MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR

OF MATERIALS
 General types of materials
• Ferrous metals: carbon, alloy, stainless and tool and die
steels
• Non ferrous metal: aluminium, magnesium, copper,
nickel, titanium, superalloy, refractory metals, beryllium,
zirconium, low-metal alloys and precious metals
• Plastic (polymers): thermoplastics, thermosets and
elastomers
• Ceramic, glasses, glass ceramics, graphite, diamond
and diamond-like materials
• Composite materials: reinforced plastics, metal-matrix
and ceramic-matrix composites, also known as
engineered materials
• Nanomaterial, shape-memory alloys, amorphour
alloys, semi-conductor, super-conductor and
advance materials
 General manufacturing
characteristics of various alloys
Alloy Castability Weldability Machinability

Al E F E-G

Cu G-F F G-F

Gray Cast Iron E D G

White Cast Iron G VP VP

Ni F F F

Steels F E F

Zn E D E

Note: E, excellent; G, good; F, fair; D, difficult; VP, very poor

 Selecting materials
• Materials properties: mechanical properties
(strength, toughness, ductility, hardness,
elasticity, fatigue and creep), physical properties
(density, specific heat, thermal expansion and
conductivity), chemical properties (oxidation,
corrosion, general degradation of properties,
toxicity and flammability) and manufacturing
properties (can it be casted, formed, machined.
Joined and heat treated)
• Cost and availability
• Appearance, service life and recycling
• In manufacturing one of the most important groups of
processes is plastic deformation, namely shaping
materials by applying forces in various ways (also known
as deformation process).
• 3 basic modes of deformation:
• (i) tension – fig (a)
• (ii) compression – fig (b)
• (iii) shear – fig (c)
 Tensile testing
It is the most common test for determining
mechanical properties of material such as
strength, ductility, toughness, elastic
modulus, and strain-hardening capability.
 Relative Mechanical properties of various material at room
temperature

Strength Hardness Toughness Stiffness Strength/Density

Glass fibers Diamond Ductile metals Diamond Reinforced plastic

Graphite fibers Cubic boron nitride Reinforced plastics Carbides Titanium
Kevlar fibers Carbides Thermoplastics Tungsten Steel
Carbides Hardened steels Wood Steel Aluminium
Molybdenum Titanium Thermosets Copper Magnesium
Steels Cast iron Ceramics Titanium Beryllium
Tantalum Copper Glass Aluminium Copper
Titanium Thermosets Ceramics Tantalum
Copper Magnesium Reinforced plastics
Reinforced Thermoplastics Wood
thermosets Tin Thermosets
Reinforced Lead Thermoplastics
thermoplastics Rubber
Thermoplastics
Lead

Note: In decreasing order

Conti…Relative Mechanical properties of various
material at room temperature
Tensile Testing Machine
• Engineering stress (Nominal
Stress): is a measure of the average
amount of force exerted per unit area
of a surface within a deformable body
on which internal forces act.
• Engineering Strain: is the
geometrical measure of deformation
representing the relative
displacement between particles in the
material body.
Tensile-test sequence
1. General mechanics principle
• The underlying mechanics principle for metal forming is
the stress-strain relationship; see Figure 1.

Figure 1
• In the forming process we are more interested in the
plastic deformation region (Figure 1)

Plastic
deformation
region
 Definition mechanical properties
Y: Yield Stress- As the load is increased, the specimen
begins to undergo permanent (plastic) deformation.
Beyond that level, the stress and strain are no longer
proportional, as they were in the elastic region. This is
where the point on the stress-strain curve that is offset
by a strain of 0.002 or 0.2%
UTS: Ultimate Tensile Strength- As the load is increased ,
the engineering stress eventually reaches a maximum
and then begin to decrease
E: Modulus of Elasticity (Young’s modulus) – the ratio of
stress to strain in the elastic region (essentially a
measure of the slope of the elastic portion of the curve
and, hence, the stiffness of the material
 Some example of Mechanical properties of various
materials

• Al and its alloys: E, 69-79GPa; Y, 35-550MPa;

UTS, 90-600MPa
• Steels: E, 190-200GPa; Y, 205-1725MPa; UTS,
415-1750MPa
• Ti and its alloys: E, 80-130GPa; Y 344-
1380MPa; UTS, 415-1450MPa
• Ceramics: E, 70-1000GPa; UTS, 140-2600MPa
• Carbon fibers: E, 275-415GPa; UTS, 2000-
3000MPa
 Engineering stress is defined as:
F
e 
Ao
 e engineering stress
F – Applied load
Ao- original cross sectional area of the
tensile sample
Engineering strain is defined as:

l  lo
e 
lo
 - engineering strain

lo - the original length of sample

l - the final length after test
In the figure above shows initially, at low strain a material deforms elastically and
there is a linear dependence of stress on strain. At these low strains, Hooke’s law
applies:

E
 E = Modulus of elasticity or Young’s Modulus
• Ductility
• amount of deformation up to fracture
• refers to the ability of a material to be deformed
plastically, in particular its ability to be drawn through
a die to smaller cross - section.
• In general the ductility of a metal is reduced as the
hardness increases.
• Two quantities commonly used to define ductility in
a tension test are elongation and reduction of
area.
l f  lo
Elongation = X 100%
lo

Ao  Af
Reduction of Area X 100%
Ao
 Natural / True stress - strain
Natural / true stress =
F
Natural / true stress = t 
Af

Natural / true strain = t dl l 

 
=
= ln

l l
o 
• The volume of a metal specimen in the plastic region
of the test remains constant (volume constancy).
Hence the true strain within the uniform range can
be expressed as:

2
l   Ao   Do   Do 
 t  ln   ln   ln   2 ln  
 lo   A  D  D
lo Af
A lo  Af l f ; 
l f Ao
Ao  1 
 t  ln ;   ln 
Af  1 RA 
The difference between brittle and a ductile materials.
• Example 1 Usefulness of true strain — I
• A bar of length 10 is uniformly extended until its length 1 = 2lo
Compute the values of engineering and true strain for this
extension.

• Example 2 Usefulness of true strain — 2

• A bar of 10cm initial length is elongated to 20cm in three stages as
follows:
• stage 1: 10cm increased to 12cm
• stage 2: 12cm increased to 15cm
• stage 3: 15cm increased to 20 cm.
• Assuming homogeneous strain in each stage calculate:
• (a) the engineering strain for each stage and compare the sum of
the three engineering strains with the overall value of engineering
strain;
• (b) repeat part (a) for true strains.

• Example 3
• The initial diameter of a tensile test specimen is 10 mm. after a
certain load is applied, the diameter is reduced to 8 mm. calculate
the engineering strain & true strain when the diameter is 8 mm.
state any assumption made.
Offset yield strength.
In some materials, the stress at which the material changes from elastic to
plastic behavior is not easily detected. In this case we may determine an
offset yield strength. A small amount of permanent deformation, such as
0.2% might be allowable without damaging the performance of the
component. The 0.2% offset yield strength is the stress at which the
constructed line intersects the stress-strain curve as in Figure 8 above.
Double yield point. On the other hand, the stress-strain
2
curve for certain low-carbon steels displays a double yield
point in Figure 9. The material is expected to plastically
deform at stress  1 . However, small interstitial atoms
clustered around the dislocations interfere with slip and
raise the yield point to  2 . Only after applying the higher
2
stress  2 does the dislocation slip. After slip begins at the
dislocation moves away from the clusters of small atoms
and continues to move very rapidly at the lower stress . 1
True stress—true-strain curve in tension. Note that, unlike in an
engineering stress—strain curve, the slope is always positive, and the
slope decreases with increasing strain. Although stress and strain are
proportional in the elastic range, the total curve can be approximated by
the power expression shown. On this curve, Y is the yield stress and Yf
is the flow stress. Figure above shows a typical true stress – true strain
curve. Such a curve is approximated by equation: The plastic region of
a true stress-strain curve for many materials has the general equation:
The plastic region of a true stress-strain
curve for many materials has the general
equation:
  K n

We can rewrite as:

True-stress—true strain curve plotted on a log—log scale.

Plotting the true stress - true strain curve on
a log-log scale the above graph is obtained.
The slope n is known as the strain
hardening exponent, and K is known as the
strength coefficient.
Experimental data can extract constants n &
K following the equation

n – slope of the line

K – is the intercept at
True- stress—true-strain curve in tension for 1100-0 aluminum plotted on a log—log
scale. Note the large difference in the slopes in the elastic and plastic ranges.
Types of stress—strain curves

Each material has a differently shaped

stress—strain curve; its shape depends on
its composition and many other factors.
Some of the major types of curves are
shown in Fig. below with their associated
stress—strain equations and have the
following characteristics:
1. Perfectly elastic.
A perfectly elastic material behaves like a spring with
stiffness E. The behavior of brittle materials, such as
glass, ceramics, and some cast irons, may be
represented by such a curve in Fig. below. There is a
limit to the stress the material can sustain, after which
it breaks. Permanent deformation, if any, is negligible.

  E
• 2. A rigid, perfectly plastic material has, by
definition, an infinite value of E.
• Once the stress reaches the yield stress Y, it
continues to undergo deformation at the same
stress level. When the load is released, the material
has undergone permanent deformation, with no
elastic recovery. See figure below
• 3. An elastic, perfectly plastic material.
• It is a combination of the first two types of
material: it has a finite elastic modulus, and it
undergoes elastic recovery when the load is
released. See figure below.
4. A rigid, linearly strain-hardening material.
It requires an increasing stress level to undergo further
strain; thus, its flow stress (the magnitude of the stress
required to maintain plastic deformation at a given strain;
increases with increasing strain. It has no elastic recovery
upon unloading. See figure below. Ep is referred to as the
plastic modulus and is the slope of the stress—strain
curve after yielding.
 5. An elastic, linearly strain-hardening curve.
It is an approximation of the behavior of most engineering
materials, with the modification that the plastic portion of the
curve has a decreasing slope with increasing strain. The
broken lines and arrows indicate unloading and reloading,
respectively, during the test. Most engineering metals
exhibit a behavior similar to that shown in curve See figure
below.
• Effects of temperature
• Although it is somewhat difficult to generalize, increasing
temperature usually increases ductility and toughness and lowers
the modulus of elasticity, yield stress, and ultimate tensile strength
(see figure below) . Temperature also affects the strain-hardening
exponent, n, of most metals, in that n decreases with increasing
temperature. Depending on the type of material and its composition
and level of impurities, elevated temperatures can have other
significant effects as well.
• Effects of strain rate
• Depending on the particular manufacturing operation
and equipment, a piece of material may be formed at low
or high speeds; thus, in performing a tension test, the
specimen can be strained at different rates to simulate
the actual deformation process. Whereas the
deformation rate may be defined as the speed (in m/s,
for instance) at which a tension test is being carried out,
the strain rate is a function of the geometry of the
specimen.
The engineering strain rate, is defined as:

 l  lo 
d  
d e  lo  1 dl v
e    
dt dt lo dt lo
• The true strain rate, is defined as:

  l 
d  ln  
d t   lo   1 dl v
t    
dt dt l dt l

where v is the speed or rate of deformation.

Deformation Work
• The stress-strain relationship in the plastic
deformation region is described by
Called
n
  K FLOW
CURVE
Where
K= the strength coefficient, (MPa)
 = the true strain, σ=the true stress
n= the strain hardening exponent,

The flow stress (Yf) is used for the above stress

(which is the stress beyond yield)
FLOW STRESS

• As deformation occurs, increasing STRESS is required

to continue deformation

• Flow Stress: Instantaneous value of stress required to

continue deforming the material (i.e., to keep metal
“flowing”):

n
Yf  K
 AVERAGE FLOW STRESS
• For many bulk deforming processes, rather than
instantaneous stress, average stress is used (extrusion)

• The average flow stress can be obtained by

integrating the flow stress along the trajectory of
straining, from zero to the final strain value which
defines the range of interest:
Strength Coefficient
n
k
Average flow stress Yf  Max. strain during
deformation
1 n
Strain hardening exponent
 Peak (max imum) stress
 t  K n ,
mean true flow stress
K n
 tm 
n 1
Deformation Work
KV n 1
W
Example 3 n 1
• If a 10cm long bar of fully annealed AA-1 100 aluminium
is pulled in tension from a diameter of 12.7 mm to a
diameter of 11.5 mm, calculate the following:
• (a) the ideal work per unit volume of aluminium required;
• (b) the mean stress in the aluminium during deformation;
• (c) the peak stress applied to the aluminium.
 Factors affecting Mechanical
Properties
• (i) Effect of temperature. With the decrease in temperature of
a metal, an increase in modulus of elasticity, tensile strength
and hardness takes place.
• (ii) Effect of heat treatment. Mechanical properties like
hardness, ductility, tensile strength, corrosion resistance, shock
resistance get improved by heat treatment. Heat treatment
refines the grain size and relieves the internal stresses induced
in the metal during cold working.
• (iii) Effect of atmospheric exposure. Most of the metals get
oxidised when placed in the atmosphere. A film formation due
to oxidising action of air is formed on the metallic surface.
Presence of humidity and gases like sulphur dioxide and
hydrogen sulphide attack the metal more quickly and metal gets
corroded. Corrosion of metals is liable to disfigure the product,
lose their strength, and certain other mechanical and physical
properties.
• (iv) Effect of low temperature. The elastic limit,
elongation and Young’s modulus of elasticity of
steel generally increase with fall in temperature.
Materials like copper, nickel, aluminium retain
much of their tensile ductility and resistance to
shock at low temperatures.
• (v) Effect of grain size. Mechanical properties
of materials are greatly affected by the grain size
of materials. Fine grained steels offer more
resistance to cracking, produce fine finish, are
better for deep drawing and can easily be
deformed plastically. Coarse grained steels have
lower strength but have good hardenability and
can be easily forged.