The mechanical properties of a material affect how it behaves as it is loaded.

The
elastic modulus of the material affects how much it deflects under a load, and the
strength of the material determines the stresses that it can withstand before it fails.
The ductility of a material also plays a significant role in determining when a material
will break as it is loaded beyond its elastic limit. Because every mechanical system is
subjected to loads during operation, it is important to understand how the materials
that make up those mechanical systems behave,

Stress and Strain

The relationship between stress and strain in a material is determined by subjecting a
material specimen to a tension or compression test. In this test, a steadily increasing
axial force is applied to a test specimen, and the deflection is measured as the load is
increased. These values can be plotted as a load-deflection curve. The deflection in
the test specimen is dependent on both the material's elastic modulus as well as the
geometry of the specimen (area and length). Since we are interested material
behavior without regard to geometry, it is useful to generalize the data to remove
the effect of geometry. This is done by converting the load values to stress
values and converting the deflection values to strain values:

In the equation for stress, P is the load and A0 is the original cross-sectional area of
the test specimen. In the equation for strain, L is the current length of the specimen
and L0 is the original length.

Stress-Strain Curve

The values of stress and strain determined from the tensile test can be plotted as
a stress-strain curve, as shown below:
Stress-Strain Curve Calculator
Check out our Stress-Strain Curve calculator based on the methodology described
here.

There are several points of interest in the diagram above:

 P: This is the proportionality limit, which represents the maximum value of

stress at which the stress-strain curve is linear.
 E: This is the elastic limit, which represents the maximum value of stress at
which there is no permanent set. Even though the curve is not linear between
the proportionality limit and the elastic limit, the material is still elastic in this
region and if the load is removed at or below this point the specimen will
return to its original length.
 Y: This is the yield point, which represents the value of stress above which the
strain will begin to increase rapidly. The stress at the yield point is called
the yield strength, Sty. For materials without a well-defined yield point, it is
typically defined using the 0.2% offset method in which a line parallel to the
linear portion of the curve is drawn that intersects the x-axis at a strain value
of 0.002. The point at which the line intersects the stress-strain curve is
designated as the yield point.
 U: This point corresponds to the ultimate strength, Stu, which is the maximum
value of stress on the stress-strain diagram. The ultimate strength is also
referred to as the tensile strength. After reaching the ultimate stress,
specimens of ductile materials will exhibit necking, in which the cross-
sectional area in a localized region of the specimen reduces significantly.
 F: This is the fracture point or the break point, which is the point at which the
material fails and separates into two pieces
Hooke's Law

Below the proportionality limit of the stress-strain curve, the relationship between

stress and strain is linear. The slope of this linear portion of the stress-strain curve is
the elastic modulus, E, also referred to as the Young's modulus and the modulus of
elasticity. Hooke's law expresses the relationship between the elastic modulus, the
stress, and the strain in a material within the linear region:

σ=Eε

where σ is the value of stress and ε is the value of strain.

Strain Hardening

After a material yields, it begins to experience a high rate of plastic deformation.

Once the material yields, it begins to strain harden which increases the strength of
the material. In the stress-strain curves below, the strength of the material can be
seen to increase between the yield point Y and the ultimate strength at point U. This
increase in strength is the result of strain hardening.

The ductile material in the figure below is still able to support load even after the
ultimate strength is reached. However, after the ultimate strength at point U, the
increase in strength due to strain hardening is outpaced by the reduction in load-
carrying ability due to the decrease in cross sectional area. Between the ultimate
strength at point U and the fracture point F, the engineering strength of the material
decreases and necking occurs.

In the stress-strain curve for the brittle material below, a very small region of strain
hardening is shown between the yield point Y and the ultimate strength U. Note
however that a brittle material may not actually exhibit any yielding behavior or
strain hardening at all -- in this case, the material would fail on the linear portion of
the curve. This is more common in materials such as ceramics or concrete.
Because the strain hardening region occurs between the yield point and the ultimate
point, the ratio of the ultimate strength to the yield strength is sometimes used as a
measure of the degree of strain hardening in a material. This ratio is the strain
hardening ratio:

strain hardening ratio = Stu / Sty

According to Dowling, typical values of strain hardening ratio in metals range from
approximately 1.2 to 1.4.

If a material is loaded beyond the elastic limit, it will undergo permanent

deformation. After unloading the material, the elastic strain will be recovered (return
to zero) but the plastic strain will remain.

The figure below shows the stress-strain curve of a material that was loaded beyond
the yield point, Y. The first time the material was loaded, the stress and strain
followed the curve O-Y-Y', and then the load was removed once the stress reached
the point Y'. Since the material was loaded beyond the elastic limit, only the elastic
portion of the strain is recovered -- there is some permanent strain now in the
material. If the material were to be loaded again, it would follow line O'-Y'-F, where
O'-Y' is the previous unloading line. The point Y' is the new yield point. Note that the
line O'-Y' is linear with a slope equal to the elastic modulus, and the point Y' has a
higher stress value than point Y. Therefore, the material now has a higher yield point
than it had previously, which is a result of strain hardening that occurred by loading
the material beyond the elastic limit.

By strain hardening the material, it now has a larger elastic region and a higher yield
stress, but its ductility has been reduced (the strain between points Y'-F is less than
the strain between points Y-F).

Elastic and Plastic Strain

Up to the elastic limit, the strain in the material is also elastic and will be recovered
when the load is removed so that the material returns to its original length. However,
if the material is loaded beyond the elastic limit, then there will be permanent
deformation in the material, which is also referred to as plastic strain.
In the figure above, both elastic and plastic strains exist in the material. If the load is
removed at the indicated point (σ, ε), the stress and strain in the material will follow
the unloading line as shown. The elastic strain and plastic strain are indicated in the
figure, and are calculated as:

Elastic Strain: εe = σ/E

Plastic Strain: εp = ε − εe

where σ is the stress at the indicated point, ε is the strain at the indicated point,
and E is the elastic modulus.

Ductility

Ductility is an indication of how much plastic strain a material can withstand before it

breaks. A ductile material can withstand large strains even after it has begun to yield.
Common measures of ductility include percent elongation and reduction in area, as
discussed in this section.

After a specimen breaks during a tensile test, the final length of the specimen is
measured and the plastic strain at failure, also known as the strain at break, is
calculated:
where Lf is the final length of the specimen after break and Lo is the initial length of
the specimen. It is important to note that after the specimen breaks, the elastic strain
that existed while the specimen was under load is recovered, so the measured
difference between the final and initial lengths gives the plastic strain at failure. This
is illustrated in the figure below:

In the figure, it can be seen that the plastic strain at failure, εf, is the strain remaining
in the material after the elastic strain has been recovered. The ultimate strain, εu, is
the total strain at failure (the plastic strain plus the elastic strain).

The percent elongation is calculated from the plastic strain at failure by:

The percent elongation is a commonly provided material property, so the plastic

strain at failure is typically calculated from percent elongation:

εf = eL / 100%

The ultimate strain accounts for both plastic and elastic strain at failure:
 εu = εf + Stu/E

Another important material property that can be measured during a tensile test is
the reduction in area, which is calculated by:

Remember that percent elongation and reduction in area account for the plastic
components of the axial strain and the lateral strain, respectively.

Ductile and Brittle Materials

A ductile material can withstand large strains even after it has begun to yield,
whereas a brittle material can withstand little or no plastic strain. The figure below
shows representative stress-strain curves for a ductile material and a brittle material.

In the figure above, the ductile material can be seen to strain significantly before the
fracture point, F. There is a long region between the yield at point Y and the ultimate
strength at point U where the material is strain hardening. There is also a long region
between the ultimate strength at point U and the fracture point F in which the cross
sectional area of the material is decreasing rapidly and necking is occurring.

The brittle material in the figure above can be seen to break shortly after the yield
point. Additionally, the ultimate strength is coincident with the fracture point. In this
case, no necking occurs.
Because the area under the stress-strain curve for the ductile material above is larger
than the area under the stress-strain curve for the brittle material, the ductile
material has a higher modulus of toughness -- it can absorb much more strain
energy before it breaks. Additionally, because the ductile material strains so
significantly before it breaks, its deflections will be very high before failure. Therefore,
it will be visually apparent that failure is imminent, and actions can be taken to
resolve the situation before disaster occurs.

Strain Energy

When force is applied to a material, the material deforms and stores potential
energy, just like a spring. The strain energy (i.e. the amount of potential energy
stored due to the deformation) is equal to the work expended in deforming the
material. The total strain energy corresponds to the area under the load deflection
curve, and has units of in-lbf in US Customary units and N-m in SI units. The elastic
strain energy can be recovered, so if the deformation remains within the elastic limit,
then all of the strain energy can be recovered.

Modulus of Resilience

The modulus of resilience is the amount of strain energy per unit volume (i.e. strain
energy density) that a material can absorb without permanent deformation resulting.
The modulus of resilience is calculated as the area under the stress-strain curve up to
the elastic limit. However, since the elastic limit and the yield point are typically very
close, the resilience can be approximated as the area under the stress-strain curve up
to the yield point. Since the stress-strain curve is very nearly linear up to the elastic
limit, this area is triangular.

The table below is used to determine the yield point and the ultimate point:

Stress,  Total Elastic Plastic

σ Strain, ε Strain, εe Strain, εp
Sty/E +
Yield Point: Sty Sty/E 0.002
0.002
Ultimate
Stu Stu/E + εf Stu/E εf
Point:

Note that when determining the strain at the yield point, a plastic strain of 0.002 was
assumed. This is consistent with the 0.2% offset method, as described previously.
This assumption is necessary in order to place the yield point within the plastic
region of the curve. From the table above, it can be seen that the yield point and
ultimate point within the plastic region are given by:

• Yield Point: (Sty, 0.002)

Ultimate
• Point: (Stu, εf)