Chapter 6:

Mechanical Properties I

Week 2 Lecture Notes

R. Clemmer
ENGG 2120 – Winter 2025
References
◼ D.R. Askeland and W.J. Wendelin, “The Science and Engineering of
Materials,” 7th ed. SI, Cengage Learning, 2016.
◼ W.D. Callister, “Material Science and Engineering: An Introduction”,
8th ed.
◼ F.C. Campbell, “Elements of Metallurgy and Engineering Alloys,”
ASM International, 2008

2
Notes & Slides Outline
◼ 6-2: Terminology
◼ Stress
◼ 6-3: Tensile Test
◼ Engineering Stress & Strain
◼ 6-4: Properties from the Tensile Test
◼ Yield Strength
◼ Tensile Strength
◼ Elastic Properties
◼ Effect of Temperature
◼ 6-5: True Stress and True Strain
◼ Tensile Toughness
◼ Ductility

3
Notes & Slides Outline
◼ 6-6: The Bend Test for Brittle Materials
◼ 6-7: Hardness of Materials
❑ Brinell Hardness
❑ Rockwell Hardness
❑ Vickers Hardness

4
 Materials Selection Based on
Mechanical Properties
◼ A designer needs first to define the required properties
for each application before the most appropriate material
can be selected:
❑ Should it be stiff or strong or ductile or tough?
❑ Will it be exposed to high (or low) temperatures?
❑ Will it be under constant load or cyclic loads?
❑ Will it be subject to impact loading?
❑ Should it be light weight?
❑ Will it be exposed to corrosive environments or be subject to
wear and abrasion?
5
 Data Bases of Materials Properties
◼ Data bases covering a wide range of properties are available for
a wide range of materials - BUT
◼ These properties are determined in the laboratory under ideal
conditions and may not be exactly those experienced in
practice.
◼ Materials with the same nominal composition can have
significantly different mechanical properties, depending on their
microstructure.
◼ Also, changes in microstructure and the presence of defects
introduced in processing, such as welding, riveting, cutting, etc.
can have major effects on the mechanical properties.
◼ Therefore, use data bases with care and be aware of their
limitations

6
Terminology
Stress
◼ Stress is a force acting on an area:
F
=
A
◼ Normal stresses act perpendicular to the area
❑ Tensile stress = “pull”
❑ Compressive stress = “push” or “squeeze”
◼ Shear stresses act parallel to the area

8
Strain
◼ Strain is a measure of the amount of
elongation per unit length due to an applied
load

9
Types of Stresses

(Askeland) 10
The Tensile Test
Tensile Test

(Askeland) 12
Tensile Stress – Strain Curves

(Askeland) 13
Engineering Stress & Engineering Strain

◼ Engineering Stress: F  N 
=  2 , Pa 
A0 m 
❑ Where F is the applied load and Ao is the original cross-sectional
area of the sample prior to testing
◼ Engineering Strain:
l  mm 
=  , %
l 0  mm 
❑ Where l is the change in length and lo is the original gage length
of the sample prior to testing
◼ Engineering strain is often written as unitless or as a
percent
14
Mechanical Behaviour & Engineering
Stress & Strain
Engineering Stress

F  N 
=  2 , Pa 
A0 m 

Engineering Strain
l  mm 
=  , %
l 0  mm 
Tension Compression
(Callister) 15
 Shear Stress & Strain

Shear Stress Shear Strain

=
F  N 
 2 , Pa 
 =  (rad )
A0  m  (Callister) 16
Properties Obtained from
the Tensile Test
Elastic vs. Plastic Deformation
◼ Elastic Deformation
❑ Deformation of the material that is recovered
instantaneously when the load is removed

◼ Plastic Deformation
❑ Permanent deformation of a material when a load
is applied then removed

◼ Deformation of a material is often a

combination of both elastic and plastic
deformation 18
Engineering Stress – Strain Curves
Elastic Plastic Deformation
6
1, 2

4 7

(Askeland) 19
Elastic Deformation (Reversible)
1. Elastic Limit
❑ Stress where plastic deformation begins
2. Proportional Limit
❑ Magnitude of stress where stress-strain
relationship is no longer linear

◼ Note: the elastic limit and proportional limit are

often very close and cannot be determined
precisely

20
Elastic Deformation (Continued)
3. Elastic (Young’s) Modulus, E
❑ Slope of the stress-strain curve in the elastic
region (E = /)
❑ Like a spring follows Hooke’s Law (F = kx) or
 = E
❑ Higher E indicates higher stiffness, steeper slope
❑ Also related to interatomic binding energies
◼ A material with steeper slope on interatomic force vs.
distance graph will have higher elastic modulus

21
“Whippy” Stick

22
Aluminum vs. Steel

Hooke’s Law
=E

(Askeland) 23
Stress – Strain Curve of a Steel Bolt
1200

1000

800
Stress (Mpa)

600

400

200

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

Strain (mm/mm)

24
Elastic Moduli of Various Materials

(Askeland) 25
Engineering Stress – Strain Curves
Elastic Plastic Deformation
6
1, 2

4 7

(Askeland) 26
Elastic Deformation (Continued)
4. (Offset) Yield Strength
❑ Elastic limit and proportional limit often difficult to
determine
❑ Establish an offset yield strength (or yield
strength) to indicate transition from elastic to
plastic deformation
❑ Yield strength (y) is defined by the stress at the
intersection of a line drawn parallel to the elastic
region starting from a strain of 0.002 (0.2%) with
the stress-strain curve

27
Offset Yield Strength/Stress

(Askeland) 28
Yield Stress of Materials

(Askeland) 29
Upper & Lower Yield Points

(Askeland) 30
Engineering Stress – Strain Curves
Elastic Plastic Deformation
6
1, 2

4 7

(Askeland) 31
Plastic Deformation (Irreversible)
6. Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS)
❑ Stress at highest applied force or maximum
stress on engineering stress-strain curve
❑ Deformation becomes unstable in local area and
does not remain uniform
❑ One region deforms more than the rest resulting
in a decrease in cross-sectional area (called
necking)
❑ Since the area becomes smaller in this region, a
lower force is required to continue deformation –
consequently the engineering stress decreases
because the original area is used
32
Necking

(Callister) 33
Plastic Deformation (Continued)
7. Breaking Strength
❑ This is the stress that causes complete failure
(fracture)

34
Ductile Failure

(Askeland) 35
 Ductility
◼ The amount of deformation a material can
withstand without breaking
◼ Percent elongation = permanent plastic
deformation before failure
◼ Note it does not include the elastic deformation
which disappears on failure
l f − l0
% Elongation = x100
l0
A0 − A f
% Reduction in area = x100
A0
36
 Ductility - Example
◼ Initial diameter of bar D0= 12.5 mm
◼ Final diameter at the fracture surface
Df = 9.85 mm
◼ % reduction in area = ?

Measure Do prior to
testing
(c)2003 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.
Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.

D0 Df
37
Temperature Effects on Tensile Properties

(Askeland) 38
Tensile Toughness
◼ Represents the
energy absorbed by a
material prior to
fracture
◼ May be measured as
the area under the
true stress-strain
curve

(Askeland) 39
Example:
◼ A stress-strain curve for a SAE Grade 8 steel
bolt is shown on the next slide. The initial
diameter of the bolt is 5.95 mm and the gage
length (lo) is 50 mm. After fracture, the final
length was 54.5 mm. Calculate the following:
❑ the 0.2% offset yield strength
❑ the tensile strength
❑ the Young’s modulus
❑ the % elongation

40
SAE Bolt Stress-Strain Curve
1200

1100

1000

900

800
Stress (MPa)

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

Strain (mm/mm)

41
True Stress & True Strain
 True Stress & True Strain
◼ More accurate measure of the actual (true) stress
and strain is based on the “instantaneous”
dimensions not the initial dimensions, i.e.:

F
True Stress: t =
Ai
 li   A0 
li
dl
True Strain:  t =  = ln   = ln  
l0
l  l0   Ai 
43
True Stress – True Strain Curves

(Askeland) 44
Brittle Materials
◼ Brittle materials experience very little plastic
deformation.
◼ Unlike ductile materials, brittle materials tend
to fail at maximum load, rather than form
necks (i.e. breaking strength = tensile
strength)
◼ For really brittle materials, such as glasses
and ceramics, the yield strength, tensile
strength and fracture strength are all the
same
45
Stress – Strain of Brittle Materials

(Askeland) 46
FYI:
Bend Test for Brittle Materials
The Bend Test
◼ Most brittle materials cannot be tested using a typical
tensile test – they tend to crack in the grips of the tensile
testing machine
◼ As an alternative, the bend test is used to determine the
strength and modulus of elasticity of a brittle material

(Askeland) 48
Types of Bend Test

(Askeland) 49
 Flexural Strength or Modulus of Rupture of
Brittle Materials

◼ Flexural Strength (Modulus of Rupture) for 3-point

Bending:
3FL
 bend = 2
2wh
◼ Flexural Modulus (modulus of elasticity) for 3-point
3
Bending:
LF
E bend =
4wh 
3

50
 Flexural Strength or Modulus of Rupture of
Brittle Materials

◼ Flexural Strength (Modulus of Rupture) for 4-point

Bending:
3FL1
 bend = 2
4wh

51
Properties of Select Ceramic & Composite
Materials

(Askeland) 52
Hardness of Materials
 Hardness of Materials

◼ Hardness test is a measure of the resistance

to plastic deformation
◼ It is a qualitative measure of the properties of
the material and can represent its resistance to
scratching or indentation, wear and abrasion
◼ Generally, harder materials are also stronger
◼ Several types of standard tests exist

54
Brinell Hardness Test
◼ Hard steel sphere forced into surface of material
◼ Diameter of indentation impression is measured
using a microscope
◼ Brinell hardness number BHN (or HB) is calculated
from:
2F
BHN =
( 
 D D − D 2 − Di2 )
F = applied load, kg
D = diameter of indenter, mm
Di = diameter of impression

For Steel only:

UTS (MPa) = BHN x 3.45
(Askeland) 55
Rockwell Hardness
◼ Uses a small diameter ball for soft materials and a
brale (a diamond cone) for hard materials
◼ Different indenters and loads are used for different
Rockwell scales in order to measure the hardness for
a range of materials
◼ The depth of the impression under load is measured
and converted to a Rockwell hardness number (HR)

(Askeland) 56
 Vickers Microhardness
◼ Indenter is a square based pyramid diamond
◼ Indenter is loaded onto the surface and the
diagonals of the impression are measured using a
microscope and image analysis system
◼ Vickers hardness (HVN) is a function of the applied
load
◼ It is suitable for both soft and hard materials
◼ HV values are proportional, e.g., a material with
HVN = 400 is twice as hard as one with HVN = 200

57
Vickers Hardness Indent

https://www.buehler.com/ca/blog/vickers-hardness-testing/ 58
 Vickers Hardness Knoop
Hardness
L/b=7.11

b
L

2
HV = 1.854 F /D
2
HK = 14.2F / L
D=(D1+D2)/2 Used to measure hardness
of thin surface layers
F = applied load, kg
D = diagonal length, mm (Callister) 59
Comparison of Hardness Tests

(Askeland) 60
Comparison of Hardness Tests

(Callister) 61
Design/Safety Factors
◼ Material properties have variability due to test methods,
specimen fabrication procedures, operator bias,
compositional differences in the material
◼ To account for variability of material, want to use design
stress or safe stress loading conditions:
❑ Design stress: the estimated maximum load multiplied by a
design safety factor (N’)
◼ Select a material with a yield strength > design stress
❑ Safe stress: the yield strength of a material is divided by a factor
of safety (N)
◼ Design structure so loads < safe stress

◼ Design requires a balance between overdesign and

safety

62
Homework:
◼ Read Chapter 7 & 2

63
Key Chapter Concepts:
(Things you ought to know)
◼ Engineering stress, engineering strain
◼ Elastic deformation, plastic deformation
◼ Properties from a stress-strain curve:
❑ Elastic (Young’s) Modulus
❑ (Offset) Yield Strength
❑ (Ultimate) Tensile Strength
❑ Tensile Toughness
❑ Ductility
◼ Necking and ductile failure
◼ True stress, true strain
◼ Hardness
◼ Hardness Tests:
❑ Rockwell, Vickers, Brinell 64