Material Science (MSC115B)

UNIT 4: MECHANICAL PROPERTIES & FAILURE

Lecturer: Dr D Makhwedzha

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
 Chapter Outline
Mechanical Properties of Metals
How do metals respond to external loads?

Stress and Strain Plastic Deformation Ductile vs. brittle fracture

Tension
Yield Strength
Compression • Principles of fracture mechanics
Shear Tensile Strength • Impact fracture testing
Torsion
Ductility
Fatigue
Elastic deformation Toughness • Cyclic stresses, the S—N curve
Hardness
• Crack initiation and propagation
• Factors that affect fatigue
Creep behavior
• Stress and temperature effects
Alloys for high-temperature use

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 Introduction
To understand and describe how materials deform (elongate, compress, twist) or break as a
function of applied load, time, temperature, and other conditions we need first to discuss standard
test methods and standard language for mechanical properties of materials.

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Types of Loading

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 Concepts of Stress and Strain (tension and compression)

To compare specimens of different sizes, the load is calculated per unit area.

Engineering stress: σ = F / Ao
F is load applied perpendicular to specimen t cross section; A0 is cross-sectional area
(perpendicular to the force) before application of the load.

Engineering strain: ε = Δl / lo (× 100 %) Δl is change in length, lo is the original

length.

These definitions of stress and strain allow one to compare test results for specimens of
different cross sectional area A0 and of different length l0.

Stress and strain are positive for tensile loads, negative for compressive loads

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 Concepts of Stress and Strain

(shear and torsion) Shear stress: τ = F /Ao

F is load applied parallel to the upper and lower faces each of which has an area A0.

Shear strain: γ = tgθ (× 100 %)

θ is strain angle

Torsion is variation of pure shear. The shear stress in this case is a function of applied torque T,
shear strain is related to the angle of twist, φ.

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 Concepts of Stress and Strain
Torsion is variation of pure shear. The shear stress in this case is a function of applied torque T,
shear strain is related to the angle of twist, φ.

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Stress-Strain Behavior

Elastic deformation

Reversible: when the stress is removed, the material returns

to the dimensions it had before the loading.

Usually strains are small ( except for the case of some

plastics, e.g. rubber).

Plastic deformation

Irreversible: when the stress is removed, the material does

not return to its original dimensions.

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 Stress-Strain Behavior: Elastic Deformation

In tensile tests, if the deformation is elastic, the stress strain relationship is called Hooke's law: σ= Eε
E is Young's modulus or modulus of elasticity, has the same units as σ, N/m2 or Pa

Unload

Slope = modulus of
elasticity E

Load
Strain
Higher E → higher “stiffness”
Elastic Deformation: Nonlinear Elastic Behavior

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In some materials (many polymers, concrete...), elastic deformation is not linear, but it is still
reversible.

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 Elastic Deformation: Atomic Scale Picture

Chapter/Unit 2: force separation curve for interacting atoms

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 Elastic Deformation: Anelasticity (time dependence of elastic deformation)

• So far we have assumed that elastic deformation is time independent (i.e. applied stress
produces instantaneous elastic strain)

• However, in reality elastic deformation takes time (finite rate of atomic/molecular deformation
processes) - continues after initial loading, and after load release. This time dependent
elastic behavior is known as anelasticity.

The effect is normally small for metals but can be significant for polymers (“visco-elastic behavior”).

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 Elastic Deformation: Poisson’s ratio

Materials subject to tension shrink laterally. Those subject to compression, bulge. The ratio of lateral
and axial strains is called the Poisson's ratio υ. Sign in the above equations shows that lateral strain is
in opposite sense to longitudinal strain υ is dimensionless
Theoretical value for isotropic material: 0.25
Maximum value: 0.50, Typical value: 0.24 - 0.30

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 Elastic Deformation: Shear Modulus

Relationship of shear stress to shear strain: τ = G γ, where: γ = tgθ = Δy / zo G is Shear

Modulus (Units: N/m2 or Pa)

For isotropic material:

E = 2G(1+υ) → G ~ 0.4E

(Note: single crystals are usually elastically anisotropic: the elastic behavior varies with crystallographic
direction)

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 Stress-Strain Behavior: Plastic deformation

Plastic deformation:

• stress and strain are not proportional to each

other

• the deformation is not reversible

• deformation occurs by breaking and
rearrangement of atomic bonds (in crystalline
materials primarily by motion of dislocations)

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Tensile Properties: Yielding

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 Tensile Properties: Yielding

In some materials (e.g. low-carbon steel), the stress vs. strain curve includes two yield points (upper
and lower). The yield strength is defined in this case as the average stress at the lower yield point.

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 Tensile Strength

NB: For structural

applications, the yield
stress is usually a more
importantproperty than
the tensile strength,
since once the yield
stress has passed, the
structure has deformed
beyond acceptable
limits.

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 True Stress and Strain
True stress= load divided byactual areain the necked-down
region (Ai): σT = F/Ai
Sometimes it is convenient to usterue straindefined asεT =
ln(li/lo) True stresscontinues to rise to the point of fracture, in
contrast to the engineering stress.

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 Elastic Recovery During Plastic Deformation

If a material is deformed plastically and the stress is then released, the material ends up with a
permanent strain.
If the stress is reapplied, the material again responds elastically at the beginning up to a new yield
point that is higher than the original yield point.
The amount of elastic strain that it will take before reaching the yield point is called elastic strain
recovery.

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 Hardness (I)

Hardness is a measure of the material’s resistance to localized plastic deformation (e.g. dent or
scratch)
A qualitative Moh’s scale, determined by the ability of a material to scratch another material: from
1 (softest = talc) to 10 (hardest = diamond).
Different types of quantitative hardness testhas been
designed ( Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers, etc.).
Usually a small indenter (sphere, cone, or pyramid) is
forced into the surface of a material under
conditions of controlled magnitude and rate
of loading. The depth or size of indentation is
measured.

The tests somewhat approximate, but popular

because they are easy and nondestructive (except
for the small dent).

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 Hardness (II)

Both tensile strength and hardness may be regarded as degree of resistance to plastic deformation.
Hardness is proportional to the tensile strength - but note that the proportionality constant is
different for different materials.

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 What are the limits of “safe” deformation?

Design stress: σd = N’σc where σc = maximum anticipated stress, N’ is the “design factor” > 1.
Want to make sure that σd < σy

Safe or working stress: σw = σy/N where N is “factor of safety” > 1.

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 Fracture
Fracture: separation of a body into pieces due to stress, at temperatures below the melting point.
Steps in fracture:
• crack formation
• crack propagation

Depending on the ability of material to undergo plastic deformation before the fracture two
fracture modes can be defined as - ductile or brittle
Ductile fracture - most metals (not too cold
• Extensive plastic deformation ahead of crack
• Crack is “stable”: resists further extension unless applied stress is increased

Brittle fracture - ceramics, ice, cold metals:

• Relatively little plastic deformation
• Crack is “unstable”: propagates rapidly without increase in applied stress
Ductile fracture is preferred in most applications

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Tensile properties: Ductility

Brittle vs. Ductile Fracture

• Ductile materials - extensive plastic

deformation and energy absorption
(“toughness”) before fracture

• Brittle materials - little plastic deformation

and low energy absorption before fracture

Ductility is a measure of
the deformation at fracture
Defined by percent
elongation ( plastic tensile
strain at failure ) or percent
reduction in area

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Brittle vs. Ductile Fracture

A. Very ductile, soft metals (e.g. Pb, Au)

at room temperature, other metals,

polymers, glasses at high temperature.

B. Moderately ductile fracture,

typical for ductile metals

C. Brittle fracture, cold metals, ceramics.

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Ductile Fracture (Dislocation Mediated)

(a) Necking
(b) Formation of microvoids
(c)Coalescence of microvoids to form a crack
(d) Crack propagation by shear deformation
(e)Fracture

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 Brittle Fracture ( Limited Dislocation Mobility )

• No appreciable plastic deformation

• Crack propagation is very fast
• Crack propagates nearly perpendicular to the direction of the applied stress
• Crack often propagates by cleavage - breaking of atomic bonds along specific crystallographic planes
(cleavage planes).

Brittle fracture in a mild steel

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 Brittle Fracture

A. Transgranular fracture: Fracture cracks pass through grains. Fracture surface have faceted
texture because of different orientation of cleavage planes in grains.

B. Intergranular fracture: Fracture crack propagation is along grain boundaries (grain boundaries
are weakened or embrittled by impurities segregation etc.)

A B

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 Stress Concentration
Fracture strength of a brittle solid is related to the cohesive forces between atoms. One can estimate that
the theoretical cohesive strength of a brittle material should be ~ E/10. But experimental fracture
strength is normally E/100 - E/10,000.

This much lower fracture strength is explained by the effect of stress concentration at microscopic
flaws. The applied stress is amplified at the tips of micro-cracks, voids, notches, surface scratches,
corners, etc. that are called stress raisers. The magnitude of this amplification depends on micro-crack
orientations, geometry and dimensions.

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 Stress Concentration

For a long crack oriented perpendicular to the applied stress the maximum stress near the crack tip is:

where σ0 is the applied external stress, a is the half-length of the crack, and ρt the radius of
curvature of the crack tip. (note that a is half-length of the internal flaw, but the full length for
a surface flaw).

The stress concentration factor Kt is expresses as

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 Crack propagation

Cracks with sharp tips propagate easier than cracks having

blunt tips

In ductile materials, plastic deformation at a crack tip “blunts” the crack.

Energy balance on the crack

Elastic strain energy:

• energy stored in material as it is elastically deformed
• this energy is released when the crack propagates
• creation of new surfaces requires energy

γs = specific surface energy Griffith's criterion

for ductile materials γsshould be replaced with γs+ γpwhere γp is

plastic deformation energy

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The yield strength and tensile strength vary with prior thermal and mechanical treatment, impurity levels, etc. This variability is
related to the behavior of dislocations in the material. But elastic moduli are relatively insensitive to these effects.

The yield and tensile strengths and modulus of elasticity decrease with increasing temperature, ductility increases with temperature.

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 Toughness

Toughness = the ability to absorb energy up to

fracture = the total area under the strain-stress
curve up to fracture

Units: the energy per unit volume, e.g. J/m3

Can be measured by an impact test.

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 Fatigue
( Failure under fluctuating / cyclic stresses )

Under fluctuating / cyclic stresses, failure can occur at loads considerably lower than tensile or yield strengths of material under a
static load: Fatigue

Estimated to causes 90% of all failures of metallic structures (bridges, aircraft, machine components, etc.)

Fatigue failure is brittle-like (relatively little plastic deformation) - even in normally ductile materials. Thus sudden and
catastrophic!

Applied stresses causing fatigue may be axial (tension or compression), flextural (bending) or torsional (twisting).

Fatigue failure proceeds in three distinct stages: crack initiation in the areas of stress concentration (near stress raisers), incremental
crack propagation, final catastrophic failure.

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 Fatigue: Cyclic Stresses (I)

Periodic and symmetrical about zero stress

Periodic and asymmetrical about zero stress

Random stress fluctuations

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 Fatigue: Cyclic Stresses (II)
Cyclic stresses are characterized by maximum, minimum and mean
stress, the range of stress, the stress amplitude, and the stress ratio

Mean stress: σm = (σmax + σmin) / 2

Range of stress: σr = (σmax - σmin)

Stress amplitude: σa = σr/2 = (σmax - σmin)/2

Stress ratio: R = σmin / σmax

Remember the convention

that tensile stresses are
positive, compressive
stresses are negative

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 Fatigue: S — N curves (I) (stress — number of cycles to failure)

Fatigue properties of a material (S-N curves) are tested in rotating-bending tests in fatigue testing apparatus:

Result is commonly plotted as S (stress) vs. N (number of cycles to failure)

Low cycle fatigue: high loads, plastic and elastic deformation

High cycle fatigue: low loads, elastic deformation (N > 105)

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 Fatigue: S—N curves (II)

Fatigue limit (endurance limit) occurs for some materials

(e.g. some Fe and Ti alloys). In this case, the S—N curve becomes horizontal at large N. The fatigue limit is a maximum stress
amplitude below which the material never fails, no matter how large the number of cycles is.

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 Fatigue: S—N curves (III)

In most alloys, S decreases continuously with N. In this cases the fatigue properties are described by

Fatigue strength: stress at which fracture occurs after a specified number of cycles (e.g. 107)

Fatigue life: Number of cycles to fail at a specified stress level

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 Fatigue: Crack initiation and propagation (I)

Three stages of fatigue failure:

1. crack initiation in the areas of stress concentration (near stress raisers)

2. incremental crack propagation
3. final rapid crack propagation after crack reaches critical size
The total number of cycles to failure is the sum of cycles at the first and the second stages: Nf = Ni + Np

Nf : Number of cycles to failure

Ni : Number of cycles for crack initiation
Np : Number of cycles for crack propagation

High cycle fatigue (low loads): Ni is relatively high. With increasing stress level, Ni decreases and Np
dominates Fatigue: Crack initiation and propagation (II)

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Fatigue: Crack initiation and propagation (II)

• Crack initiation at the sites of stress concentration (microcracks, scratches, indents, interior corners, dislocation slip steps,
etc.). Quality of surface is important.

• Crack propagation

Stage I: initial slow propagation along crystal planes with high resolved
shear stress. Involves just a few grains, and has flat fracture surface

Stage II: faster propagation perpendicular to the applied stress. Crack

grows by repetitive blunting and sharpening process at crack tip.
Rough fracture surface.

• Crack eventually reaches critical dimension and propagates very rapidly

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Factors that affect fatigue life
• Magnitude of stress (mean, amplitude...)
• Quality of the surface (scratches, sharp transitions).

Solutions:

• Polishing (removes machining flaws etc.)

• Introducing compressive stresses (compensate for applied tensile stresses) into thin surface
layer by “Shot Peening”firing small shot into surface to be treated. High-tech solution - ion
implantation, laser peening.
• Case Hardening - create C- or N- rich outer layer in steels by atomic diffusion from the
surface. Makes harder outer layer and also introduces compressive stresses
• Optimizing geometry - avoid internal corners, notches etc.
C-rich gas

carburizing

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 Factors that affect fatigue life: environmental effects

Thermal Fatigue. Thermal cycling causes expansion and contraction, hence

thermal stress, if component is restrained.

Solutions:
• eliminate restraint by design
• use materials with low thermal expansion coefficients

Corrosion fatigue. Chemical reactions induce pits which act as stress

raisers. Corrosion also enhances crack propagation.

Solutions:
• decrease corrosiveness of medium, if possible
• add protective surface coating
• add residual compressive stresses

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 Creep

Creep is a time-dependent and permanent deformation of materials when subjected to a constant

load at a high temperature (> 0.4 Tm). Examples: turbine blades, steam generators.

Creep testing:

Furnace

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Stages of creep

1. Instantaneous deformation, mainly elastic.

2. Primary/transient creep. Slope of strain vs. time
decreases with time: work-hardening
3. Secondary/steady-state creep. Rate of straining is
constant: balance of work-hardening and recovery.

4. Tertiary. Rapidly accelerating strain rate up to failure:

formation of internal cracks, voids, grain boundary
separation, necking, etc.

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 Parameters of creep behavior

The stage of secondary/steady-state creep is of longest duration and the steady-state creep rate is the most
important parameter of the creep behavior in long-life applications.

Another parameter, especially important in short-life creep situations, is time to rupture, or the rupture lifetime, tr.

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 Creep: stress and temperature effects

With increasing stress or temperature:

• The instantaneous strain increases
• The steady-state creep rate increases
• The time to rupture decreases

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 Creep: stress and temperature effects

The stress/temperature dependence of the steady-state creep rate can be described by

where Qc is the activation energy for creep, K2 and n are material constants.
( Remember the Arrhenius dependence on temperature for thermally activated processes that we discussed for diffusion )

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 Mechanisms of Creep
Different mechanisms are responsible for creep in different materials and under different loading an
temperature conditions. The mechanisms include
• Stress-assisted vacancy diffusion
• Grain boundary diffusion
• Grain boundary sliding
• Dislocation motion

Different mechanisms result in different values of n, Qc.

Grain boundary diffusion Dislocation glide and climb

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 Alloys for high-temperature use
( turbines in jet engines, hypersonic airplanes, nuclear reactors, etc. )

Creep is generally minimized in materials with:

 High melting temperature
 High elastic modulus
 Large grain sizes (inhibits grain boundary sliding)

Following alloys are especially resilient to creep:

 Stainless steels
 Refractory metals (containing elements of high melting point, like Nb, Mo, W, Ta)
 “Superalloys” (Co, Ni based: solid solution hardening and secondary phases)

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

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 Summary

• Stress and strain: Size-independent measures of load and displacement, respectively.

• Elastic behavior: Reversible mechanical deformation, often shows a linear relation
between stress and strain.

• Elastic deformation is characterized by elastic moduli

• (E or G). To minimize deformation, select a material with a large elastic moduli (E or G).
• Plastic behavior: Permanent deformation, occurs when the tensile (or compressive)
uniaxial stress reaches the yield strength σy.
• Tensile strength: maximum stress supported by the material.
• Toughness: The energy needed to break a unit volume of material.
• Ductility: The plastic strain at failure.
• Creep is a time-dependent and permanent deformation of materials when subjected to
a constant load at a high temperature

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 Summary

Make sure you understand language and concepts:

• Anelasticity • Shear • Ductile-to-brittle

transition
• Ductility • Tensile strength •
Fatigue
• Elastic deformation
• True strain and stress
• Fatigue life
• Elastic recovery
•
Toughness
• Fatigue limit
Engineering strain and stress Yielding • Fatigue strength
• •
Engineering stress Yield strength • Impact energy
• •
Hardness Brittle fracture • Intergranular fracture
• • Stress raiser
• Modulus of elasticity Corrosion fatigue
• • Thermal fatigue
• Plastic deformation Creep
• Transgranular fracture
• Poisson’s ratio • Ductile fracture
• •

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Class Test 2: All work covered in Unit 3 – 4 will be assessed. 13/04/22
Semester Test 1: All work covered in Unit 1 – 4 will be assessed. 20/04/22

Unit 5: Processing and Applications of Metals

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 Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
Department of Chemical, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering