Analytical analysis of two aluminum alloy specimens by use of optical metallography and

use of a mechanical tensile machine reveal characteristics of the microstructure and the
material characteristic properties. Optical metallography reveals materialistic information of
grain configuration, grain size, material defects, and existence of various phases. Mechanical
testing by use of a tensile machine reveals the strength of the material along with other
important characteristics such as the modulus of elasticity, yield strength, ultimate tensile
strength, percent elongation at fracture, and percent reduction in area. The before mentioned
methods of testing lead to an understanding of the behavior of the material which directly
correlates with material selection based on design and safety requirements.
Due to the complexity of the mechanical testing, precise preparation and measuring
equipment is required in order to obtain the desired analysis of materials. During the tensile
test, the sample is pulled at a constant rate until failure of the material is reached. A load cell is
used to insure that the rate at which the sample is pulled remains constant. For our mechanical
testing we used a 50 KN load cell which measured the force load on the specimen. Careful
consideration of the geometric shape of the specimen plays a critical role in obtaining the
correct desired results. The geometric shape of the specimen is referred to as a dog bone
shape. The relevance of this shape is to ensure that the force that is applied to the specimen
from the tension grips is not included in the analysis of the material. With the cross sectional
area of the top significantly larger than the middle, the force provides a greater stress to the
middle, achieving elongation of the middle. Two devices can be used to measure the
displacement or elongation. One device, known as a linear variable differential transducer
(LVDT), located in the instron, measures the displacement of the cross-head by measuring a
variance in the induced voltage due to displacement. However, due to the fact that an LVDT
measures the displacement of the total specimen, the results would not be accurate. The only
desired elongation is focused to the middle area of the specimen. The use of an extensometer
allows us to measure the desired elongation of the relatively smaller cross sectional area where
failure will occur. The uniform elongation is the elongation at the maximum load immediately
after the onset of necking, while to total elongation is the elongation measured after the
material fractures.
With analysis of the materials microstructure preparation of the material is required in
order to obtain the data from the internal makeup of the material on the small scale level.
Surface quality is a key factor in the outcome of the optical metallography analysis. Surface
grinding, a process where small amounts of material are removed from the surface, are
performed in order to remove scratches and plastically deformed layers from the materials
surface. After the surface grinding process, polishing is performed in order to remove finer
scratches on the surface. These steps are required in order to minimize topographic contrast.
Understanding of the higher energy of atoms at the grain boundaries due to less densely
packing of atoms, allows for use of chemical etchants to attack the grain the boundaries
producing tiny grooves that appear as dark lines. Due to the difference in the contrast of light
reflection caused by the effect of the etchant, grains are defined. Impurities and defects are
also exposed due to reacting differently with the etchants. This directly correlates with the
material properties due to the number of grain boundaries. Grain boundaries, with higher
energy states of atoms, are more willing to deform or separate, effecting the strength of the
material. Average grain size and other quantitative analysis can be figured from the before
mentioned procedure. Defects of the material also affect and show correlation to the
mechanical properties of the materials. Dislocations in crystalline solids are created with the
solidification of the material. This can be traced to the manufacturing process of the material
where plastic deformation of crystalline solids are introduced by applied shear stress and strain
to regions of the crystal. The effect of the stress induces regions of distortion internal of the
crystal lattice.
Grain size effects the mechanical properties of materials. Change in grain size affects the
yield strength due to dislocation interaction interacting with the grain boundaries as the
material tends to dislocate. The boundaries of the grains hinder dislocations along slip planes in
the material. The greater number of grain boundaries, accomplished by smaller grain size,
strengthen the material by introducing more hindering and resistance to dislocation among the
material. Likewise, larger grains with fewer boundaries induce less hindering among the
material to dislocations. This directly correlates with the Hall Petch relations to the yield stress
of the material. The yield stress of a material, increases proportional to the square root of the
grain diameter.





Specimen #1 Specimen #2
Elastic Modulus 73.6 (GPa) 72.0 (GPa)
True Stress @ Yield 34.8 (MPa) 87.0 (MPa)
True Stress @ Maximum 113 (MPa) 117 (MPa)
True Stress @ Failure 59.6 (MPa) 55.7(MPa)
Initial Length 65.00 mm 65.00 mm
Initial Area 15.7084 mm
2
15.7084 mm
2
Final Length 85.43 mm 67.99 mm
Final Area 1.19504E-05 mm 6.86 mm
Area Reduction Approx. 23.9235 % Approx. 4.3607 %