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Tensile Testing Lab Sheet

This lab session covers tensile testing of materials to measure their mechanical properties. Students will learn to conduct tensile tests using a testing machine, interpret stress-strain curves, and calculate properties like Young's modulus, yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility. Metallic alloys and polymers will be tested, and results will be used to find properties including maximum load, fracture load, ultimate tensile strength, fracture stress, and percent elongation.

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69 views3 pages

Tensile Testing Lab Sheet

This lab session covers tensile testing of materials to measure their mechanical properties. Students will learn to conduct tensile tests using a testing machine, interpret stress-strain curves, and calculate properties like Young's modulus, yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility. Metallic alloys and polymers will be tested, and results will be used to find properties including maximum load, fracture load, ultimate tensile strength, fracture stress, and percent elongation.

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Halaa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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De Montfort University Dubai, Faculty of CEM, School of ESD

ENGD2105: Materials Engineering and Processing

Lab Session: Tensile Testing of Materials

(Location: Q1.05; Time: Week 5, Timetabled lab sessions)

1. Objectives

After successfully completing this laboratory experiment, including the assigned reading, the lab
problems, and any required report, the students will be able to:

 Familiarize with the tensile testing technique used to measure the mechanical properties
of engineering materials.
 Better understand several important material property parameters like tensile strength,
Young’s modulus and ductility.
 Compare the behaviour of different materials when subjected to tensile loads.

2. Theory

Tensile tests are carried out on many types of materials to measure several important mechanical
properties, such as Young’s modulus, yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility. Tests are
conducted according to national and international standards. Specially shaped test pieces are
used.

In the test, a specimen is supported between special grips in a tensile testing machine, and is
elongated in a systematic manner by the application of a load, until the breaking of the specimen
(fracture). During the test, the load and the corresponding elongation of the specimen are
recorded continuously. The load and elongation are converted into stress and strain (see Eq.(1)
and Eq.(2)), such that a stress v strain curve is resultant as schematically shown in Fig. 1.

The straight-line part of the curve in Fig. 1 is the result of elastic deformation and is called the
limit of proportionality, where stress is directly proportional to strain, as stated by the Hooke’s
law:

 = E Eq.(3)

1
where E is Young’s modulus of the material, which can be found from the slope of the straight
line. Along this line the material would return to its original shape if the load were removed. With
increasing stress above the limit of proportionality, the stress-strain curve starts to deviate from
the linear line due to the initiation of plastic deformation (yielding). The yield strength of the
material corresponds to the transition point between linear and non-linear portions of the curve.
The material at and beyond this point becomes plastically deformed and will not return to its
original shape.

F
Stress

Strain
Fig. 1: Typical tensile stress-strain curve.

At the point, M, the maximum load is applied. This corresponds to the maximum stress or
ultimate tensile strength of the material:

Ultimate tensile strength of solid materials can vary from 10 MN m -2 for a polymer to 5000 MN
m-2 for a high strength ceramic.

The point F corresponds to the position where the test piece fractures. Thus, the stress at fracture
is found:

At failure it is also possible to find the maximum amount of deformation as a measure of


ductility. The specimen can be put back together and the length measured:

3. Apparatus

 Instron Tensile Testing machine


 Micrometer
2
 Steel ruler

4. Materials

(1) Metallic alloys:


 Steel 1018
 Annealed Steel
 Aluminum (2024-T3)
 Brass 360

(2) Polymers
 Acrylic
 polyethylene

5. Experimental Procedure

Instruction on the use of the equipment is given during briefing/demonstration by technicians in


the laboratory.

 Mark and measure the gauge length of each specimen with either the micrometer or the
steel ruler. Record the value in mm.
 Record the cross-sectional dimension of each specimen, i.e. cross-sectional area.
 Place the specimen between the special jaws according to the instructions provided and
carry out a tensile test on each specimen.
 Print out a load v extension plot for each specimen for each person in the group.
 Put back together each broken specimen and measure the final length. Record the value in
mm.

6. Results

Use the data obtained to find: -

(1) The Maximum Tensile Load applied.


(2) The Tensile Load at fracture
(3) The Ultimate Tensile Strength (in SI units: MN m-2, or MPa)
(4) The Fracture Stress at the point of failure
(5) The ductility in terms of percent elongation

7. Logsheet: complete and submit

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