Machine Design &

CAD
Lecture 2: Young’s Modulus of Elasticity
 Introduction

We are going to examine the modulus of elasticity of materials.

Before you watch this module, I ask that you complete a
knowledge check, and go ahead and work through Worksheet 1,
and then check all of your answers. And if you have trouble with
Worksheet 1 and you feel like you're really struggling to
understand these concepts. It's probably a good idea to go back
and review Mechanics of Materials 1, Fundamentals of Stress
and Strain in Axial Loading modules. Specifically the stress-strain
diagram.
 Modulus of Elasticity

So the learning outcomes for this module is first

to understand the quantitative and qualitative
meanings of the modulus of elasticity. And then
also to become familiar with common
engineering material's values of the modulus of
elasticity.
 Assumptions
Some assumptions that we're going to make in this module and
also throughout this course is first that we're dealing with a
isotopic material. So isotopic means non-directional. For example,
steel is an isotopic material and its density, its strength and its
modular to elasticity don't don't vary depending on the direction that
you're loading it in. Where bone and certain composites tend to be
very anisotropic materials and can have very different material
properties, depending on the direction and type of loading you're
applying. We're also going to assume that we're dealing with
homogenous materials that have a uniform composition. So again,
steel is a great example of this, it's iron that's been alloyed with
carbon atoms and it's uniform throughout the steel.
 Assumptions

Unless otherwise specified in this course, you can

assume that the design is occurring at room
temperature. And primarily, in this course, we'll be
looking at analysis that is valid for the elastic range.
Which means that it's conforming to Hooke's law
where stress is equal to your modulus of elasticity
times strain.
 Stress Strain Diagram
So, a quick review for a
Stress-Strain diagram. So on
the x-axis here, we have
strain, and then on the y-
axis, we have stress. And
then you can see the loading
curve occur throughout the
diagram. So we also have the
yield strength of the material
and past the yield strength in
this region right here. Strain
 Stress Strain Diagram
This is the plastic region where
you'll get plastic deformation or
permanent set when you
remove the load. So when you
removed the load from the
object, the object will be
permanently deformed in
someway. Where in here we
have the linear elastic region
where you can remove the load
and the object will go right back
to the configuration it was in the
beginning.
 Stress Strain Diagram
So it's not permanently deforming or experiencing any
permanent set, and this is typically the area we'll be running
our analysis in. This linear elastic region. And then you
remember the slope of the linear elastic regions is the
modulus of elasticity. And that gives us the relationship that's
Hooke's law, which is that stress is equal to the modulus of
elasticity times the strain. And this is often the first thing
students tell me when I asked them what is the modulus of
elasticity? They'll say it's the stress divided by your strain.
But as a mechanical engineer dealing with design, it's
important to understand these material properties on a
qualitative side as well.
 Modulus of Elasticity

Which brings me to my next question, so how

would you explain the elastic modulus to a third
grader? So you can't use equations for a third
grader, how would you explain this qualitatively
to a third grader?
 Modulus of Elasticity

Okay, so if we are trying to explain the Modulus of Elasticity to a third

grader, a good way to do that is to think of it in terms of stiffness. So you
can think of it as the stiffness of the material. Now this is not the
geometric stiffness. Clearly, if you have a thick steel bar and then a bar
that's made of the same exact steel that's thinner, the thick steel bar is
going to be much thicker. But if we look at it just from a material
perspective, taking geometry out of the equation, you can think of the
modulus of elasticity as a stiffness. It's how easily does a material
deform due to an applied load? And so let's think about this a little more,
which would have a higher modulus of elasticity? Steel or rubber?
 Key Takeaways

And so some key takeaways from the lecture, the modulus of

elasticity and this class will be the notation for it will be a
capital E. The slope of the linear elastic region of the stress-
strain curve is the modulus of elasticity. So stress is equal to
your strain times your modulus. And then a measure of
stiffness, the modulus of elasticity is really, can be thought of
as a measure of stiffness. So for rubber we saw, which is very
easy to deform, it's about 0.1 GPa. But steel, much, much,
much harder to deform, so it's 200 GPa for steels. And this is a
material property that's again intrinsic to the material
 Values of E
So, the learning outcomes for today's module is, first, to
become familiar with the values of the modulus of elasticity for
typical engineering materials. Second, to understand the key
differences between the modulus of elasticity and strength.
And then, third, to understand when the modulus of elasticity
becomes a key factor in material selection. So, units and
values. So, first off, again, in this course we're going to use
capital E as our notation for the elastic modulus. In English the
units are psi. And most metals are in the mega psi range. In
metric units, the units are pascals, and most metals have a
modulus of elasticity in the gigapascal range.
 Variation of E
So let's take a look and see the varying
values of the modulus of elasticity for a
number of different types of engineering
materials. So, the first one we're going to
start with is rubber, which has an elastic
modulus of 0.01 mega psi. And then, the
next one is ABS plastic. This is one of the
more common plastics that's used in 3D
printing, and it's stiffer with elastic
modulus of 0.23 mega psi. Then we get
into titanium, which is a common metal
used in the aerospace industry, and it has
an elastic modulus of around 16 mega
PSI. And then, steel, which is commonly
used in both the automotive and the
aerospace engineering industries, is right
around the 30 mega psi range. If you're
more used to the metric units, they're on
the right of the chart, there.
 Materials E comparison
And so, you can see from this chart that, obviously, plastics are easier to deform
than metals, which I think we all knew. But that steel is common, it's commonly
used in engineering because it's very difficult to deform or to deflect. If you wanted
to see some super fancy kind of fun engineering materials graphene, kind of wins
the elastic modulus prize with an elastic modulus of 152 Mpsi, so much much
stiffer than steel.
Specifically in the aerospace, the agriculture and the automotive industries, you
tend to use certain metals over and over. And by far those are aluminum and
steel. And then, especially in aerospace, you might see a little bit more titanium,
and then some other industries you might see a little more cast-iron. So you can
see aluminum is over here at the bottom.

It's the easiest metal to deform out of these four with modulus of elasticity right in
the 10 to 11 Mpsi range. And then, cast iron, slightly stiffer. Titanium is up in the
16 to 18 mega psi range. And then, steel is right around the 30 mega psi range.
Okay, so it's important to understand the critical differences between the modulus
of elasticity and the strength.
 Strength and E
So we talked about how the strength is a
point of interest. It could be, the yield
strength, where past that strength you get
permanent deformation of the material,
and that's capacity of the component and
the material. With modulus of elasticity, it
can really be thought of as a non-
geometric stiffness, and it is the slope of
the stress-strain curve.
 E in Material Selection
In the same material, the modulus of elasticity won't vary a
lot depending on alloying, but the strength will. So, for
example, 1025 steel that's been annealed has a modulus
of elasticity of 29, and a strength of 36. But 4340 steel
that's been quenched and tempered. So, different alloy
different processing, has the same Young's modulus, or
modulus of elasticity, of 29, but a significantly higher yield
strength of 214. And so, then if we go down and we look at
aluminum, aluminum has a Young's modulus, or modulus
elasticity, of 10.5, and a strength of 54 KSI. So, when we
look at the comparison down here on our left, we can see
that for modulus elasticity, the aluminum is much lower
than the steels, even though the steels are different alloys.
But for the yield strength of aluminum versus steel, we see
that 1025 steel is actually less strong than aluminum, which
is significantly less strong than 4340 steel. So, you start to
see variations in strength depending on the alloying of
steel, but not these high variations in the modulus of
elasticity. And that's important to keep in mind when you're
designing components.
 E in Material Selection
So, when we look at the material selection in design, and we
look at when is the modulus of elasticity important, it
becomes really important when you are doing stress analysis
and FEA because it's intrinsic to the material, so you need to
make sure that your material properties are correct,
especially when you're setting up your FEA. It's critical when
you're trying to prevent deflection in a constrained geometry.
And then, there's a couple of things called critical speed and
buckling. And these are very, very dependent on the
modulus of elasticity. So, critical speed is something we
worry about, especially in shafts, which are rotating, so metal
cylinders that connect let say a motor. Buckling, this is
something you should have learned about in mechanics of
materials. And you can see right here that buckling is
dependent on the modulus of elasticity and the geometry.
What's interesting about that is it's a failure mode that really
doesn't have a lot to do with the strength of the material, and
has everything to do with the geometry and modulus of the
material. And then, another time it comes in really critical is
to prosthetics and biomaterials. There's all sorts of different
applications from how biological cells react to a material
based off of its modulus, to things like stress shielding.