Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003
Experiment No. 6 Time: 1 Lab. Period

Tensile Test

Objective: To understand tensile deformation behaviour of important metallic materials used

Experimental procedure:

(A) Testing of ductile metals: To carry out tensile testing of (i) Mild steel and (ii) Copper
specimens. Cylindrical samples as per ASTM (American society of testing and materials) E8
were prepared.

Sample dimensions of Mild Steel specimen: Total length= 100 mm, Gauge length= 25 mm,
Gauge diameter = 5 mm

Sample dimensions of Copper specimen: Total length= 100 mm, Gauge length= 25 mm, Gauge
diameter = 6 mm

(B) Testing of Brittle material: To carry out tensile testing of Fe-Al alloy using flat specimen
with dimensions of Total length= 100 mm, Gauge length= 25 mm, width = 6 mm and thickness
= 3 mm.

As per ASTM E8 standard specimen shape can be either round or flat and depending on the
material availability there can be different specimen dimensions (standard full-size specimen
when sufficient material is available, or sub-size specimens when there is limited material
available).

Schematic of a Round Specimen with required dimensions:

G: Gauge length; A: Length of reduced section; D: Diameter of gauge portion; R: Radius of fillet.

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003
Schematic of a Flat Specimen with required dimensions:

G: Gauge length; W: Width; T: Thickness, R: Radius of fillet, L: Overall length, A: Length of

Report the following results:

You will obtain Load vs. displacement data and plots from the equipment. Based on this dataset
and the video demonstration answer the following questions:

(i) Construct engineering stress vs engineering strain plots.

(ii) Check whether Hooke’s law is followed in the elastic region and determine Young’s
modulus.

(iii) Determine yield strength (Sy), ultimate tensile strength (Su), fracture strength (Sf)
uniform elongation (eu) and total elongation to fracture (ef), as explained through
the schematic.

(iv) Determine the true stress vs true strain plots from the load vs. displacement data
provided and considering the specimen dimensions.
(v) Identify the difference in stress-strain curves between a ductile metal and a brittle
metal.
(vi) Draw a tensile specimen of a ductile metal (a) plastically deformed before UTS, (b)
deformed after UTS, (c) after fracture.
(vii) What is the difference in the shape of the fractured specimens between (a) a ductile
metal and (b) a brittle metal?

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003

Background informations:

Su
Engineering stress, S

Sf
Sy

0.2 % strain offset

eu ef
Engineering strain, e
The engineering stress (S) vs. engineering strain (e) curve for a ductile metal.

(i) (ii)
(i) Loading and unloading curves showing the recoverable elastic deformation (b, d) and
permanent plastic deformation (a, c).
(ii) Comparison between engineering stress‐strain and true stress‐strain curves.

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003
∆
Engineering Stress, 𝑠 ; Engineering Strain, 𝑒 ;

where, P is load at any point, A0 is initial cross-sectional area of the gauge (a constant), l is
length at any point, l0 is the initial gauge length (a constant), l is the change in gauge length.

True Stress, 𝜎 ; True Strain (𝜀 , is the change in gauge length at any instant of time, i.e.,

𝑑𝑙
𝑑𝜀 . By integration we find, true strain, 𝜀 ln .
𝑙𝑖

Where, Ai is the minimum cross-sectional area of the gauge at any instant, dl is the change in
length over an instant of time when the instantaneous gauge length is li.

Uniform elongation (percentage), 𝑒 100;

Total elongation till failure (percentage), 𝑒 100.

Reduction in area till fracture (percentage), 𝑞 100.

During plastic deformation, volume remains constant.

(a) Question: Can we accurately determine the Young’s modulus from the load vs.
displacement curve obtained from tensile test, where displacement is recorded from the cross-
head movement of the machine?

Answer: No. As the machine applies load on the specimen, specimen also applies an equal and
opposite force on the machine due to which machine also deforms elastically, along with the
specimen. The extent of deformation of the machine can vary from one machine to another.

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003
However, due to the machine deformation, exact Young’s modulus cannot be determine from
tensile test data.

(b) Question: Define the important points on the stress-strain curves?

Answer: Elastic limit: The point up to which material shows elastic behaviour, i.e.,
displacement becomes zero as the load is removed. Immediately after elastic limit permanent
plastic deformation starts. Elastic limit, however, is extremely difficult to detect as the amount
of permanent deformation just after that point is very very small. Therefore, elastic limit is not
determined for engineering application.

Yield point and yield strength (YS): Point at which small but detectable, or measurable,
amount of plastic deformation happens. If yield point phenomenon takes place (like in mild
steel specimen) then it becomes easy to identify yield point. If the stress-strain curve is
continuous without yield point phenomenon then either 0.1% or 0.2% strain offset method is
adopted to locate the yield point (as shown in a schematic above). Stress corresponding to the
yield point is yield stress. For structural applications we never want that applied stress exceed
yield strength of the metal as the structure can deform permanently. In contrast, for
manufacturing of metal, plastic deformation is required and applied stress has to be higher than
the yield strength.

Ultimate tensile strength (UTS): It is the maximum engineering stress corresponding to the
‘point of maximum load’. In any case, we do not want the stress to be so high that the
maximum load bearing capacity of a metal is exceeded. If that happens then failure becomes
inevitable.

(c) Question: Why true stress – true strain curve is different from the engineering stress -strain
curve?

Answer: A point on true stress - true strain curve lies above and at the left of engineering
stress- engineering strain curve. The equations defining true stress, true strain, engineering
stress, and engineering strain (as given above) can be referred to understand this aspect. For
plastic deformation to happen, stress has to increase continuously to increase the plastic strain
and that phenomenon is called ‘strain hardening’. Therefore, true stress inside the specimen
increases continuously with the increase in strain at the deforming part of the specimen.

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003
However, after a certain amount of uniform deformation, necking happens and the further
deformation occurs only within the necked region. The cross-sectional area of the necked
region decreases rapidly. As a result, to maintain the increase in true stress, load requirement
can decrease. It is to be noted that true stress is the ratio of load and instantaneous cross-section
area, which decreases rapidly due to necking. Thus, beyond the point of maximum load (i.e.,
the UTS point), the engineering stress decreases as it is defined as load divided by a constant
(initial cross-sectional area of the specimen). However, after the point of maximum load, a
correction needs to be incorporated even in true stress – true strain curve as the specimen shape
changes due to necking.

(d) Question: How a tensile test specimen of ductile material looks like during different stages
of plastic deformation?

Answer:

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 Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

ENGINEERING LABORATORY
EN19003

(e) Question: How to distinguish between a ductile material and a brittle material just by seeing
the fractured specimens?

Answer: Ductile material typically undergoes either rupture or cup-and-cone fracture with dull
appearance on fracture surface. In contrast, a brittle material typically shows flat-fracture
surface with shiny appearance.

Cup and Cone Flat fracture in

References to study:
 G.E. Dieter, Mechanical metallurgy. Vol. 3. New York: McGraw-hill, 1976. Chapter-
8, pp. 275-324.
 ASTM E8/E8M, Standard Test Methods for Tension Testing of Metallic Materials,
Annual Book of ASTM Standards volume 3.1., © ASTM International, 100 Barr
Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959. United States