Unit 37: Virtual Engineering

Higher National Certificate and

Higher National Diploma in Engineering
Eng. Geethal Siriwardana, MSc
Material Selection and
Testing
Eng. Geethal Siriwardana, MSc.
Introduction
• The knowledge of materials and their properties is of great
significance for a design engineer. The machine elements should be
made of such a material which has properties suitable for the
conditions of operation. In addition to this, a design engineer must be
familiar with the effects which the manufacturing processes and heat
treatment have on the properties of the materials. In this Section, we
shall discuss the commonly used engineering materials and their
properties in Machine Design.
Classification of Engineering Materials
• The engineering materials are mainly classified as :
• Metals and their alloys, such as iron, steel, copper, aluminium, etc.
• Non-metals, such as glass, rubber, plastic, etc.
Classification of Metals
• The metals may be further classified as:
• Ferrous metals,
• Non-ferrous metals
• The ferrous metals are those which have the iron as their main
constituent, such as cast iron, wrought iron and steel.
• The non-ferrous metals are those which have a metal other than iron
as their main constituent, such as copper, aluminum, brass, tin, zinc,
etc.
Ferrous metals
Non-ferrous metals
Selection of Materials for Engineering
Purposes
• The selection of a proper material, for engineering purposes, is one of
the most difficult problem for the designer. The best material is one
which serve the desired objective at the minimum cost. The following
factors should be considered while selecting the material :
• Availability of the materials,
• Suitability of the materials for the working conditions in service, and
• The cost of the materials.
Physical Properties of Metals
• The physical properties of the metals include luster, color, size and
shape, density, electric and thermal conductivity, and melting point.
The following table shows the important physical properties of some
pure metals.
Physical properties of metals.
Mechanical Properties of Metals
• The mechanical properties of the metals are those which are
associated with the ability of the material to resist mechanical forces
and load. These mechanical properties of the metal include strength,
stiffness, elasticity, plasticity, ductility, brittleness, malleability,
toughness, resilience, creep and hardness. We shall now discuss these
properties as follows:
Strength.
• It is the ability of a material to resist the externally applied forces
without breaking or yielding. The internal resistance offered by a part
to an externally applied force is called stress.
Stiffness.
• It is the ability of a material to resist deformation under stress. The
modulus of elasticity is the measure of stiffness.
Elasticity.
• It is the property of a material to regain its original shape after
deformation when the external forces are removed. This property is
desirable for materials used in tools and machines. It may be noted
that steel is more elastic than rubber.
Plasticity.
• It is property of a material which retains the deformation produced
under load permanently. This property of the material is necessary for
forgings, in stamping images on coins and in ornamental work
Ductility.
• It is the property of a material enabling it to be drawn into wire with
the application of a tensile force. A ductile material must be both
strong and plastic. The ductility is usually measured by the terms,
percentage elongation and percentage reduction in area. The ductile
material commonly used in engineering practice (in order of
diminishing ductility) are mild steel, copper, aluminium, nickel, zinc,
tin and lead.
Brittleness.
• It is the property of a material opposite to ductility. It is the property
of breaking of a material with little permanent distortion. Brittle
materials when subjected to tensile loads, snap off without giving any
sensible elongation. Cast iron is a brittle material.
Malleability.
• It is a special case of ductility which permits materials to be rolled or
hammered into thin sheets. A malleable material should be plastic
but it is not essential to be so strong. The malleable materials
commonly used in engineering practice (in order of diminishing
malleability) are lead, soft steel, wrought iron, copper and aluminum
Toughness.
• It is the property of a material to resist fracture due to high impact
loads like hammer blows. The toughness of the material decreases
when it is heated. It is measured by the amount of energy that a unit
volume of the material has absorbed after being stressed up to the
point of fracture. This property is desirable in parts subjected to shock
and impact loads.
Machinability.
• It is the property of a material which refers to a relative case with
which a material can be cut. The machinability of a material can be
measured in a number of ways such as comparing the tool life for
cutting different materials or thrust required to remove the material
at some given rate or the energy required to remove a unit volume of
the material. It may be noted that brass can be easily machined than
steel.
Resilience.
• It is the property of a material to absorb energy and to resist shock
and impact loads. It is measured by the amount of energy absorbed
per unit volume within elastic limit. This property is essential for
spring materials.
Creep.
• When a part is subjected to a constant stress at high temperature for
a long period of time, it will undergo a slow and permanent
deformation called creep. This property is considered in designing
internal combustion engines, boilers and turbines.
Fatigue.
• When a material is subjected to repeated stresses, it fails at stresses
below the yield point stresses. Such type of failure of a material is
known as fatigue. The failure is caused by means of a progressive
crack formation which are usually fine and of microscopic size. This
property is considered in designing shafts, connecting rods, springs,
gears, etc.
Hardness.
• It is a very important property of the metals and has a wide variety of
meanings. It embraces many different properties such as resistance to
wear, scratching, deformation and machinability etc. It also means the
ability of a metal to cut another metal. The hardness is usually
expressed in numbers which are dependent on the method of making
the test. The hardness of a metal may be determined by the following
tests :
• Brinell hardness test,
• Rockwell hardness test,
• Vickers hardness (also called Diamond Pyramid) test, and
• Shore scleroscope.
Ferrous Metals
• The ferrous metals commonly used in engineering practice are cast
iron, wrought iron, steels and alloy steels. The principal raw material
for all ferrous metals is pig iron which is obtained by smelting iron ore
with coke and limestone, in the blast furnace. The principal iron ores
with their metallic contents are shown in the following table
Cast Iron
• The cast iron is obtained by re-melting pig iron with coke and
limestone in a furnace known as cupola. It is primarily an alloy of iron
and carbon. The carbon contents in cast iron varies from 1.7 per cent
to 4.5 per cent. It also contains small amounts of silicon, manganese,
phosphorous and sulphur. The carbon in a cast iron is present in
either of the following two forms:
• Free carbon or graphite, and
• Combined carbon or cementite
Cast Iron
• Since the cast iron is a brittle material, therefore, it cannot be used in
those parts of machines which are subjected to shocks. The
properties of cast iron which make it a valuable material for
engineering purposes are its low cost, good casting characteristics,
high compressive strength, wear resistance and excellent
machinability. The compressive strength of cast iron is much greater
than the tensile strength. Following are the values of ultimate
strength of cast iron :
Types of Cast Iron
• Grey cast iron.
• White cast iron.
• Chilled cast iron.
• Mottled cast iron.
• Malleable cast iron.
• Nodular or spheroidal graphite cast iron
Alloy Cast Iron
• The cast irons contain small percentages of other constituents like
silicon, manganese, Sulphur and phosphorus. These cast irons may be
called as plain cast irons. The alloy cast iron is produced by adding
alloying elements like nickel, chromium, molybdenum, copper and
manganese in sufficient quantities. These alloying elements give more
strength and result in improvement of properties. The alloy cast iron
has special properties like increased strength, high wear resistance,
corrosion resistance or heat resistance.
Effect of Impurities on Cast Iron
• Silicon. It may be present in cast iron up to 4%. It provides the formation of free
graphite which makes the iron soft and easily machinable. It also produces sound
castings free from blow-holes, because of its high affinity for oxygen.
• Sulphur. It makes the cast iron hard and brittle. Since too much sulphur gives
unsound casting, therefore, it should be kept well below 0.1% for most foundry
purposes.
• Manganese. It makes the cast iron white and hard. It is often kept below 0.75%. It
helps to exert a controlling influence over the harmful effect of sulphur.
• Phosphorus. It aids fusibility and fluidity in cast iron, but induces brittleness. It is
rarely allowed to exceed 1%. Phosphoric irons are useful for casting of intricate
design and for many light engineering castings when cheapness is essential.
Free Cutting Steels
• The free cutting steels contain sulphur and phosphorus. These steels
have higher sulphur content than other carbon steels. In general, the
carbon content of such steels vary from 0.1 to 0.45 per cent and
sulphur from 0.08 to 0.3 per cent. These steels are used where rapid
machining is the prime requirement. It may be noted that the
presence of sulphur and phosphorus causes long chips in machining
to be easily broken and thus prevent clogging of machines. Now a
days, lead is used from 0.05 to 0.2 per cent instead of sulphur,
because lead also greatly improves the machinability of steel without
the loss of toughness.
Alloy Steel
• An alloy steel may be defined as a steel to which elements other than
carbon are added in sufficient amount to produce an improvement in
properties. The alloying is done for specific purposes to increase
wearing resistance, corrosion resistance and to improve electrical and
magnetic properties, which cannot be obtained in plain carbon steels.
The chief alloying elements used in steel are nickel, chromium,
molybdenum, cobalt, vanadium, manganese, silicon and tungsten.
Each of these elements confer certain qualities upon the steel to
which it is added
Stainless Steel
• It is defined as that steel which when correctly heat treated and
finished, resists oxidation and corrosive attack from most corrosive
media. The different types of stainless steels are discussed below :
• Martensitic stainless steel
• Ferritic stainless steel.
• Austenitic stainless steel
Heat Resisting Steels
• The steels which can resist creep and oxidation at high temperatures
and retain sufficient strength are called heat resisting steels. A
number of heat resisting steels have been developed as discussed
below :
• Valve steels
• Low alloy steels.
• Plain chromium steel.
• Austenitic chromium-nickel steels.
What is high speed tool steel?
What is Spring Steels?
Heat Treatment of Steels
• The term heat treatment may be defined as an operation or a
combination of operations, involving he heating and cooling of a
metal or an alloy in the solid state for the purpose of obtaining certain
desirable conditions or properties without change in chemical
composition. The aim of heat treatment is to achieve one or more of
the following objects :
Heat Treatment of Steels
1. To increase the hardness of metals.
2. To relieve the stresses set up in the material after hot or cold
working.
3. To improve machinability.
4. To soften the metal.
5. To modify the structure of the material to improve its electrical and
magnetic properties.
6. To change the grain size.
7. To increase the qualities of a metal to provide better resistance to
heat, corrosion and wear
Heat Treatment Processes
• Normalising
1. To refine the grain structure of the steel to improve machinability, tensile
strength and structure of weld.
2. To remove strains caused by cold working processes like hammering, rolling,
bending, etc., which makes the metal brittle and unreliable.
3. To remove dislocations caused in the internal structure of the steel due to
hot working.
4. To improve certain mechanical and electrical properties
Heat Treatment Processes
• Annealing.
1. To soften the steel so that it may be easily machined or cold worked.
2. To refine the grain size and structure to improve mechanical properties like
strength and ductility.
3. To relieve internal stresses which may have been caused by hot or cold
working or by unequal contraction in casting.
4. To alter electrical, magnetic or other physical properties.
5. To remove gases trapped in the metal during initial casting.
Heat Treatment Processes
• Full annealing
• The purpose of full annealing is to soften the metal to refine the grain
structure, to relieve the stresses and to remove trapped gases in the metal.
The process consists of:
(i) heating the steel from 30 to 50°C above the upper critical temperature for hypo
eutectoid steel and by the same temperature above the lower critical temperature i.e.
723°C for hypereutectoid steels.
(ii) holding it at this temperature for sometime to enable the internal changes to take
place. The time allowed is approximately 3 to 4 minutes for each millimeter of thickness of
the largest section, and
(iii) cooling slowly in the furnace. The rate of cooling varies from 30 to 200°C per hour
depending upon the composition of steel.
Spheroidising.
• It is another form of annealing in which cementite in the granular
form is produced in the structure of steel. This is usually applied to
high carbon tool steels which are difficult to machine. The operation
consists of heating the steel to a temperature slightly above the lower
critical temperature (730 to 770°C). It is held at this temperature for
some time and then cooled slowly to a temperature of 600°C. The
rate of cooling is from 25 to 30°C per hour.
Hardening
• The main objects of hardening are:
1. To increase the hardness of the metal so that it can resist wear.
2. To enable it to cut other metals i.e. to make it suitable for cutting tools.
Non-ferrous Metals
• We have already discussed that the non-ferrous metals are those
which contain a metal other than iron as their chief constituent. The
non-ferrous metals are usually employed in industry due to the
following characteristics :
1. Ease of fabrication (casting, rolling, forging, welding and machining),
2. Resistance to corrosion,
3. Electrical and thermal conductivity, and
4. Weight.
Non-metallic Materials
• The non-metallic materials are used in engineering practice due to
their low density, low cost, flexibility, resistant to heat and electricity.
Though there are many non-metallic materials.