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As mentioned previously, the characteristics of torsion fractures are influenced by torsional and tensile forces. These result in two types of torsion failures; 1) ductile failure due to the shear stresses and 2) brittle failure due to the tensile stresses. The former produces the fracture surface along the plane of the maximum shear stress and more frequently normal to the longitudinal axis as shown in figures a) and b). The latter exhibits the fracture planes normal to the directions of the tensile stresses, which are 450 to the longitudinal axis. Figure 9 shows brittle and ductile fracture surfaces observed from a driveshaft and a brass rod respectively failed under torsion. This means the driveshaft failed under a brittle manner influenced by the tensile stresses while the ductile failure of the brass rod was affected by the shear stresses. However, if the specimen fails into little pieces where the fracture plane cannot be determined, the fracture in this case is considered to start along the maximum shear stress parallel to the longitudinal axis of the specimen. In addition, it has also been shown in a study, which has indicated that the fracture characteristic is associated with the hardness of the tool steels. If the tool steel possesses the hardness values of higher than 720 VHN, failure is expected to be influenced by tensile stress. Conversely, if the hardness of the tool steel is lower than 720 VHN, the shear stress is responsible for such a failure Figure 1: Torsion in cylindrical bar [1]. 1.1 Torsion test Generally, torsion occurs when the twisting moment or torque is applied to a member according to figure 1. The torque is the product of tangential force multiplied by the radial distance from the twisting axis and the tangent, measured in a unit of N.m. In torsion testing, the relationship between torque and degree of rotation is graphically presented and parameters such as ultimate torsional shearing strength (modulus of rupture), shear strength at proportional limit and shear modulus (modulus of rigidity) are generally investigated. Moreover, fracture surfaces of specimens tested under torsion can be used to determine the characteristics of the materials whether it would fail in a brittle or a ductile manner. In order to study the response of materials under a torsional force, the torsion test is performed by mounting the specimen onto a torsion testing machine as shown in figures 2-4, and then applying the twisting moment till failure. The torque and degree of rotation are measured and plotted as shown in figure 5. It can be seen that higher torsional force is required at the higher degrees of rotation. Normally, the test specimens used are of a cylindrical rod type since the stress distribution across the section of the rod is the simplest geometry, which is easy for the calculation of the stresses. Both ends of the cylindrical specimen are tightened to hexagonal sockets in which one is fitted to a torque shaft and another is fitted to an input shaft. The twisting moment is applied by turning the input handwheel as illustrated in figure 3 to produce torque until the specimen fails.

What are the practical errors in torsion test?

Answer: - Human errors may occur while recording the torque at different intervals, especially in some materials that require large number of rotations, such as Aluminum and copper. - Impurities in the materials may affect the results. T--The large error in the calculated values refers back to the fact that elastic strain is used to for the calculations. Elastic deformation is very sensitive and requires highly accurate equipment that measures angles of twist in microns.