Lab Report

Experiment: Compression testing

Name:
Group:
Introduction:
Compression test:
This test is used to estimate the strength of the material. In this test the two forces act on the
material in opposite direction. The material in investigated for its strength, tensile stress and
strain. The test is taken with the help of test machine. The material is placed between the two
plates of the machine and load is applied. The load is measured and for this load the strength is
measured.
Through compression testing the safety limits of a material can be determined. It can be used to
test the endurance of a material. Therefore, compression test is one of the basic mechanical
testing, which has large range of applications.
Objective and scope:
The objective of mechanical testing in our experiment was to estimate compression stress and
strain. Another objective is to young modulus and uncertainty in young modulus. By this
investigation, compression strength behaviors and tensile strength behavior can be determined
for the given samples.
From the result and data analysis of compression test for five samples of given material, it can be
seen that for high tensile strength, the compression strength is low and for high compression
strength, tensile strength is low. One of the purposes of compression testing was to investigate
deformation limit and elastic strength. Compression testing help in estimating physical properties
of material.
Goals:
1. Estimate compression strength
2. Plot between compression strength and strain.
3. Determine young modulus
4. To find uncertainty in young modulus
Material:
Low carbon steel procured from McMaster-Carr.
Five different samples of this material were tested.
Method:
Initially, the five samples of given material were taken and cleaned. The diameter of each sample
was measured. For measuring diameter, vernier caliper was used. Four diameters were measured
for each sample. The sample is in cylindrical shape. Then mean diameter was measured. Each
material is then placed in Universal compression testing machine. The machine was turned one
and load was applied. The load was applied till the material is deformed. The applied load was
measured and putted in table. Same process was repeated with all samples and the data was
collected in the form of table. The extension and load data was collected and it is already positive
integers so revised extension and revised load was not needed. Then the stress was measured for
each sample and stress at 7000N was marked as reference. Then plot was drawn between
compression stress and strain. In the end, young modulus was calculated and uncertainty was
determined.
Table for diameter:
Diameter1, Diameter2 Diameter3, Diameter4 Mean Standard Length
D1 , D3 , diameter deviation L
mm D2 mm D4 D Of mm
mm mm mm diameter
Sd
(mm)
Sample1 3.98 3.96 3.96 3.966 3.9665 0.009434 7.62
Sample2 3.9 3.98 3.96 3.98 3.955 0.037859 7.62
Sample3 3.98 3.09 3.96 4 3.7575 0.4453 11.92
Sample4 3.98 3.98 3.98 3.98 3.98 0 11.94
Sample5 5.96 5.96 5.96 5.96 5.96 0 12.61
Table 1 Diameter of samples

Graph for error in mean diameter

error bar for diameter

12

10

8
diameter mm

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
sample

Figure 1 error bar for diameter

Results and discussions:

strain vs stress
sample 1 sample 2 sample 3 sample 4
sample 5 offset sample1 offset sample 2 offset sample3
offset sample4 offset sample5

800
700
600
500
stress MPa

400
300
200
100
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
strain
mm

Figure 2 strain vs stress

In the above graph, strain vs stress plot is drawn for all five samples. Each sample has its own color line
as shown above.

strain vs stress
sample 1 sample 2 sample 3 sample 4
sample 5 7000 N sample 1 sample 2 7000N sample 3 7000 N
sample 4 7000 N sample 5 7000N
800
700
600
500
stress MPa

400
300
200
100
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
strain
mm

Figure 3 value of stress and strain at 7000 N load

 strain vs stress
700 sample 1 7000 N sample 1

600

500
stress MPa

400

300

200

100

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
strain
mm

Figure 4 strain vs stress sample 1 at 7000N

In the above graph, stress and strain points at 7000 N load are determined and shown for each sample.
In the table 2, each point is tabulated.

strain vs stress
sample 1 Linear (sample 1) sample 2 Linear (sample 2)
sample 3 Linear (sample 3) sample 4 Linear (sample 4)
sample 5 Linear (sample 5)
800
700 f(x) = 19977.5 x − 38.95
600 f(x)=f(x)
f(x) = 5963.77
=16637.71
11348.81x x−x−48.28
−55.01
47.38

500
stress MPa

400
300
f(x) = 7996.26 x − 16.25
200
100
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
strain
mm

Figure 5 Young modulus from slope of lines

 strain vs stress
700 sample 1

600

500
stress MPa

400

300

200

100

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
strain
mm

Figure 6 young modulus slope for sample 1

In the above graph, slope of each curve for every sample is determined. The slope is young
modulus value. It is given in following table.2.

Sample Compression Strain 700 N Young modulus Uncertainty in

stress at 7000 N mm/mm GPa young modulus
MPa GPa

1 566.02 0.0545 11.349 0.01521

2 570.6 0.102 5.9638 0.01452
3 631.58 0.0331 19.978 0.0134
4 562.04 0.0361 16.638 0.009
5 251.03 0.033 7.996 0.0089
Table 2 Stress, strain and young modulus
 error in young modulus
0.02
error in younfg mmodulus (GPa)

0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01 error in young modulus
0.01
0
0
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
sample

Figure 7 error in young modulus

The above graph shows the error in young modulus.

From the above experiment, it can be seen that for high tensile strength, the compression strength
is low and for high compression strength, tensile strength is low.
Answer to the question:
Aspect ratio of compression sample should be between 1 to 3 because as the aspect ratio
increases, the compression of the material also increases. If the compression ration is larger than
the limit then the strength of material will decrease.
Sample calculation:
Following is the calculation of stress and strain for sample 1.
revised adjusted
Extensio extensio extensio revised
Time n Load n n load strain stress
mm/m
(sec) (mm) (N) (mm) mm N m Mpa
-
0.0965 0.00175 1.79377
0 0 8 0 0.09658 5 9
-
- 0.2133 0.00197 2.41129
0.1 0.00113 9 0.00113 0.21339 1 5
-
0.4543 0.00219 3.09797
0.2 -0.003 3 0.003 0.45433 4 9
-
- 1.2981 0.00240 3.84231
0.3 0.00493 2 0.00493 1.29812 2 9
-
- 3.9595 0.00261
0.4 0.00663 3 0.00663 3.95953 8 4.77095
-
- 7.0913 0.00284 5.75721
0.5 0.00833 6 0.00833 7.09136 1 5
-
- 10.999 0.00307 6.87066
0.6 0.00997 7 0.00997 10.9997 1 8
-
- 16.006 16.0068 0.00328 8.04590
0.7 0.01173 8 0.01173 3 7 5
-
- 22.183 22.1836 0.00350 9.19792
0.8 0.01337 7 0.01337 0 7 3 7
-
- 29.820 29.8204 0.00371 10.4465
0.9 0.01502 5 0.01502 0.00165 8 8 8
-
- 38.312 38.3127 0.00393 11.6930
1 0.01672 7 0.01672 0.00335 1 4 4
- 47.5179
1.1 -0.0183 47.518 0.0183 0.00493 6 0.00415 12.9828
-
- 59.002 59.0023 0.00438 14.4345
1.2 0.01995 3 0.01995 0.00658 4 1 7
1.3 - - 0.02165 0.00828 71.1994 0.00458 15.8162
 71.199
0.02165 5 8 8 6
-
84.969 84.9695 0.00480 17.2681
1.4 -0.0234 6 0.0234 0.01003 5 4 7
-
- 99.503 99.5037 0.00503 18.7857
1.5 0.02505 7 0.02505 0.01168 1 4 2
-
- 113.75 113.750 0.00524 20.2604
1.6 0.02669 1 0.02669 0.01332 8 3 9
-
- 129.19 129.192 0.00546
1.7 0.02833 3 0.02833 0.01496 9 6 21.8329
-
- 144.60 144.607 0.00568
1.8 0.02998 8 0.02998 0.01661 9 9 23.4427
-
- 160.55 160.558 0.00591 25.1800
1.9 0.03162 8 0.03162 0.01825 3 2 2
-
- 178.51 178.512 0.00613 26.8474
2 0.03338 2 0.03338 0.02001 3 5 9
- 195.599 0.00634 28.4709
2.1 0.03496 -195.6 0.03496 0.02159 7 4 3
-
- 213.55 213.555 0.00655
2.2 0.03661 5 0.03661 0.02324 5 9 30.1128
-
- 232.32 0.00677 31.8247
2.3 0.03836 3 0.03836 0.02499 232.323 4 8
-
- 250.56 250.561 0.00699 33.5287
2.4 0.03995 1 0.03995 0.02658 5 1 5
-
- 270.00 270.007 0.00722 35.4267
2.5 0.04165 7 0.04165 0.02828 5 8 2
-
- 289.91 289.915 0.00744 37.2285
2.6 0.04335 6 0.04335 0.02998 9 4 6
-
- 311.40 311.401 0.00766 39.0148
2.7 0.04505 1 0.04505 0.03168 3 7 8
-
- 332.02 332.022 40.8657
2.8 0.04675 3 0.04675 0.03338 9 0.00789 9
2.9 - -352.1 0.04834 0.03497 352.1 0.00810 42.6658
 0.04834 6 6
-
- 372.40 372.405 0.00831 44.4946
3 0.04998 5 0.04998 0.03661 1 4 1
-
- 393.57 393.577 0.00853 46.2899
3.1 0.05162 7 0.05162 0.03825 1 7 3
- - 0.00876 48.2739
3.2 0.05327 414.65 0.05327 0.0399 414.65 8 5
-
- 438.12 438.122 0.00898 50.1878
3.3 0.05508 2 0.05508 0.04171 2 3 7
-
- 460.40 460.405 0.00919 52.0801
3.4 0.05672 6 0.05672 0.04335 6 9 9
-
- 482.49 482.497 0.00940 53.9759
3.5 0.05842 7 0.05842 0.04505 1 7 9
-
- 505.38 505.387 55.8934
3.6 0.06012 7 0.06012 0.04675 3 0.00963 9

Following is the sample calculation of standard deviation of diameter:

Sd=√ ∑ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿

Where Sd is standard deviation

X is given value, X’ is mean value
N is number of species
For sample 1.
2 2 2 2

√
Sd = (3.98−3.9665) +(3.96−3.9665) +(3.96−3.9665) +(3.966−3.9665)
4
Sd = 0.009434 mm
Following is calculation for uncertainty calculation in young modulus:
Figure 8 error in young modulus
Figure 9 error in young modulus
Figure 10 error in young modulus