UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

College of Science, Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Advanced Diploma in Mechanical Engineering

Engineering Material Technology II

Assignment 03

Tensile Strength Experiment

By

Donald Mathabela

10750371

Lecturer:

Mr. R.D. Murwamadala

Due Date

08 May 2020

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Content page

List of figures…………………………………………………………………………………3

Nomenclature…………………………………………………………………………………4

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...5

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...6

Aim……………………………………………………………………………………………6

Apparatus……………………………………………………………………………………...6

Experimental procedure……………………………………………………………………….6

Data sheet……………………………………………………………………………………...7

Results…………………………………………………………………………………………8

Stress-strain graph…………………………………………………………………………….8

Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………….9

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….9

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………….10

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………….11

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List of figures
Figure Description Page
1 Instron Frame Machine 6
2 Data Sheet 7
3 Experimental Stress-strain graph 8
4 Theoretical stress- strain graph 8
5 During the experiment 11
6 After fracture 11
7 Drawing of the specimen LG7 11

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Nomenclature

Engineering strain – it is calculated by dividing the change in length (extension) by original

length.

Engineering stress – it is obtained by dividing the applied axial load by the original cross-
sectional area. Engineering stress-strain curve – is a graph showing the relationship
between engineering stress and engineering strains.

Hooke’s law -this law explains the linear relationship observed in the elastic regions of a
stress strain curves. The gradient along this curve give the Young’s modulus.

Modulus of elasticity – also called the Young's modulus, is the ratio of stress to strain and
can be calculated on the stress- strain curves by determining the gradients of the curves.

Necking – this refers to the gradual reduction of the cross-sectional area along the gage
length and starts at the tensile point. It results in the formation of cups and cones and is
experienced in ductile materials.

Plastic deformation – this phenomenon occurs when the material is loaded beyond the yield
point then off-loaded.

Tensile strength - refers to the maximum stress that a material can withstand during the
tensile tests.

Tensile test - refers to the methods of determining the mechanical properties of material
when subjected to uniaxial load. The results can be used to determine the Young’s modulus,
tensile strength, ductility, toughness and ultimate tensile strength of the materials.

True strain – refers to the ratio of extension to the final instantaneous length of the material

True stress – is the ratio of the applied load over the instantaneous cross- sectional area.

Yield strength – this refers to the amount of stress required to initiate plastic deformation

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Introduction
In view of their good mechanical strengths, low densities and excellent corrosion resistance,
polymer matrix composites are growing in popularity as a replacement for conventional
materials in civil infrastructure, construction, aeronautic and marine applications. A wider
choice of materials and ease of manufacturing make them ideal for engineering applications.
Furthermore, fibre-reinforced composites have many excellent characteristics such as high
specific tensile and compressive strength, controllable electrical conductivity and low
coefficient of thermal expansion, good fatigue resistance and suitability to produce complex
shape materials. Owing to these favourable properties, fibre-reinforced composites have
become the alternatives to conventional structural materials such as steel, wood, or metals in
many applications. Glass fibre is a lightweight, strong, and robust material. Although its
strength properties are somewhat lower than those of carbon fibre, glass fibre is typically far
less brittle and much less expensive. Due to these excellent properties, glass fibre has been used
in several industries.
Fibrous composites consist of two or more phases: a high-strength and high-stiffness fibre-
reinforcement phase and a matrix phase. The matrix phase holds the material together as a
cohesive system, which protects the fibre sand transfers load between fibres. Due to their good
combination of these properties, glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites are used
particularly in the automotive and aircraft industries, defence ,spaceships and marine vehicles.
Compared with other composites, glass fibre-reinforced composites have the virtues of a large
technology base and experience in service. Thus, they can offer the most reliable engineering
materials. These fibres can be woven in certain patterns, and then the desired material
properties as per design requirements are obtained. Because of their unique architectural
features, ease of handling, low fabrication cost and excellent mechanical properties, woven
fabric composites have been finding increasing applications in aerospace, automobile
structures and equipment for superconducting magnets. In the field of materials testing, the
reliable, reproducible quantitative characterization of physical properties, mechanical
properties, is a problem. At the same time, this is also a challenge.
In general, polymer composites reinforced with the fibres are usually one to four times stronger
and stiffer than their unfilled matrices. The compressive and tensile responses of glass fibre-
reinforced polymer composites, including those of woven glass fibre-reinforced polymer
composites, have been the subjects of continued investigation. Many factors influence the
compressive and tensile behaviour of woven glass fibre-reinforced polymer composite
materials –for example the material used, type of weave, fabric geometry, fibre volume
fraction, laminate configuration, void content and woven linear density, in which the most
important factors are the mechanical properties of the fibre and the matrix

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Aim
To determine the tensile strength, which is the maximum tensile stress that the material can
withstand before failure occurs.

Apparatus

Figure 1: Instron Frame Machine

Experimental Procedure

1. By use of Vernier calliper, the thickness and width of the specimen was measured
2. A ruler was used to measure and confirm the gage length of each sample of specimen.
3. The software for acquiring and recording data was activated and the material
corresponding to the specimen was selected in the software.
4. By zeroing the load cell, the Instron Load Frame could only be set to measure only the
tensile load.

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5. The jaws were adjusted to fit the size of the specimen. This was followed by attaching the
extensometers on the reduced sections of the gage specimen.
6. To avoid slipping of the specimen, the scroll wheel was used in preloading the machine.
7. After the specimen was removed, the extensometers were adjusted to zero values and the
test commenced to measure strain of the specimen.
8. The data was recorded by the software on the spreadsheet.

Data sheet
Time Force Stroke Stress Strain Area
Sec N mm KPa m2
0 0 0 0 0 0,00625
5 211,0594 0,165563 33,7695 6,62252 × 10−6 0,00625
10 392,9728 0,332229 62,8756 1,328916 × 10−5 0,00625
15 541,8652 0,498906 86,6984 1,995624 × 10−5 0,00625
20 676,7306 0,665573 108,2769 2,662292 × 10−5 0,00625
25 848,2191 0,832225 135,7151 3,3289 × 10−5 0,00625
30 1008,378 0,998891 161,3405 3,995564 × 10−5 0,00625
35 1168,538 1,165556 186,9661 4,662224 × 10−5 0,00625
40 1328,697 1,332222 212,5915 5,328888 × 10−5 0,00625
45 1488,857 1,498888 238,2171 5,995552 × 10−5 0,00625
50 1649,016 1,665554 263,8426 6,662216 × 10−5 0,00625
55 1809,176 1,83222 289,4682 7,32888 × 10−5 0,00625
60 1969,335 1,998886 315,0936 7,995544 × 10−5 0,00625
65 2129,494 2,165552 340,7190 8,662208 × 10−5 0,00625
70 2289,654 2,332217 366,3446 9,328868 × 10−5 0,00625
75 2449,813 2,498883 391,9701 9,995532 × 10−5 0,00625
76 2481,845 2,532216 397,0952 1,0128864 × 10−4 0,00625

Figure 2: Data sheet

Theoretical Information of Specimen LG7

Tensile strength = 90 MPa
Flexural Strength = 120 MPa
Modulus of Elasticity = 13 GPa

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 Results
Sample calculations:
These calculations are calculated from the experimental values when the experiment was at 1
second. The rest of the calculations were put into the data sheet found in figure 2.
Specifications: Specimen LG7
Length = 250 mm, Width = 25mm, Thickness = 1.6mm
Area:
A= L x W = 0.250 x 0.025 = 0,00625 m2
Stress:
𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 38,3456
σ= = = 6.1193 𝐾𝑃𝑎
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 0,00625

Strain:
𝛥𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 0,032219
ɛDirect = = = 1,28876 × 10−6
𝐼𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 0,25×1000

Maximum stress is given by:

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 2481,845
σDirect = = = 397.0952 𝐾𝑃𝑎,
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 0,00625

Tensile strength is = 397.095 𝐾𝑃𝑎

Graphs:
Figure 3:Experimental stress-strain Figure 4:Theoretical stress-strain graph
graph
Stress Vs Strain Graph
450
400
350
300
Stress, KPa

250
200
150
100
50
0
7,995544
0,662252
1,328916
1,99624
2,662292
3,3289
3,995564
4,662224
5,328888
5,995552
6,662216
7,32888

8,662208
9,328868
9,995532
10,128864

Strain x 10^ -5

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Discussion
The mechanical properties of a woven glass fibre with silicon matrix was investigated and the
results were tabulated in figure 2. The stress-strain graph in figure 3, shows that the relationship
between stress and strain is directly proportional. However, the specimen was testing until
fracture point which occurred at approximately 400 KPa. The graph was plotted in the intervals
of 10 seconds to show the overview of the graph and the relationship between stress and strain.

Furthermore, the graph is nearly linear until it 75 seconds it starts to bend towards having more
strain rate. The tensile properties can be classified in three stages, The elastic stage, the
softening stage and the fracture stage. However, unlike other materials like mild steel, woven
glass fibre does not have the softening stage, it is only the elastic stage then fracture.
The changes encountered in cross sectional area cannot be influenced by engineering stress-
strain relationships; the changes can only be possible for true stress- strain curves. Normally,
true strains are of higher values than those of engineering strains. This can be explained by the
fact that true strains take place in transverse directions of the gage length. In the graph, for
engineering stress- strain curves, the curves drop downwards after necking has occurred.
However, this phenomenon cannot be seen in normal true stress- strain curves, the curves
would reach the highest region of fracture.
Engineering stress and strains were calculated after the extensometers on the Instron machine
measured the strain that was applied on each sample specimen. The data on strain was obtained
on the cross head after necking had occurred. The engineering stress was then calculated by
dividing the applied load by the original cross- sectional area. For engineering strains, the
changes in length (extensions) were divided by the original length. In calculations of true stress,
the load applied could be divided by the instantaneous area. True strain is calculated by dividing
the change in length by the instantaneous final length.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that the test was successful, the objective of the experiment was achieved.
The tensile strength of specimen LG7 was tested until the fracture point. The results give close
relationship between tensile strength and theoretical data, by comparing the graph of the
experiment values and the theory the experiment agrees with Hooke’s Law.
Furthermore, the material does not show any signs of plastic deformation. This concludes that
if has a high stiffness strength and high tensile strength which is why it is desirable if aircraft
and marine applications.

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References

1. Davies, J. (2004). Tensile Testing (2nd Edition ed.). ASM International.

2. G, J., & Barry. (2012). Mechanics of Materials (8th Edition ed.). CL Engineering.

3. Marc, K. K. (2008). Mechanical Behavior of Materials (2nd ed.). Cambrige

University Press.

4. Micheal F. Asby, K. J. (2013). Materials and Design (3rd Edition ed.). Butterworth.

5. Richard Budynas, K. D. (2014). Mc-Graw Hill Series in Mechanical Engineering

(10th Edition ed.). Mc-Graw Hill Series.

6. Richard, A. (2002). Advanced Mechanics of Materials. (R. J. Schmidt, Ed.) Wiley.

7. Naganuma T, Naito K, Kyono J and Kagawa Y. (2009) Influence of prepreg

conditions on the void occurrence and tensile properties of woven glass fiber-
reinforced polyimide.

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Appendices

Figure 5: During the experiment Figure 6: After fracture

Figure 7: Drawing of the specimen LG7

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