Puncture (Burst, Sharpness)

What is a Puncture test? Simply stated, a puncture test determines the resistance of film to the penetration of a probe at a single constant test speed and tries to emulate what happens in the end use applications of the film. Puncture strength tests are used to determine the puncture or rupture characteristics of a material and is typically a compressive type test where the specimen compressed by a probe until it ruptures, or until a defined travel limit is reached. Puncture testing is commonly used to determine the strength of film, rubber or membrane, but is also by food processors to determine the ripeness of a product. Puncture testing may be used in medical applications for determining the sharpness of a hypodermic syringe or a scalpel blade etc.

Texture (Chewiness, Spreadability, Stickiness)

Testing machines have found extensive use in the science of food technology in an attempt to quantify the physical characteristics of food materials. The usual methods, as for other materials are carried out. Compression i.e. deformation testing, friability or fairy cakes, etc. Shear i.e. the Warner Bratzler shear Bending i.e. snap testing, Puncture i.e. Magness Taylor probes, skin toughness etc. Tension. i.e. strength of pizzas, jellies etc.

fixture, extrusion brittelness

etc. etc.

Often the methods are a combination of shear and compression as in the Kremer Shear Cell. In every day use for the food technologist the normal terms such a E-Modulus, tensile strength shear modulus have little meaning and do not appear to be of much use. What is attempted are mechanical tests to try quantify the subjective oral and no-oral sensory judgements made about food stuffs, ripeness, tenderness, firmness, crispness, crunchiness, chewiness, freshness/staleness, scoopability, cookablity etc. Measurements are also made to determine to the visco-elastic properties by cone penetration, extrusion and back extrusion. Many of these tests have been developed in conjunction with taste panels to correlate the numerical results to human acceptability and the sense of texture that people judge food stuffs. In an attempt to mimic the action of the human jaw the Texture Profile Analysis has been developed which consists of a cycling test of two consecutive compression and tensile cycles often with a wait time between the two cycles. It is accepted this is far removed from the actual shear and compression forces experienced within the mouth, which moves in three dimensions at varying rates, but is extremely useful in determining constancy of product and in the development of new products. Sudo technical names are given to the results like cohesiveness, gumminness, etc. which would normally be unacceptable to the materials scientist. However by comparing the numbers produced with the taste panels these results bear some correlation to the subjective nature of food texture. Some more scientific names are also used which may have the same meaning to other material testing i.e. Modulus of Elasticity while others may have another meaning then that normally used i.e. Resilience. Often the test methods are developed in Universities and the fixtures devised bear the name of the researcher or location giving an air of the exotic for which in practice may be quite a simple test. II.e. The Ottowa Cell, Warner Bratzler, Volodkevitch Bite, Magness Taylor Probes, Kremer Shear Cell, FMBRA Standard Dough Pot Set, Chen-Hosey Dough Stickiness, Kieffer Dough forms and extensibility Rig, Dobraszscyk Roberts, Miller-Hoseney Toughness Rig etc. Sometimes acoustic devices are attached to the specimens in attempts to determine crunchiness and crispness and a formula for crispness has been suggested as = -15.6 + 5.35NP + 133 MHP - 6.21P

where NP = number of sound peaks during one bite. MHP = mean height of the peaks of the sounds. P = maximum force as measured in a Kramer Cell. More Information

Compressive
What is a Compression test? Simply put, a compression test allows you to see how a material behaves when subjected to a crushing, or compressive, load. The specimen is subjected to an increasing compression load and the deformation of the specimen is recorded. Compressive stress and strain are calculated and recorded as a stress-strain curve which is then used to determine elastic limit, proportional limit, yield point, yield strength and ultimate compressive strength. Why Perform a Compression Test? The ASM Handbook, Volume 8, Mechanical Testing and Evaluation states: "Axial compression testing is a useful procedure for measuring the plastic flow behavior and ductile fracture limits of a material. Measuring the plastic flow behavior requires frictionless (homogenous compression) test conditions, while measuring ductile fracture limits takes advantage of the barrel formation and controlled stress and strain conditions at the equator of the barreled surface when compression is carried out with friction. Axial compression testing is also useful for measurement of elastic and compressive fracture properties of brittle materials or low-ductility materials. In any case, the use of specimens having large L/D ratios should be avoided to prevent buckling and shearing modes of deformation1." The image at left shows variation of the strains during a compression test withoutfriction (homogenous compression) and with progressively higher levels of friction and decreasing aspect ratio L/D (shown as h/d)1.

Shear
What is a shear test? The ASM Handbook, Volume 8, Mechanical Testing and Evaluation states: shear testing is commonly performed as part of routine quality control procedures during manufacturing and as part of the final inspection of, for example, precision fasteners. Shear testing is also a critical step in determining fastener strength during research and development of new fasteners.. The degree and complexity of the shear testing of the shear test is usually dictated by the fastener standard or the service/end-use conditions of the part.

Shear testing of fasteners is accomplished by exerting pressure (shear force) in the transverse plane of the fastener until shear failure occurs. Shear force causes the two contiguous portions of the fastener to slide in opposite directions parallel to their contact plane. The force that results in the shear failure is called the ultimate load, while the load required to cause permanent deformation is called the yield load. A single shear test fixture uses two blades with centrally located transverse holes. The single shearing action happens when one blade is kept stationary with the fastener in place, and the second blade is moved in a parallel plane, so shearing the fastener. Typically single shear tests are performed on fasteners that are too short to test using a double shear fixture and whose length is typically less than 2.5 times the diameter. Double shear testing is similar except that it uses and second stationary blade behind the moving / shearing blade.

Flexural
A flexure test, also called a transverse test, simply measures the bending behavior of material subjected to simple beam loading. The most commonly recorded results from this test are maximum fiber stress and maximum strain, and are plotted on a stress vs. strain graph. The flexural strength is defined as the maximum stress in the outermost fiber and is calculated at the tensile surface of the specimen. Flexural modulus is calculated from the initial slope of the stress vs. strain graph and if the curve has no linear region, a secant line through the graph origin is fitted to the curve to determine slope. Why Perform a Flexure Test? A flexure test introduces tensile stresses in the convex side of the bending specimen and compressive stresses in the concave side, so creating an area of shear stress throughout the specimen. To ensure the specimen failure comes from tensile or compression stresses, these shear stresses must be minimized; which is done by controlling the span to depth ratio (S/d, where S is the length of the outer span and d is the height (depth) of the specimen). For most materials a span to depth ratio of 16 is acceptable but some materials require the ratio to be between 32 and 64 to keep the shear stress low enough. Flexure testing is often done on relatively flexible materials such as polymers, wood and composites, using either a 3-point or a 4-point flex configuration. In a 3-point test the area of uniform stress is quite small and concentrated under the center loading point; in a 4-point test, the area of uniform stress exists between the inner span loading points (typically half the outer span length).

Folding Endurance
Simply stated the folding endurance of a material is its ability to withstand folding. In the folding endurance test, the pliable material is folded to an angle of 135o , back and forth, at a fixed rate from 20 to 175 double folds per minute the folding is repeated until the material breaks at the folding crease.

The coefficient of friction is a dimensionless quantity symbolized by the Greek letter and is used as a measure of force of friction, whether that frictional resistance is static or kinetic. The coefficient of static friction is defined as the ratio of the maximum static friction force (F) between the surfaces in contact to the normal (N) force, whereas the coefficient of kinetic friction is defined as the ratio of the kinetic friction force (F) between the surfaces in contact to the normal (N) force:

Both static and kinetic coefficients of friction depend on the surfaces in contact with each other and for a given pair of surfaces, the coefficient of static friction is usually larger than that of kinetic friction. The static friction force is best demonstrated as the force required to initiate the movement of a static object; the kinetic friction force would be the force required to maintain that movement, if friction is the only opposing force. It is important to note that in all cases, Newton's first law of motion holds. It is often stated that the coefficient of friction (COF) is a "material property, however it is better categorized as a "system property since it depends on another surface and can vary significantly between other contact materials.

Hardness
Simply stated, hardness is the resistance of a material to permanent indentation. There are several different hardness tests, using differing indentation techniques, that give different hardness values for the same piece of material. This means that hardness measurements are method dependent and every test result must have a label identifying the test method used. Hardness is, however, used extensively to characterize materials and to determine if they are suitable for their intended use. This is primarily because of the advantages of the hardness test, namely they are quick and easy, finished parts can be tested and used since the test is a non-destructive test and almost any shape and size of specimen can be tested. All of the hardness tests use of a specifically shaped indenter, significantly harder than the test sample that is pressed into the surface of the sample using a specific force. Either the depth or size of the indent is measured to determine a hardness value. The most common uses for hardness tests is to verify the heat treatment of a part and to determine if a material has the properties necessary for its intended use.

There are five major hardness scales, which in alphabetical order are: Brinell - HB Knoop - HK

Rockwell - HR Shore - HS Vickers - HV Each involve the use of a specifically shaped diamond, carbide or hardened steel indenter pressed into the material with a known force using a defined test procedure. The hardness values are determined by measuring either the depth of indenter penetration or the size of the resultant indent the smaller the indent, the harder the materials, the higher the hardness number. The hardness values must also be reported with the proper test scale symbol, HB, HK, HR, etc.

Impact
Impact testing is testing an object's ability to resist high-rate loading. An impact test is a test for determining the energy absorbed in fracturing a test piece at high velocity. Most of us think of it as one object striking another object at a relatively high speed. Why is Impact Testing Important? Impact resistance is one of the most important properties for a part designer to consider, and without question, the most difficult to quantify. The impact resistance of a part is also a measure of service life and, perhaps more critically, a measure of safety and liability. One must determine: 1. the impact energies the part can be expected to see in its lifetime, 2. the type of impact that will deliver that energy, and then 3. select a material that will resist such assaults over the projected life span. Molded-in stresses, polymer orientation, weak spots (e.g. weld lines or gate areas), and part geometry will affect impact performance. Impact properties also change when additives, e.g. coloring agents, are added to plastics.

Ductile vs. Brittle

Most real world impacts are biaxial rather than unidirectional. Further complication is offered by the choice of failure modes: ductile or brittle. Brittle materials take little energy to start a crack, little more to propagate it to a shattering climax. Other materials possess ductility to varying degrees. Highly ductile materials fail by puncture in drop weight testing and require a high energy load to initiate and propagate the crack. Many materials are capable of either ductile or brittle failure, depending upon the type of test and rate and temperature conditions. They possess a ductile/brittle transition that actually shifts according to these variables.

Peel
What is a peel test? Simply stated a peel test measures the tack, lap shear and tensile strength of adhesives and sealants. Bond strength can be measured by using either a climbing drum fixture (in say the case of a aluminum skin being peeled from a honeycomb wing structure) or in the form of tackiness of adhesive tape against different substrates. Tape manufacturers have to test the strength and consistency of application of adhesives by performing 90 degree and 180 degree peel tests often, maintaining the angle of peel is a critical requirement and crosshead movement of a motorized bed can be used to maintain the angle of pull. Sealant manufacturers have to test the adhesive qualities of their products as well as their compressive and tensile strength. Occasionally these same samples have to be tested in both directions, and at elevated and reduced temperatures. Results are typically expressed as load per unit length of peel; this is not to be confused tear testing where results are expressed as load per unit width of tear.

Puncture (Burst, Sharpness)

What is a Puncture test? Simply stated, a puncture test determines the resistance of film to the penetration of a probe at a single constant test speed and tries to emulate what happens in the end use applications of the film. Puncture strength tests are used to determine the puncture or rupture characteristics of a material and is typically a compressive type test where the specimen compressed by a probe until it ruptures, or until a defined travel limit is reached. Puncture testing is commonly used to determine the strength of film, rubber or membrane, but is also by food processors to determine the ripeness of a product. Puncture testing may be used in medical applications for determining the sharpness of a hypodermic syringe or a scalpel blade etc.

Tensile (Removal Strength)

What is a tensile test? A tensile test is a test where a clamped specimen is subjected to a constant rate of tensile loading such that it stretches and ultimately breaks. Typically these tests are performed in accordance with an internationally recognized standard procedure and calculation of results so that the data is portable between labs. The rate of loading can be applied as either a constant rate of extension, constant rate of strain or constant rate of load, depending on the standard. Tensile strength UTS, or SU is the stress at which a material breaks or permanently deforms. Tensile strength is an intensive property and, consequently, does not depend on the size of the test specimen. However, it is dependent on the preparation of the specimen and the temperature of the test environment and material.

Tensile strength, along with elastic modulus and corrosion resistance, is an important parameter of engineering materials that are used in structures and mechanical devices. It is specified for materials such as alloys, composite materials, ceramics, plastics and wood. The various definitions of tensile strength are shown in the following stress-strain graph. For our purposes here, the graph used is representative of the properties for low-carbon steel:

Stress vs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Necking region.

Strain

curve Ultimate Yield

typical

of

structural

Strain

hardening

steel Strength Strength Rupture region

Metals, including steel, have a linear stress-strain relationship up to the limit of proportionality, which is most often close to the yield point, as seen in the above graph. In some steels the stress falls after the yield point; this is due to the interaction of carbon atoms and dislocations in the stressed steel. Work hardened and alloy steels do not show this effect and for most metals, yield point is not sharply defined. If loading is removed prior to reaching the limit of proportionality, or yield point, the material will return to its initial shape, however once the yield point is exceeded, the deformation is permanent and the material will not return to its initial shape. This permanent deformation is known as plastic deformation and for many applications plastic deformation is unacceptable, so the materials properties at its yield point are used as the design limitation. In a normal tensile loading test, steel and many other ductile metals will undergo a period of strain hardening, once the yield point has been passed, in which the stress increases again with increasing strain up to the ultimate strength. If the material is unloaded at this point, the stress-strain curve will be parallel to that portion of the curve between the origin and the yield point. If it is re-loaded it will follow the unloading curve up again to the ultimate strength, which has become the new yield strength. After a metal has been loaded to its yield strength it begins to "neck" as the cross-sectional area of the specimen decreases due to plastic flow. When necking becomes substantial, it may cause a reversal of the engineering stressstrain curve, where decreasing stress correlates to increasing strain because of geometric effects. This is because the engineering stress and engineering strain are calculated assuming the original cross-sectional area before necking. If the graph is plotted in terms of true stress and true strain the curve will always slope upwards and never reverse, as true stress is corrected for the decrease in cross-sectional area. Necking is not observed for materials loaded in compression. The peak stress on the engineering stress-strain curve is known as the ultimate strength. After a period of necking, the material will rupture and the stored elastic energy is released as noise and heat. The stress on the material at the time of rupture is known as the tensile strength.

Ductile metals do not have a well defined yield point, so in these cases we have to invent one. The yield strength is typically defined by the "0.2% offset strain". The yield strength at 0.2% offset is determined by finding the intersection of the stress-strain curve with a line parallel to the initial slope of the curve and which intercepts the abscissa at 0.2%. A stress-strain curve typical of aluminum along with the 0.2% offset line is shown in the figure below.

Stress vs. Strain 1. 2. 3. Proportional 4. 5. Offset Strain (typically 0.2%).

curve Ultimate Yield Tensile

typical

of

Limit

aluminum Strength strength Stress strength

Brittle materials such as concrete and carbon fiber do not have a yield point, and do not strain-harden which means that the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same. A most unusual stress-strain curve is shown in the figure below. Typical brittle materials do not show any plastic deformation but fail while the deformation is elastic. One of the characteristics of a brittle failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to produce the same shape as the original component. A typical stress strain curve for a brittle material will be linear. Testing of several identical specimens will result in different failure stresses. The curve shown below would be typical of a brittle polymer tested at very slow strain rates at a temperature above its glass transition temperature. Some engineering ceramics show a small amount of ductile behavior at stresses just below that causing failure but the initial part of the curve is a linear.

Stress vs. 1. 2. Tensile strength.

Strain

curve

of a Ultimate

very

untypical

brittle

material Strength

Tensile strength is measured in units of force per unit area. In the SI system, the units are Newtons per square meter (N/m) (or pascals (Pa)). The Imperial, or English, units are pounds-force per square inch (lbf/in or PSI), however engineers in the USA usually use units of ksi which is a thousand psi.

Ring Crush
Simply stated, crush resistance testing is the measurement of a compressive load to a point when a sample deforms, fractures, shatters, collapses or simply breaks. This type of test may be applied to all sorts of specimens including corrugated cardboard, bearings, bricks, or even glass, however it is most commonly used in the packaging industry for package design and validation. Generally, a crush resistance test involves a load limit where the specimen is compressed and compared to the load limit. Maximum load, load at break and work at maximum load are the most common results.

Rupture
Rupture testing, synonymous with puncture strength testing, is used to determine the puncture or rupture characteristics of a material. This is generally a compressive test when a material is compressed by a probe or other type of device until the material ruptures or until an elongation limit is achieved. Rupture testing is commonly used to determine the strength of a material such as film, rubber or membrane. It is also often used in the food processing industry to determine the texture or ripeness of a product. Puncture testing may be used in medical applications for determining the sharpness of a syringe, scalpel or blade or to measure the resistance of pliability of synthetic skin.

Puncture (Burst, Sharpness)

What is a Puncture test? Simply stated, a puncture test determines the resistance of film to the penetration of a probe at a single constant test speed and tries to emulate what happens in the end use applications of the film. Puncture strength tests are used to determine the puncture or rupture characteristics of a material and is typically a compressive type test where the specimen compressed by a probe until it ruptures, or until a defined travel limit is reached. Puncture testing is commonly used to determine the strength of film, rubber or membrane, but is also by food processors to determine the ripeness of a product. Puncture testing may be used in medical applications for determining the sharpness of a hypodermic syringe or a scalpel blade etc.

Shear
What is a shear test? The ASM Handbook, Volume 8, Mechanical Testing and Evaluation states: shear testing is commonly performed as part of routine quality control procedures during manufacturing and as part of the final inspection of, for example, precision fasteners. Shear testing is also a critical step in determining fastener strength during research and development of new fasteners.. The degree and complexity of the shear testing of the shear test is usually dictated by the fastener standard or the service/end-use conditions of the part. Shear testing of fasteners is accomplished by exerting pressure (shear force) in the transverse plane of the fastener until shear failure occurs. Shear force causes the two contiguous portions of the fastener to slide in opposite directions parallel to their contact plane. The force that results in the shear failure is called the ultimate load, while the load required to cause permanent deformation is called the yield load.

A single shear test fixture uses two blades with centrally located transverse holes. The single shearing action happens when one blade is kept stationary with the fastener in place, and the second blade is moved in a parallel plane, so shearing the fastener. Typically single shear tests are performed on fasteners that are too short to test using a double shear fixture and whose length is typically less than 2.5 times the diameter. Double shear testing is similar except that it uses and second stationary blade behind the moving / shearing blade.

Slippage
What is a slippage test? Slippage is a term that is commonly used in the testing of seamed joints in fabrics. The test is performed by first pulling an un-seamed specimen of the fabric to determine its tensile stretch characteristics; this is followed by a tensile test of a seamed specimen of the fabric. The two resultant graphs are overlaid and the force at which there is a defined separation, at a specified distance, is recorded as the seam slippage force.

Texture (Chewiness, Spreadability, Stickiness)

Testing machines have found extensive use in the science of food technology in an attempt to quantify the physical characteristics of food materials. The usual methods, as for other materials are carried out. Compression i.e. deformation testing, friability or fairy cakes, etc. Shear i.e. the Warner Bratzler shear Bending i.e. snap testing, Puncture i.e. Magness Taylor probes, skin toughness etc. Tension. i.e. strength of pizzas, jellies etc.

fixture, extrusion brittelness

etc. etc.

Often the methods are a combination of shear and compression as in the Kremer Shear Cell. In everyday use for the food technologist the normal terms such a E-Modulus, tensile strength shear modulus have little meaning and do not appear to be of much use. What is attempted are mechanical tests to try quantify the subjective oral and no-oral sensory judgements made about food stuffs, ripeness, tenderness, firmness, crispness, crunchiness, chewiness, freshness/staleness, scoopability, cookablity etc. Measurements are also made to determine to the visco-elastic properties by cone penetration, extrusion and back extrusion. Many of these tests have been developed in conjunction with taste panels to correlate the numerical results to human acceptability and the sense of texture that people judge food stuffs. In an attempt to mimic the action of the human jaw the Texture Profile Analysis has been developed which consists of a cycling test of two consecutive compression and tensile cycles often with a wait time between the two cycles. It is accepted this is far removed from the actual shear and compression forces experienced within the mouth, which moves in three dimensions at varying rates, but is extremely useful in determining constancy of product and in the development of

new products. Sudo technical names are given to the results like cohesiveness, gumminness, etc. which would normally be unacceptable to the materials scientist. However by comparing the numbers produced with the taste panels these results bear some correlation to the subjective nature of food texture. Some more scientific names are also used which may have the same meaning to other material testing i.e. Modulus of Elasticity while others may have another meaning then that normally used i.e. Resilience. Often the test methods are developed in Universities and the fixtures devised bear the name of the researcher or location giving an air of the exotic for which in practice may be quite a simple test. II.e. The Ottowa Cell, Warner Bratzler, Volodkevitch Bite, Magness Taylor Probes, Kremer Shear Cell, FMBRA Standard Dough Pot Set, Chen-Hosey Dough Stickiness, Kieffer Dough forms and extensibility Rig, Dobraszscyk Roberts, Miller-Hoseney Toughness Rig etc. Sometimes acoustic devices are attached to the specimens in an attempts to determine crunchiness and crispness and a formula for crispness has been suggested as = -15.6 + 5.35NP + 133 MHP - 6.21P where NP = number of sound peaks during one bite. MHP = mean height of the peaks of the sounds. P = maximum force as measured in a Kramer Cell.

Stiffness
What is a stiffness test? The ASM Handbook, Volume 8, Mechanical Testing and Evaluation states: bending strength tests offer a means of determining the modulus of elasticity in bending and the bending strength of flat metallic materials in the form of strip, sheet or plate. There are three commonly used types of bending tests, namely the three point bend test, the four point bend test, and the cantilever beam bend test. We have discussed the attributes of the three and four point bend test under Flexural properties. The cantilever beam bend test measures the angle of deflection and corresponding bending moment of a metallic strip or sheet subjected to continuous loading in bending. A bending stress-strain curve is developed from the data and the modulus of elasticity determined at stresses below the proportional limit. The test specimen is loaded as a simple cantilever beam in which one end is supported and the free end is loaded. The test procedure involves measurements of the applied bending moment and the corresponding angular deflection of a cantilever beam in continuous loading.

Tear
What is a tear test? Simply stated, tear resistance is the measurement of the ability of a specimen to resist tearing. Tear resistance can be considerably affected by the speed of the test, much like ripping a piece of paper, and the results commonly used when materials such as paper and rubber are tested. Tear is a property also found in extensive use by the textile industry where tear strength is defined as the tensile force required to rupture a pre-slit woven fabric specimen. Tear resistance testing can be found in plastic film, paper and textile industries; tear resistance in textiles involves the load required to propagate a single "rip-tongue" type of tear (tear coming from a cut); and edge tearing strength of paper is the load required to tear a sample over a V-notch fixture.

Tensile (Removal Strength)

What is a tensile test? A tensile test is a test where a clamped specimen is subjected to a constant rate of tensile loading such that it stretches and ultimately breaks. Typically these tests are performed in accordance with an internationally recognized standard procedure and calculation of results so that the data is portable between labs. The rate of loading can be applied as either a constant rate of extension, constant rate of strain or constant rate of load, depending on the standard. Tensile strength UTS, or SU is the stress at which a material breaks or permanently deforms. Tensile strength is an intensive property and, consequently, does not depend on the size of the test specimen. However, it is dependent on the preparation of the specimen and the temperature of the test environment and material. Tensile strength, along with elastic modulus and corrosion resistance, is an important parameter of engineering materials that are used in structures and mechanical devices. It is specified for materials such as alloys, composite materials, ceramics, plastics and wood. The various definitions of tensile strength are shown in the following stress-strain graph. For our purposes here, the graph used is representative of the properties for low-carbon steel:

Stress vs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Necking region.

Strain

curve Ultimate Yield

typical

of

structural

Strain

hardening

steel Strength Strength Rupture region

Metals, including steel, have a linear stress-strain relationship up to the limit of proportionality, which is most often close to the yield point, as seen in the above graph. In some steels the stress falls after the yield point; this is due to the interaction of carbon atoms and dislocations in the stressed steel. Work hardened and alloy steels do not show this effect and for most metals, yield point is not sharply defined. If loading is removed prior to reaching the limit of proportionality, or yield point, the material will return to its initial shape, however once the yield point is exceeded, the deformation is permanent and the material will not return to its initial shape. This permanent deformation is known as plastic deformation and for many applications plastic deformation is unacceptable, so the materials properties at its yield point are used as the design limitation. In a normal tensile loading test, steel and many other ductile metals will undergo a period of strain hardening, once the yield point has been passed, in which the stress increases again with increasing strain up to the ultimate strength. If the material is unloaded at this point, the stress-strain curve will be parallel to that portion of the curve between the

origin and the yield point. If it is re-loaded it will follow the unloading curve up again to the ultimate strength, which has become the new yield strength. After a metal has been loaded to its yield strength it begins to "neck" as the cross-sectional area of the specimen decreases due to plastic flow. When necking becomes substantial, it may cause a reversal of the engineering stressstrain curve, where decreasing stress correlates to increasing strain because of geometric effects. This is because the engineering stress and engineering strain are calculated assuming the original cross-sectional area before necking. If the graph is plotted in terms of true stress and true strain the curve will always slope upwards and never reverse, as true stress is corrected for the decrease in cross-sectional area. Necking is not observed for materials loaded in compression. The peak stress on the engineering stress-strain curve is known as the ultimate strength. After a period of necking, the material will rupture and the stored elastic energy is released as noise and heat. The stress on the material at the time of rupture is known as the tensile strength. Ductile metals do not have a well defined yield point, so in these cases we have to invent one. The yield strength is typically defined by the "0.2% offset strain". The yield strength at 0.2% offset is determined by finding the intersection of the stress-strain curve with a line parallel to the initial slope of the curve and which intercepts the abscissa at 0.2%. A stress-strain curve typical of aluminum along with the 0.2% offset line is shown in the figure below.

Stress vs. Strain 1. 2. 3. Proportional 4. 5. Offset Strain (typically 0.2%).

curve Ultimate Yield Tensile

typical

of

Limit

aluminum Strength strength Stress strength

Brittle materials such as concrete and carbon fiber do not have a yield point, and do not strain-harden which means that the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same. A most unusual stress-strain curve is shown in the figure below. Typical brittle materials do not show any plastic deformation but fail while the deformation is elastic. One of the characteristics of a brittle failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to produce the same shape as the original component. A typical stress strain curve for a brittle material will be linear. Testing of several identical specimens will result in different failure stresses. The curve shown below would be typical of a brittle polymer tested at very slow strain rates at a temperature above its glass transition temperature. Some engineering ceramics show a small amount of ductile behavior at stresses just below that causing failure but the initial part of the curve is a linear.

Stress vs. 1. 2. Tensile strength.

Strain

curve

of a Ultimate

very

untypical

brittle

material Strength

Tensile strength is measured in units of force per unit area. In the SI system, the units are Newtons per square meter (N/m) (or pascals (Pa)). The Imperial, or English, units are pounds-force per square inch (lbf/in or PSI), however engineers in the USA usually use units of ksi which is a thousand psi.

Torsion
A torsion test can be conducted on most materials to determine the torsional properties of the material. These properties include but are not limited to: Modulus of elasticity in shear Yield shear strength Ultimate shear strength Modulus of rupture in shear Ductility While they are not the same, they are analogous to properties that can be determined during a tensile test. In fact, the "torque versus angle" diagram looks very similar to a "stress versus strain" curve that might be generated by a tensile test. Why Perform a Torsion Test? Many products and components are subjected to torsional forces during their operation. Products such as biomedical catheter tubing, switches, fasteners, and automotive steering columns are just a few devices subject to such torsional stresses. By testing these products in torsion, manufacturers are able to simulate real life service conditions, check product quality, verify designs, and ensure proper manufacturing techniques. Types of Torsion Tests Torsion tests can be performed by applying only a rotational motion or by applying both axial (tension or compression) and torsional forces. Types of torsion testing vary from product to product but can usually be classified as failure, proof, or product operation testing. Torsion Only: Applying only torsional loads to the test specimen. Axial-Torsion: Applying both axial (tension or compression) and torsional forces to the test specimen. Failure Testing: Twisting the product, component, or specimen until failure. Failure can be classified as either a physical break or a kink/defect in the specimen. Proof Testing: Applying a torsional load and holding this torque load for a fixed amount of time.

Operational Testing: Testing complete assemblies or products such as bottle caps, switches, dial pens, or steering columns to verify that the product performs as expected under torsion loads.

Tuft Removal
What is a tuft removal test? Simply stated, this is a test that is used to determine the force required to remove a tuft of a cut pile or loop pile floor covering (woven or tufted on formed carpet only).

Wet Strength
What is a wet strength test? Simply stated, wet strength is term that is most commonly used in the testing of paper. The wet strength of paper is measured by taking a dry piece of paper, wetting it with a standard test fluid for a set amount of time, and then measuring the strength. The burst test is often used because of the ease and speed of testing. Wet tensile tests are also common, depending on the type of paper grade and can be performed in-situ. Papermakers typically use the ratio of wet strength to dry strength as a guide to paper quality. A true wet-strength paper grade has been defined by various writers to have a wet strength that is at least 10% or 15% of its dry strength.