Department of Civil, Mining and Process Engineering

Materials Science124 (MLS 521S)

Laboratory Practical- Determination of physical, mechanical and chemical properties of
plain carbon steel and aluminium alloy

Aim of the practical

The overall objective of this practical is to determine the physical, mechanical and chemical
properties of two alloys, aluminium and plain carbon steel. In particular:

1) to determine the mechanical properties of the alloys through tensile testing.

2)To determine the densities of the materials.
3) To determine the hardness the materials.
4) To determine the corrosion behaviour of the materials in a sea water.

Section A: Tensile Testing

Tensile testing is carried out to determine some mechanical properties of materials such as
yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, Modulus of elasticity, ductility, etc.

In this section, you are going to follow the video link for tensile testing provided below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8U4G5kcpcM&t=4s

Two samples, plain carbon steel and an aluminium alloy are tensile tested separately.

Procedure
1. Open the video link provided. Note the original dimensions of the test pieces, i.e., the
original gage length and diameter.
2. Follow the video tensile test for plain carbon steel until the test piece breaks. Record
the Force(kN) and gage length (mm) after every 10 seconds (except for the last values,
which may come earlier than 10 seconds) using Table 1 below.
3. Follow the video tensile test for the aluminium alloy until the test piece breaks. Record
the Force(kN) and gage length (mm) after every 5 seconds (except for the last values,
which may come earlier than 5 seconds) using Table 2 below.

Note: Note that the last values will be values at failure (not at 0 kN force). Hence you need
to pay very close attention as the samples break. Example of the first few values is shown
in the respective tables.
 Table 1: Force-Gage length for Plain Table 2: Force-Gage Length for
Carbon Steel Aluminium alloy
Force (kN) Gage length (mm) Force (kN) Gage length (mm)
0 100 0 100
0.03 100 0.06 100.019
0.15 100
1.28 100.01

Section B: Hardness measurement

Hardness is a measure of the material’s resistance to deformation. It is a good indication of

how easy or difficult it is to plastically deform a material.

In this experiment, you will need:

(a) Two samples, plain carbon steel and aluminium alloy provided.
(b) Micro-hardness testing machine.

Procedure

1. Measure the Vickers hardness of each material using a test load of 1kg. Take five
measurements on each material.
2. Determine the average Vickers hardness from the five measurements.

Section C: Determining density of materials using the displacement method

Density is a physical property of a material and is defined as the mass per unit volume. It is
also an indirect measure of the efficiency of the packing of atoms in a given material.
Measured density is determined from equation 1:

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (𝑔)
Density = (equation 1)
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 (𝑐𝑚3 )
In this experiment you will need the following:
(a) Two samples, plain carbon steel and aluminium provided.
(b) A weighing balance/scale.
(c) Graduated measuring cylinder.
(d) Tap water.

Procedure
1. Weigh each sample and record the mass in grams.
2. Pour water into the graduated measuring cylinder, enough to submerge one sample.
Record the volume of water in millilitres (V1).
3. Put one sample into the graduated measuring cylinder so that it is completely
submerged and record the new volume in millilitres (V2). Repeat for both samples.
4. Determine the volume of the samples by subtracting the volume of water only from
the volume of water + sample (V2 – V1). (Note that 1ml = 1cm3)
5. Determine the measured densities of the samples using equation 1.

Section D: Determining the corrosion behaviour of materials in sea water

Materials corrode or degrade when subjected to certain conditions. Different material groups
corrode/degrade under different conditions, and this represents the chemical behaviour of
the materials.

In this experiment you will need the following:

(a) Two samples, plain carbon steel and aluminium alloy provided.
(b) Sea water.
(c) A beaker.

Procedure
1. Thoroughly clean the samples to remove any dirty from the surface using sandpaper
(if necessary). Take a photo of samples.
2. Put the samples in the beaker.
3. Pour enough sea water to submerge the samples into the beakers. Leave the samples
undisturbed for 24 hours.
4. Retrieve the samples from the sea water, observe and record any changes on each
material surface. (Take photos of the samples)
 TOTAL MARKS: 100

Format of the report

1. Background: Give a brief introduction of the experiments. (3 marks)

2. Objectives of the experiments in your own words. (4 marks)

3. Description of the Apparatus used (5 marks).

4. Experimental Procedures. (5 marks)

5. Present your results as follows:

A. (i) Present the tensile test result in separate tables as shown below. (10
marks)

Force (F) Stress (σ)/ Pa Gage length Change in length Strain (ε)
/N (L) (mm) (ΔL = L – Lo)

(ii) Plot the stress-strain curves for the materials in separate graphs. (10
marks)
(iii) From the stress-strain curves, determine following properties for the
respective materials: (15 marks)
- Modulus of Elasticity.
- Yield strength (in answering this, take into consideration whether the
material has the yield point phenomena or not).
- Ultimate tensile strength.
- Fracture strength.
- Ductility in terms of percentage elongation.

B. Present the measured and average Vickers hardness of the materials in a table.
(5 marks)
C. Calculate the theoretical densities of iron and aluminium respectively.
Present weight, volume, and measured densities and theoretical densities of
the materials in a table. (5 marks)
D. Describe the appearance of the materials after being submerged in sea water,
incorporating photos to support your descriptions. (5 marks)

6. Discussion:
a. Comment on the mechanical properties of two materials and explain
the differences observed. (5 marks)
 b. (i) Compare the measured and theoretical densities of each material.
Explain the differences observed. (6 marks)
(ii) Compare the measured densities of the plain carbon steel and
aluminium. Explain the differences observed. (4 marks)
c. (i) Compare the hardness of the materials. Which material is the
hardest and softest? Explain the difference observe. (5 Marks).
d. (i) Which material is the most affected and least affected by the sea
water? Explain why the materials are affected differently. (4 marks)
e. Suggest two possible applications of each of the materials tested
supporting your suggestions with your results obtained in the
experiments. (4 marks).

7. (a) Conclusion. (5 marks)

Please report to the Metallurgy Laboratory on the ground floor in the New
Engineering building, with full Personal Protective Clothing.
The laboratory report is due one week after the practical!!