Lecture Eight

Learning outcomes
1. Distiguish between the various types of mechanical properties of materials
2. Distinguish between the various types of stress

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS

1. Tensile strength
▪ This is a measure of the basic strength of a material
▪ It is the maximum stress that the material will withstand
▪ It is the ability of a material to withstand tensile (stretching loads without breaking)
2. Stiffness
▪ This is the ability of a material to resist bending and buckling/deflecting
▪ It is a function of the elastic modulus of the material and the shape of the cross
section of the member
3. Toughness
▪ It is associated with tensile strength and is a measure of the materials resistance to
crack propagation
4. Hardness
▪ This is an indication of a materials ability to resist wear
▪ It is the ability of a material to withstand scratching (abrasion) or indentation by
another hard body
5. Malleability
▪ It’s the ability of a material to withstand deformation under compression without
rupture
▪ It’s the ability of a material to be hammered into sheets
▪ This refers to the extent to which a material can undergo deformation in
compression before failure occurs

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 6. Ductility
▪ It is the ability of a material to undergo deformation under tension without rupture
as in drawing a wire
▪ This refers to the extent to which a material can undergo deformation in tension
before failure occurs
7. Brittleness
▪ It is the property of a material that shows little or no plastic deformation before
fracture when a force is applied

Task

Read about:

a. Fatigue
b. Creep

Elastic Behaviour of Materials

Introduction

▪ When a load is applied to a material, a balancing force is set up within the material
and this internally acting force is termed as STRESS

▪ The stress acting upon a material is defined as the Force exerted per unit Area

▪ Units for stress are: Pascal (pa), Newton/metre2, N/m2

▪ Stress = Force/Area
𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑠
Stress = , (𝑀𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)2 =N/m2
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎

▪ The notation used for stress is:

𝐹
𝜎=
𝐴

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▪ In this course we shall look at four types of stress namely:

a) Tensile stress

b) Compressive stress

c) Shear stress

d) Thermal stress

▪ When a material is in a state of stress, its dimensions will be changed

▪ Tensile stress will cause an extension of the length of the material while compressive
stress will shorten the length of the material
▪ Tensile force acting on cross-sectional area produces an extension in length, thus
positive change in length
▪ Compressive force acting on cross-sectional area produces a decrease in length thus
negative change in length
▪ Tensile and compressive stresses are termed direct stresses
▪ The dimensional change caused by stress is termed strain
▪ In direct tension or compression, strain is the ratio of the change in length to the
original length
Change in Length ∆𝐿
▪ Strain = =
Original Length 𝐿

∆𝐿
𝜀=
𝐿
▪ Strain, being the ratio of change in dimension to original dimension, has no dimension
(unitless)
▪ The ratio strain is unit-less and is simply a numerical value
▪ From:
𝐹 ∆𝐿 𝜎
𝜎=
𝐴
𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝜀 = ,
𝐿 𝜀
= 𝐸, where E is the Youngs modulus of the material

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 Figure 1: Tensile force F acting on cross-sectional area A
(Source: Vernon, 2003)

Figure 2: Compressive force F acting on cross-sectional area A

(Source: Vernon, 2003)

▪ A shear stress imparts a twist to the material

▪ The action of a shear force will cause a block of material to twist through a small
angle ɸ as shown in Figure 3
▪ Shear stress is defined as:

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 F
τ=
A
▪ Shear strain is defined as:
y
Υ = tanɸ =
x

Figure 3: Effect of shear force on cross-sectional area A

(Source: Vernon, 2003)

Thermal stresses
▪ Thermal stresses are induced by changes in temperature
▪ When the temperature of a component is increased or decreased, the material expands
or contracts respectively
▪ If this expansion or contraction is not restrained in any way, then the process takes
place free of stress
▪ However, if the changes in dimension are restricted, then stresses termed as
temperature stresses will be set up within the material
▪ Consider a bar of material with a linear coefficient of expansion α
▪ Let the original length of the bar be L and the temperature change be ∆t
▪ If the bar is free to expand, the change in length would be given by:

∆L = α∆tL

▪ The new length would be:

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 L = L + α∆tL = L(1 + α∆t)

▪ If this extension were totally prevented, then a compressive stress would be set up
equal to that produced when a bar of length L(1 + α∆t) is compressed through a
distance Lα∆t
▪ In this case, the bar experiences a compressive strain of:
∆L Lα∆t
ε= =
L L(1 + α∆t)
▪ In most cases, α∆t is very small compared to unity (1) so that:
∆L Lα∆t
ε= = = α∆t
L L(1 + α∆t)
But:
σ
=E
ε

σ = εE
σ = Eα∆t

▪ This is the stress set up owing to total restraint on expansions or contractions caused
by temperature rise or fall

References

1. Callister Jr D.W. & Rethwisch D.G. (2018). Materials Science and Engineering: An
Introduction, (10th Edn. ) New York: John Wiley and Sons

2. Vernon, J. (2003). Introduction to Engineering Materials. (4th Edn.). London:

Macmillan Press Ltd.

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