material to
recover after a specified compressive force is applied and even held over a defined
period of time. The compression tester, also knows as a compression gauge, is one of
the most basic tools used for diagnosing engine problems. A compression test is a
quick way to determine the general condition of the pistons rings and can help
determine what repairs might be needed before starting to work on the engine. The
shape and magnitude of the stress-strain curve of the specimens will depend on its
composition, heat treatment, prior history of plastic deformation, and the strain rate,
temperature, and state of stress imposed during the testing. The parameters, which are
used to describe the stress-strain curve of the specimens, are the tensile strength, yield
strength or yield point, percent elongation, and reduction of area. If the graphs are
combined together the stronger specimen is cylinder block, because it has the highest
value of yield stress which is 54.12 Mpa. Even though the material for the wooden
block and cylindrical block is similar, their stress strain graphs were different because
of the cross-sectional area between them are different. The value of cross-sectional
area influenced the magnitude of yield stress.

The experimental results are different from the theory result because of some errors
occur during the experiment. The value of stress and strain from this experiment
influenced by some variables that may contribute to the false results of the
experiments. The shape and magnitude of the stress-strain curve of the specimens will
depend on its composition, heat treatment, prior history of plastic deformation, and
the strain rate, temperature, and state of stress imposed during the testing.

Toughness of wood includes flexibility and is the reverse of brittleness, in that tough
woods break gradually and give warning of failure. Hardness, the term hardness is
used in two senses, namely: resistance to indentation, and resistance to abrasion or
scratching in the latter sense hardness combined with toughness is a measure of the
wearing ability of wood and is an important consideration in the use of wood for
floors, paving blocks, bearings, and rollers. Compressive strength is very closely
related to hardness and transverse shear. There are two ways in which wood is
subjected to stress of this kind, namely with the load acting over the entire area of the

15
specimen and with a load concentrated over a portion of the area. The tensile strength
is expressed in terms of the maximum stress per unit area of the cross section. The
tensile strength of most common PVC is 52MPa. Compressive strength, it is
expressed in terms of the maximum stress at break per unit area of the cross section.
The compressive strength for the pipe that has been used in the experiment is 6.8MPa.
Young’s Modulus for PVC pipe varies depending on the size but for the size that has
been used for the experiment (2.6cm) is 4.1GPa.

The factors that can affect the experimental results are the surface area of the specimen.
From the stress formula which is force divided by area. From this equation the area is
inversely proportional to the stress, so if the area of the specimen is bigger the stress
applied is smaller. Hence, the area one of the factors that affect the experimental results.
Next, the young’s modulus of certain material used. Young’s modulus is a measure of the
ability of a material to withstand changes in length when under tension and compression.
Young’s modulus is equal to the longitudinal stress divided by the strain. When the stress or
load is applied to the material that has greater amount of young’s modulus, there will be
slight change in value of strain. Thus, the result of experiment will be affected.

6.0 Conclusion

 The technique used in which a material experiences opposing forces that push
inward upon the specimen from opposite sides or is otherwise compressed,
squashed, crushed, or flattened.
 PVC have small cross-sectional area which have low compression strength than
wooden cylinder and wooden block but wooden cylinder have high compression
strength since it has small cross-sectional area than wooden block.

16
17