CE 265 Lab No.

2:
Tensile Testing of Steel
See web for typical report format including:
TITLE PAGE, ABSTRACT, TABLE OF CONTENTS,
LIST OF TABLE, LIST OF FIGURES

1.0 - INTRODUCTION
See General Lab Report Format in Appendix A

2.0 - DATA ANALYSIS

The purpose is to calculate mechanical properties of steel, namely Modulus of Elasticity,
yield stress, ultimate stress, resilience, fracture toughness, failure strain, and % area
reduction.

2.1 - Details of Samples

• Briefly describe the samples used for this experiment as summarized in Table 2.1.
Mention physical state, surface imperfections and so on.

Table 2.1 -Specimen Condition and Loading Details

Specimen Symbol Loading Details
As Received (AR) S/AR Continuous loading to failure
As Received and Cold S/AR-CW Load beyond yield, unload and
Steel
Worked (S/AR-CW) reload to failure
(1020)
As Received, Cold Worked S/AR-CW-A Load beyond yield, unload, age,
and Aged (/AR-CW-A) reload to failure
Stainless Type 304 SS Continuous loading to failure
Brass B Continuous loading to failure
Copper C Continuous loading to failure

S – Steel, AR – As Received, CW – Cold Worked, A – Aged

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

2.2 - Specimen Geometry
Describe the geometry of the specimens using Figure 1 and Table 2.2.

Figure 1 – Typical Specimen

Table 2.2 - Specimen Geometry (mm)
Specimen Width (Wo) Thickness (to) Gauge Length (Lo) Cross Sectional Area (Ao)
S/AR
S/AR-CW
S/AR-CW-A
SS
B
C

2.3 - Details of Testing Equipment

• Describe the Instron Testing Machine (briefly)
• Report the Units of machine measurements: displacement in mm and load in kg. You
will have to multiply the load in kg by acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2) to find
the load in Newtons.
• The following picture is off the Internet; a picture of the actual machine in the lab is
better.

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

2.4 - Measured Data
• Describe the data you will determine from the load/displacement graphs produced by
the testing machine.
• Refer to Tables 2.3 and 2.4 for this task.

Table 2.3 - Specimen Dimensions After Tensile Testing (mm)

Specimens Width (Wf) Thickness (tf) Gauge Length (Lf) Cross Sectional Area (Af)
S/AR
S/AR-CW
S/AR-CW-A
SS
B
C

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

Table 2.4 – Measured Values from load – displacement graphs.
Date:
Testing Information: Measured Values
Group No. and Names:
Notes:
Specimen Yield Yield Displacement Maximum Failure
Load (kg) (mm) Load (kg) Displacement (mm)
S/AR
S/AR-CW
S/AR-CW-A
SS
B
C

2.5- Plots of Engineering Stress vs. Strain and True Stress vs. True Strain
• You will want to explain what these graphs are and how they are helpful in
engineering. You may choose to include these graphs in the report itself or include in
an Appendix.
• Plots required for all specimens.
• The graph displays loads in kg, therefore multiply by acceleration due to gravity (9.81
m/s2) to get the force in Newtons.

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

• Engineering Stress
P
σE = (Equation 1)
A
where P is the load in Newtons (force read from the load-disp. Graph, P = w × g , where
w is the load in kg, and g=9.81 m/s2) and Ao (Table 2.2) is the original cross sectional
area.
P ( Newtons )
σ E ( Pa ) =
Ao ( m 2 )
P ( Newtons )
σ E ( MPa ) = , 1 MPa = 106 Pa
Ao ( mm 2 )
• Engineering Strain is the change in length of the specimen divided by its original
length.
∆L
εE = (Equation 2)
Lo

where Lo is the original length (Table 2.2) and ∆L is the change in length,
∆L = Lf-Lo (Equation 3)
where Lo is the original length (Table 2.2)
• True Strain is the logarithm (ln) of instantaneous length divided by the original
length.
⎛L ⎞
ε T = ln⎜⎜ i ⎟⎟ (Equation 4)
⎝ Lo ⎠
where Li is the instantaneous length and Lo is the original length. It can be obtained from
εE as:
ε T = ln(1 + ε E ) (Equation 5)
where εE is Engineering Strain. This formula is valid up to the point of neck initiation.
• True Stress (σT) is the Load divided by the instantaneous cross-sectional area.
P
σT = (Equation 6)
Ai
where P is the load in Newtons, and Ai is the instantaneous cross-sectional area. It can be
obtained from

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

σ T = σ E (1 + ε E ) (Equation 7)
where εE is engineering strain and σE. is the engineering stress.

2.6- Mechanical Properties

• Explain what the mechanical properties are (Modulus of Elasticity, yield stress,
ultimate stress, resilience, fracture toughness, failure strain, and % area reduction)
and why they are important.
• Follow the formulae below.
Table 2.5 Mechanical Properties.
Date:
Testing Information: Measured Values
Group No. and Names:
Notes:
Modulus Yield Ultimate Ductility Resilience Fracture Failure % Area
Specimen of E. Stress Stress (Mpa) Toughness Strain Reduction
(GPa) (MPa) (MPa) (Mpa)
S/AR
S/AR-CW
S/AR-
CW-A
SS
B
C

• The modulus of Elasticity (E) is the slope of the linear part of the stress strain graph.
The slope is rise over run, or vertical projection divided by horizontal projection; as
shown below.
E = ∆σ / ∆ε . (Equation 8)

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

• The yield stress (σy) of a material is the stress at the point where linear behaviour of
stress vs. strain stops. This is the upper yield point on this picture.

• The Ultimate Stress is the stress at the point where necking begins.
• Ductility is a measure of how much a material will stretch or deform.
Ductility = [( Lf − Lo) / Lo] × 100 (Equation 9)
where Lf (Table 2.3) is the final length of the specimen and Lo (Table 2.2) is the initial
length.
• Resilience (Ur) is the amount of energy that can be absorbed during the linear
behaviour of the specimen. This is the area under the linear portion of the stress-
strain plot up to the yield point.
1
Ur = × σ y × ε y (Equation 10)
2
where the strain (εy) and stress (σy) are measured at the yield point.

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

• Toughness is the amount of energy the specimen can absorb until failure. This is the
area under the stress-strain graph up to the failure point. This is easily done by
counting the squares under the line on graph paper. Make sure you correctly
calculate the dimensions and units of you squares. If you have electronic data, it
toughness is easy to calculate by numerical integration.
• Failure strain is the strain at the point of failure.
• % Area reduction is another measure of ductility.
( Ao − A f )
% Area Reduction = × 100 (Equation 11)
Ao
where Ao (Table 2.2) is the initial cross sectional area and Af (Table 2..3) is the final
cross sectional area.
3.0 - DATA INTERPRETATION
Use this section to discuss the effects of cold working and aging on the mechanical
properties.
3.1 - Cold Working (Strain Hardening)
In this section, explain the cold working and its effects on strength and ductility.
Cold working is the process used to increase the yield stress of a specimen. A
specimen is cold worked when it is stretched beyond its elastic limit. The yield stress
the material was taken to will become its new yield stress. The specimen will
however undergo permanent deformation. In brief, cold working makes a specimen
less ductile as it increases its yield stress.

3.2 - Aging (Precipitation Hardening)

Aging is another process used to decrease ductility as it raises the yield stress of a
material. Aging is also called precipitation hardening. Aging consists of placing
a specimen in a furnace for approximately 90 minutes or until the small particles
of one of the composition metals starts to precipitate on the other or others. This
makes the material stronger and lowers its ductility.

CE265 Materials Fall 2004

3.3 - Mechanical Properties
This is where you will discuss and explain the mechanical properties of the
specimens and how they changed according to the treatment they underwent or
the type of metal alloy. You should also explain the importance of these
mechanical properties to engineering design.

4.0 - CONCLUDING REMARKS

See General Lab Report Format on web

5.0 - REFERENCES
See General Lab Report Format on web.

APPENDICES
If you have included other things in the appendices, make sure you created an
appendix label for each. Appendices are to be numbered in order that they appear. You
may choose numbers or letters. Also include in the appendices, the graph created by the
Instron, extra pictures, and any other material or calculation methods you used to obtain
your material properties.
• Sample Calculations
• Plots and Raw Data

OTHER INFORMATION
You may also choose to add extra sections if needed to provide additional
information such as error analysis of test data.

CE265 Materials Fall 2004