MODUL PERKULIAHAN

ENGLISH FOR ENGINEERING

The Properties of Materials

Fakultas Program Studi Tatap Muka Kode MK Disusun Oleh

Teknik Teknik Elektro F021700001 Fadli Sirait, S.SI, MT

05
Abstract Kompetensi
Adjectives are words that Students are able to
describe or modify understand and write the
another person or thing explanation of the
in the sentence. engineering materials
FORCES; DYNAMICS AND STATISTICS

We all have some intuitive idea about the mechanics of the world around
us, an idea built up largely from our own experience. However, a proper
scientific understanding of mechanics has taken centuries to achieve.
Isaac Newton was of course the founder of the science of mechanics; he
was the first to describe and understand the ways in which moving bodies
behave. Introducing the concepts of inertia and force, he showed that the
behavior of moving bodies could be summed up in three laws of motion

1. The law of inertia: An object in motion will remain in

motion unless acted upon by a net force. The inertia of an
object is its reluctance to change its motion.
2. The law of acceleration: The acceleration of a body is
equal to the force applied to it divided by its mass, as
summarized in the equation
F=ma ………………………………………(1)
where F is the force; m, the mass; and a, the acceleration.
3. The law of reciprocal action: To every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction. If one body pushes on another
with a given force, the other will push back with the same
force in the opposite direction.

To summarize with a simple example: if I give a push to a ball that is

initially at rest(fig 1.a) it will accelerate in that direction at a rate
proportional to the force and inversely proportional to its mass. The great
step forward in Newton’s scheme was that, together with the inverse
square law of gravity, it showed that the force that keeps us down on earth
is one and the same with the force that directs the motion of the planets.

All this is a great help in understanding dynamic situations, such

as billiard balls colliding, guns firin bullets, planets circling the sun, or
frogs jumping. Unfortunately it is much less useful when it comes to
examining what is happening in arrange of no-less-common every day
situations. What is happening when a book is lying on a desk, when a
light bulb is hanging from the ceiling, or when I am trying to pull a tree
over?(See fig 1.b.) In all of these static situations, it is clear that there is
no acceleration (at least until the tree does fall over), so the table or rope
must be resisting gravity and the tree must be resisting the forces I am
putting on it with equal and opposite reactions.

Figure 1. Forces on objects in dynamic and static situations. In dynamic

situations, such as a pool ball being given a push with a cue(a), the force, F, results in the
acceleration, a, of the ball. In static situations, such as a tree being pulled sideways with
a rope (b), there is no acceleration.

But how do objects supply that reaction, seeing as they have no force-
producing muscles to do so? The answer lies within the materials
themselves. Robert Hooke (1635–1703) was the first to notice that when
springs, and indeed many other structures and pieces of material, are
loaded, they change shape, altering in length by an amount
approximately proportional to the force applied, and that they spring
back into their original shape after the load is removed (fig 1.2a). This
linear relationship between force and extension is known as Hooke’slaw.
What we now know is that all solids are made up of atoms. In crystalline
materials, which include not only salt and diamonds but also metals, such
as iron, the atoms are arranged in ordered row sand columns, joined by
stiff inter atomic bonds. If these sorts of materials are stretched or
compressed, we are actually stretching or compressing the inter atomic
bonds (fig 2.b). They have an equilibrium length and strongly resist any
such movement. In typically static situations, therefore, the applied force
is not lost or dissipated or absorbed. Instead, it is opposed by the equal
and opposite reaction force that results from the tendency of the material
that has been deformed to return to its resting shape. No material is
totally rigid; even blocks of the stiffest materials, such as metals and
diamonds, deform when they are loaded. There as on that this
deformation was such a hard discovery to make is that most structures
are so rigid that their deflectio is tiny; it is only when we use compliant
structures such as springs or bend long thin beams that the deflectio
common to all structures is obvious. The greater the load that is applied,
the more the structure is deflected until failure occurs; we will then have
exceeded the strength of our structure. In the case of the tree (fig 1.b), the
trunk might break, or its roots pull out of the soil and the tree accelerate
sideways and fall over.

Figure 2. When a tensile force is applied to a perfectly Hookean spring or material (a),
it will stretch a distance proportional to the force applied. In the
materialthisisusuallybecausethebondsbetweentheindividualatomsbehavelike springs (b),
stretching and compressing by a distance that at least at low loads is proportional to the
force applied.
Figure 3. In a tensile test, an elongated piece of a material is gripped at both ends (a) and
stretched. The sample is usually cut into a dumbbell shape so that failure does not occur
around the clamps, where stresses can be concentrated. The result of such a test is a
graph of stress against strain (b), which shows several important mechanical properties
of the material. The shaded are under the graph is the amount of elastic energy the
material can store.

The Concept of Stress

If it takes a unit force to stretch a rubber band of a given cross-sectional
area a given distance, it can readily be seen that it will take twice the force
to give the same stretch to two rubber bands set side by side or to a single
band of twice the thickness. Resistance to stretching is therefore
directlyproportionaltothecross-sectionalareaofasample.Todetermine the
mechanical state of the rubber, the force applied to the sample must
consequently be normalized by dividing it by its cross-sectional area.
Doing so gives a measurement of the force per unit area, or the intensity
of the force, which is known as stress and which is usually represented by
the symbol σ, so that
σ =P/ A ……………………………….(2)
Where P is the applied load and A the cross-sectional area of the sample.
Stress is expressed in SI units of newtons per square meter (Nm −2) or
pascals (Pa). Unfortunately, this unit is inconveniently small, so most
stresses are given in kPa (Nm−2 ×103), MPa (Nm−2 ×106), or even GPa
(Nm−2×109).
The Concept of Strain
If it takes a unit force to stretch a rubber band of a given length by a given
distance, the same force applied to two rubber bands joined end to end or
to a single band of twice the length will result in twice the stretch.
Resistance to stretching is therefore inversely proportional to the length of
a sample. To determine the change in shape of the rubber as a material in
general, and not just of this sample, the deflectio of the sample must
consequently be normalized by dividing by its original length. This gives
a measure of how much the material has stretched relative to its original
length, which is known as strain and which is usually represented by the
symbol, ε, so that
ε =dL/ L……………………………………(3)
where dL is the change in length and L the original length of the sample.
Strain has no units because it is calculated by dividing one length by
another. It is perhaps unfortunate that engineers have chosen to give the
everyday words stress and strain such precise definition in mechanics,
since doing so can confuse communications between engineers and lay
people who are used to the vaguer uses of these words. As we shall see,
similar confusion can also be a problem with the terms used to describe
the mechanical properties of materials.

DETERMINING MATERIAL PROPERTIES

Many material properties can be determined from the results of a tensile

test once the graph of force against displacement has been converted with
equations 1.2 and 1.3 into one of stress versus strain. Figure.3.b shows
the stress-strain curve for a typical tough material, such as a metal. Like
many, but by no means all, materials, this one obeys Hooke’s law,
showing linear elastic behavior: the stress initially increases rapidly
indirect proportion to the strain. Then the material reaches a yield point,
after which the stress increases far more slowly, until final failure occurs
and the material breaks.
 The f rst important property that can be derived from the
graphs is the stiffness of the material, also known as its Young’s
modulus, which is represented by the symbol E . Stiffness is equal
to the initial slope of the stress-strain curve and so is given
mathematically by the expression

E = dσ/dε
(4)

or by the original force-displacement curve

LdP
E= …………………………………………….(5)
AdL

Stiff materials therefore have a high Young’s modulus.

Compliance is the inverse of stiffness, so compliant materials have a
low Young’s modulus. In many materials, the slope of the curve
changes as the material is stretched. For such materials one can
distinguish between the initial stiffness and the tangent stiffness,
which is the slope at higher strains.

The second important property that can be derived is the

strength, or breaking stress, of the material; this is simply the
maximum value of stress, σmax , along the y-axis. Breaking stress can
alternatively be calculated from the original force-displacement curve
using the formula

σmax = Pmax / A……………..(6)

Strong materials have a high breaking stress, whereas weak ones

have a low breaking stress. The yield stress, σyield , can also be read
off the graph, being the stress at which it stops obeying Hooke’s law
and becomes more compliant; this is the point at which the slope of
the graph falls.
A third useful property of a material is its extensibility, or
breaking strain, εmax , which is simply the maximum value of
strain along the x-axis. Breaking strain can alternatively be
calculated from the original force-displacement curve using the
formula

εmax = (L max − L )/L . …………………(7)

The yield strain can also be determined from this curve, being the
strain at which the slope of the graph falls.
 A further material property that can be derived by examining
the shape of the stress-strain curve is its susceptibility or resistance to
breakage. A brittle material, such as glass, will not have a yield region
but will break at the end of the straight portion (fig 1.4), whereas a
tough material, such as a metal, will continue taking on load at strains
well above yield before finall breaking.

LOADING, UNLOADING, AND ENERGY STORAGE

A fina useful aspect of stress-strain graphs is that the area under

the curve equals the energy, We , that is needed to stretch a unit volume
of the material to a given strain. This factor is given in units of joules per

cubic meter (J m−3 , which is dimensionally the same as N m−2 ).

Under the linear part of the stress-strain curve, this energy equals half
the stress times the strain, so
We = σ ε/2.

But strain equals stress divided by stiffness, so

We = σ (σ/ E )/2 = σ 2 /2 E .
(8) The elastic storage capability, Wc , of a material is the
amount of energy under the curve up to the point at which yield occurs
and is given by the equation
2
w C =σ yield /2 E…………………………………(9)

Figure 4. Contrasting stress-strain graphs of brittle and tough materials. The

tough material shows appreciable stretching after yield.
 The amount of energy an elastic material can store, therefore,
increases with its yield stress but decreases with its stiffness,
because stiffer materials do not stretch as far for a given stress.
So the materials that store most energy are ones that are strong
but compliant.
In a perfectly elastic material, all of this energy would be
stored in the material and could be recovered if it were allowed to
return to its original length. However, no materials are perfectly
elastic; the percentage of energy released by a material, known as its
resilience, is never 100% and falls dramatically in tough materials after
yield, since yield usually involves irreversible damage to the sample.
The resilience of a material can be readily measured using a modifie
tensile test in which the sample is stretched to a point before yield
occurs and then allowed to return to its rest length. The unloading
curve will always be below the loading curve. The resilience is the
percentage of the area under the unloading curve divided by the area
under the loading curve; the percentage of energy that is lost is
known as the hysteresis and is the remainder of 100% minus the
resilience.
 Figure 5. The results of loading/unloading tests for (a) a perfectly elastic
material, (b) a perfectly plastic material, (c) an elastic-plastic material, and
(d) a viscoelastic material.

Loading/unloading tests can be used to differentiate between

different sorts of materials. In a perfectly elastic material (fig 1.5a),
the unloading curve follows the loading curve exactly, there is no
hysteresis, and the material returns to its original shape after the test.
In a perfectly plastic material, on the other hand (fig 1.5b), the
material will be permanently deformed by the load, and all the energy
put into it will be dissipated. Tough materials often show elastic-
plastic behavior (fig 5c), acting elastically before and plastically after
yield, in which case the sample will return only part of the way to its
original shape and some energy will be dissipated in deforming it
permanently. Finally, even before yield, materials often show
viscoelastic behavior (fig 1.5d), in which energy is lost as they deform,
just as it does in liquids, due to internal friction. The amount of energy
lost and hence the shape of the loading/unloading curve will vary with
the speed at which the test is carried out, as we shall see in Chapter 3,
but unlike with elastic-plastic behavior, the material will eventually
return to its original shape.
THE EFFECT OF DIRECTION

Many engineering materials, such as metals, plastics, and

concrete, are essentially homogenous and have the same material
properties in all direc- tions. These are said to be isotropic. Many
other materials, on the other hand, particularly those with a
complex internal structure (including many if not most biological
materials), have very different mechanical properties in different
directions. These materials are said to be anisotropic, and to fully
characterize them, materials tests must be carried out in all three
planes.

CHANGES IN SHAPE DURING AXIAL LOADING

When a typical material sample is put into axial loading,

that is, being stretched or compressed, it does not only get longer
or shorter; it also gets narrower or thicker, necking or bulging under
the load (fig 1.6). As a consequence, in a tensile test the load will be
spread over a smaller area, and so the actual stress in the sample will
be greater than the stress given by dividing the load by the original
area. The shape of the sample will also be elongated by more than
the value given by dividing the change in length by the original area.
In other words, both the stress and the strain will be underestimated.
In most engineering materials, which deform by no more than 0.1–1%
of their original length before they break, this is not a great problem.
Engineers usually do not bother to try and calculate the true stress and
true strain in their samples. Instead they use the convention of ignoring
the change in shape and instead calculating what are known as
engineering stress and engineering strain from the original
dimensions of the sample. With such small changes in shape, the error
would in any case be small.
For many biological materials, on the other hand, strains
can be far greater, reaching values up to 10, meaning stretches of
1000%! In these cases the differences between true stress and strain
and engineering stress and strain can be very great indeed. However,
because it is difficul to measure changes in shape during the course of
materials tests, even biologists usually use engineering stress and
strain, although, as we shall see, measuring the actual changes in
shape can also provide other information about the material.
The degree to which a material necks or bulges when
stretched or compressed is given by its Poisson’s ratio, which is
denoted by the symbol x and calculated using the equation.

−lateral strain
x= …………………………………..(10)
axial starin

Figure 6. Shape changes during loading. If a specimen (a) is stretched (b),

it will also tend to get narrower, whereas if it is compressed (c), it will
tend to bulge outwards.

For engineering materials that are isotropic, ν is usually

between 0.25 and 0.33. The upper theoretical limit for ν is supposed
to be 0.5, since at this value the volume of material will be unchanged
as it is stretched; if the length increases by 1%, both the thickness and
width will decrease by 0.5%, and the total volume will remain the
same. If the lateral strain in both directions were greater than half
the longitudinal strain, it would result in the volume decreasing when
a material was stretched and increasing when compressed, which
would seem to be physically improbable.
Many biological materials behave in rather odd ways,
however; being anisotropic they may have different Poisson’s ratios in
different directions. As we shall see later in the book, some biological
materials also have very high Poisson’s ratios, whereas others, such as
cork, have values near zero; it is even possible to design materials
with negative Poisson’s ratios, materials that expand laterally when
stretched.

COMPARING THE PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

All the complexity of the properties of materials and of

materials testing means that it is surprisingly complicated to
compare the properties of different materials. They can differ in
their stiffness, their strength, their ability to store and release
energy, and in their toughness. Some materials are also better at
resisting tension, whereas others resist compression better; and
some materials have the same properties in all directions,
whereas with others, their performance depends on the direction in
which they are stressed.
A good way to get an instinctive idea of how to compare
materials is to think of some everyday objects familiar even to
children. Jell-O has very low stiffness and strength and is also
very brittle, making it easy for even very young children to cut
up and eat. Cookies, in contrast, are stiff but not very strong, so
a child can carry one around without breaking it yet still readily
bite into it. Toffees are both stiff and strong, although they can be
smashed to smithereens when hit by a hammer, showing that they
are brittle. To eat them a child has to put them whole into their
mouth, before softening them and dissolving them with their warm
saliva. Pencils are stiff, strong, and extremely tough, so they can
take a lot of punishment without breaking, although the brittle
leads are easy to snap off. Rubber bands have low stiffness, but
they are very stretchy, so they are reasonably strong and can store
a lot of energy, which makes them ideal for use as slingshots.
What about “grown-up” materials? Well, steel is one of the
most popular materials in engineering because it is stiff, strong,
and tough and so is ideal for taking loads and resisting impacts.
This is why it is used to make the shells of cars. Glass is far less
useful, because although it is almost as stiff and strong as steel, it is
extremely brittle and so shatters on impact. Concrete is widely
used to build walls and f oors because it is stiff and extremely
strong in compression, but because it cannot take tension, it
cannot be used to make the roofs of buildings without being
reinforced with steel.
The properties of some important man-made materials and
those of the natural materials we will encounter in the next few
chapters are shown for ease of comparison in table 1.1. Perhaps
the material that acts as the best single benchmark is rubber,
since we can deform it fairly easily by hand and so get an
intuitive feel for its properties. Most of its properties also, have
small integer values for stiffness and strength (in MPa), strain

energy (in MJ m−3 ), and maximum strain. Some materials,

such as mucus and mesoglea, are more compliant than rubber,
but most “rigid materials” are thousands of times stiffer and tens
of times stronger but many times less extensible.
As we shall see in the next few chapters, it is practically
impossible to produce materials in which all the properties are
maximized; in general, the stiffer and stronger a material is, the
less it can be stretched. There is therefore no one “super”
material that is ideal for all purposes, and the mechanical
design of organisms consists of making materials that are suitable
for a particular role and arranging them in the right way within the
body. That topic is what most of the rest of this book is about.
References

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[2] Giancoli. (2013). Physics Principles With Applications. 7th ed. NY. Pearson.
[3] Tripler. (2001). Fisika Untuk Sains dan Teknik. 3rd ed. Jakarta: Erlangga
[4] Tripler, Paul A & Gene Mosca. (2008). Physics For Scientists and Engineers. 6th ed.
NY: W. H. Freeman and Company
[5] David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker. (2010). Fundamental of Physics
Extended. 9th ed. NY. John Wiley & Sons.