Tension Test Discussion

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory

AEM-251

Submitted by:
Sami Alshamari
Submitted to:
Dr. M. E. Barkey

Submission Date:

Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics

The University of Alabama
Section-D: Questions

1. Which material is the stiffest material in the elastic range (i.e. which the
highest modulus of elasticity)?
 Steel was more stiffed than Aluminum alloy and Copper. Steel has greatest modulus of
elasticity.
2. What material was the strongest (highest ultimate strength)?

The steel is strongest material among other materials . It has highest ultimate
strength. Steel has tensile strength of 200 - 2100 MPa depending on the heat treatment
and composition, Aluminium has ultimate strength of 40-50 MO

3. What material could hold the highest stress before yielding (highest yield
stress)?
 Steel has highest stress before yielding. It has high yield stress comparable to other
materials. Copper has yield stress of 117 MPa , Aluminium has yield stress of 15-20 MPa
and Steel (high strength alloy) has maximum yield stress of 690 MPa.
4. What material had the most elastic strain at yielding (highest strain value
at yield stress)?
 Steel has more elastic strain at yielding because steel has more yielding than other
materials. As Steel has more yield strength than copper and alluminium and other
materials , therefore it shows most elastic strain at yield stress.
5. What material had the most ductility before failure (highest percent
elongation)?
 Low carbon Steel had the most ductility before failure.Because low carbon steel has
low amount of carbon contents in it . As the carbon contents in any material increase the
brittleness of the material because of its tendency to form martensite. So when carbon
contents decrease , then material become more ductile . Therefore , low carbon steel had
the most ductility before failure.

6. What material has the highest energy density before yielding (refer to
theory section)?
 Steel has the highest density before yielding because had highest stress before yielding.
The reason behind the highest energy density of steel before yielding lies in factor that
steel has highest yield stress , so it absorb maximum amount of energy before yielding .
Therefore , Steel has highest energy density before yielding .
Section-E: Discussion

Address if your data sets were “good” data or not. Did the answers to the
questions in part D make sense based on what you knew about materials
before testing them? What are the results shows?
The data set was loose means there were minute errors in the readings. Yes it makes sense but
there is an anomaly between the expected and accepted values of the materials. When the
experiment was done with low carbon steel, the calculated modulus of elasticity of the material
was 27137011.4 psi However, the values on www.matweb.com cold rolled 1010 steel 3 had Young
modulus of 29000000 psi. In the derivation of experiment, Aluminum the modulus of elasticity
calculated was 12942446.56 psi. The values noted down from matweb.com were not even close
to the calculated ones, the yield strength of 2024-T351, which is closest to the calculated value
is 10600000 psi. When the experiment was done with copper, the calculated modulus of
elasticity of the material was 14700000 psi However, the values on www.matweb.com had
Young modulus of 16000000 psi. The difference with the values, may be because the test
conducted was imperfect, mounting of the specimen on the machine was not proper but if that
were the case then the failure shapes should be different for all three specimens. The behavior
of brittle and ductile objects under tension was studied and analyzed; it showed that both ductile
and brittle materials have different tensile strength. As result, Steel showed a higher deformation
at ultimate tension strength. In this experiment steel has shown a higher ductility, while copper is less
ductile than steel but more ductile than aluminum. Also aluminum is less ductile, or more brittle.