Lecture 8

Mechanical properties of
materials
 Historical aspects of materials development
Pyramids of Giza Colloseum Notre Dame How did we get to our
modern-day structures?

3300BC 1000BC 500AD 1500AD

Empire State Building, 1931AD

Prehistory Ancient history Post classical history Modern history

Stone Age (Neolithic) Bronze Age Iron Age

Notre Dame cathedral, 1311AD

Industrial Revolution
Early modern period Late modern period

1500AD Age of Enlightenment 1800AD present

Eiffel Tower

Why did it take us

so long to use structural steels? ?
 World’s tallest buildings
Exponential increase in building height

Freedom Tower, Burj Khalifa,

USA Dubai
1776 ft
Height, ft

Tokyo Skytree,
Japan

Twin Towers, The Shard,

USA England
 Future Mega Constructions

Name: Ultima Tower Height: 3,217 Name: Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid

metres Year of first Proposal: 1991 Date Height: 2,004 metres Year of First
of Completion: Undetermined Country of Proposal: 1996 Date of Completion:
Origin: San Francisco, USA The two-mile Undetermined Country of Origin: Tokyo,
high Ultima Tower was the vision of Name: Dubai City Tower Japan This proposed pyramid structure
architect Eugene Tsui and is the second Height: 2,400 metres Year of in Tokyo, Japan would be more than 14
tallest building ever proposed and could first Proposal: 2008 Date of times as high as the Great Pyramid of
potentially house up to 1,000,000 Completion: 2025 Country of Giza. This could also house up to
inhabitants. The tower would also utilise Origin: Dubai, United Arab 1,000,000 people. There is a problem
atmospheric pressure between the Emirates. It would be 3 times with the construction, however,
bottom and top of the tower create the height of the current tallest current materials could simply not
electricity throughout the tower. building in the world, Burj create a structure like this because of
Khalifa. The proposal includes their weight. This design is waiting on
400 floors and a 125 mph the development of super-strong
vertical bullet train posing as lightweight materials based on carbon
the main elevator. nanotubes.
 The ultimate tall structure

New building blocks will

enable mega structures

Space elevators are incredibly tall theoretical structures that stretch beyond the earth’s
atmosphere to transport satellites and shuttles into outer space without the cost and
environmental impact of rocket fueled launches.

Advances in carbon nanotubes could make it ‘theoretically’ possible create a tether that
would be strong enough to stretch more than 22,000 miles into space.

Ref: http://inhabitat.com/carbon-nanotubes-could-create-worlds-first-space-elevator/
 Projecting building height over time
Staying on the same data trend, incredibly tall buildings will be built in
the not-too-distant future…

5000
Model ExpDec1
700000
Equation y = A1*exp(-x/t1) + y0

4000 Reduced Chi 115787.004

600000
-Sqr 83
Adj. R-Squar 0.74778 Model ExpDec1
Value Standard Err
500000 Equation y = A1*exp(-x/t1) + y0

3000 height y0 0 0 Reduced Chi- 2.50226E-18

height A1 4.47421E- 2.19472E-8 Sqr
400000

Height
height t1 -74.67241 13.78275 Adj. R-Square 1
height

Value Standard Error

Height y0 1.16436E-10 2.32886E-10
2000 300000 Height A1 4.47E-9 1.64796E-22
Height t1 -74.61 8.28586E-14

200000
1000
100000

0 0
1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050 2100 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500
year Year

Space elevator completion

 Prior tallest structure record holders!

Lincoln Cathedral, UK
Tallest building in
the world from
1311AD to 1549AD

• 271 feet tall

• Construction started in 1185 AD and
opened in 1311 AD

Entirely made of stone!

 What do you notice about the Eiffel Tower?

• Made from iron-

carbon steel (cast iron)
Eiffel
Tower material
• Used triangular
structural members

Why use this

18038 pieces of
triangular
‘cast iron’ form?...
circa 1889
Paper trusses in everyday use
Cardboard boxes
 Deformation modes

Tension – The pulling force transmitted by means of a string, cable, or chain.

Compression – The pushing force on a material or structure.
 Mechanical properties determination

What is happening to the

atomic lattice when a
material is deformed under
tension?

The fundamental questions – and the reason why we are

interested in performing tensile tests – are:
What is occurring inside the material that leads to observed
mechanical properties?
What mechanical properties can be determined from a
tensile test?
 Tensile tests
Tension tests are used to
determine mechanical properties
of materials…

Why is the cross-section

smaller in diameter
toward the middle? o
 The stress-strain diagram
Force -Force

F’ Area, Ao F
length, lo

𝐹𝐹
σ= Stress, σ
𝐴𝐴𝑜𝑜

General characteristics…

Strain, ε = Deformation elongation from stress…

𝑙𝑙 −𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 ∆𝑙𝑙
ε= =
𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑜
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5A8gU37wGg
 The stress-strain diagram for metals
Modulus of Elasticity (Young’s Modulus)
Hooke’s Law
σ = Eε
Stress, σ Ultimate tensile
strength

Plastic region ,E

Elastic
region
Strain, ε = Deformation elongation from stress…

Manifested as small
Elastic deformation
changes in interatomic
i.e. nonpermanent spacing
 Rubber band Demo

Rubber band
under tension

Aligned ‘mers’
Aligning ‘mers’
Relaxed ‘mers’
 Practice problems
EXAMPLE PROBLEM 6.1 (Callister). A piece of copper originally 305 mm (12 in.) long is
pulled in tension with a stress of 276 MPa (40,000 psi). If the deformation is
entirely elastic, what will be the resultant elongation?
 The stress-strain diagram for metals
Yield Strength
The magnitude
of the yield
Stress, σ Ultimate tensile
strength strength is a
measure of its
resistance to
Plastic region plastic
deformation.
Elastic
region Permanent
atom
Strain, ε = Deformation elongation from stress… displacement
elastic plastic (unloaded)

Plastic deformation
-permanent
 Plastic Deformation
Plastic deformation – Deformation that is permanent; accompanied by
permanent atomic displacement.
…corresponds to the motion of dislocations

Slip – The process by which plastic deformation is produced by dislocation

motion.

Slip plane – The crystallographic plane along

which the dislocation line traverses.

Edge
dislocation
Dislocation
Slip plane! propagation
Relationship of E and Bonding Energy
Relationship of E and interatomic bonding forces

The modulus of elasticity, E is a

measure of the resistance to
separation of adjacent atoms.

𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝐸𝐸 = 𝑟𝑟
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑜𝑜 From Chapter2
 The stress-strain diagram for metals
Ultimate Tensile Strength

The process by which a ductile

Necking material deforms under tension
forming a thin neck.

Stress, σ Ultimate tensile

strength

Ultimate Tensile Strength

The maximum stress in
Plastic region
tension that may be
sustained without fracture.
Elastic
region

Strain, ε = Deformation elongation from stress…

Fracture occurs at the neck

 Ductile and Brittle material behavior

Toughness

Brittle fracture Ductile fracture

 Hardness
Related to the Ultimate Tensile Strength!

Ultimate tensile
Stress = Force / Area strength

Plastic region

Elastic
region

Strain = Deformation elongation or change in length from stress…

 Mechanical properties
Ultimate tensile
strength

Definitions

Strain hardening – The increase in hardness and strength of a ductile material

as it is plastically deformed due to dislocation entanglement.
Necking – The process by which a ductile material deforms under tension
forming a thin neck.
Yield strength – The stress required to produce a very slight amount of plastic
deformation.
Ultimate tensile strength – The maximum stress in tension that may be
sustained without fracture.
Fracture – The applied stress when a specimen fails or fractures.
Modulus of elasticity (E, Young’s modulus) – The ratio of the stress and strain
when deformation is totally elastic.
 Biomechanical deformation
Mechanical attributes of Tendons and Ligaments

There are 4 regions above. 1) toe region 2) linear (or elastic) region 3) progressive failure,
or plastic, region 4) major failure region.
https://www.pitchingnow.com/kinesiology/basic-biomechanics-of-tendons-and-ligaments/
 Fundamentals of fracture
Two fracture modes (for ductile and brittle metals):
Ductile fracture – Fracture that occurs by extensive plastic deformation
Brittle fracture – Fracture that occurs by rapid crack propagation and without
appreciable macroscopic deformation

mild steel aluminum

Brittle fracture Ductile fracture

Cavity coalescence
Under tension to form cracks

Fracture
Necking

Crack propagation
 Brittle versus Ductile fracture Demo

Silly Putty displays a variety of unique properties…

 Fracture mechanics
Three ways cracks proceed:

Cracks form on the surface at a

high stress site:
Tensile mode Sliding mode Tearing mode • Scratches
• Sharp machined indentations
• Dents

Important points...
• Ductile materials have relatively large fracture toughness values
• Brittle materials have low fracture toughness and vulnerable to catastrophic failure
• Brittle materials contain a population of small cracks and flaws- when the tensile
stress exceeds critical stress, a crack forms and then ‘propagates’
Tearing mode Demo
Tearing mode
‘Stress concentrator’ ridges
‘Stress concentrator’ notches

Are these stress concentrators really necessary?

 Mohs Hardness scale

German geologist and

mineralogist, Carl
Friedrich Christian
Mohs
Using
common
Mohs studied at the Mining Academy items to
in Freiberg, Saxony (Germany) in the identify
early 1800s and eventually served as a minerals
foreman at a mine. Thereafter, he
worked with private gem collectors
and a museum which led to his
interest in classifying minerals based
on their physical characteristics.
Our interest for MateriaLab 5:
Chemical bond energy, E0 is
related to melting point and
therefore related to materials
hardness
MateriaLab 6: Mohs Hardness Lab

https://www.nps.gov/articles/mohs-hardness-scale.htm
MateriaLab 6: Mohs Hardness Lab
 Material Melting Point (C)
Diamond Sublimes to vapor
Corundum 2000
Quartz 1700
Fluorite 1418
Calcite 1339
Talc 900

Bonding energy correlates with material melting point and hardness…

 Corundum

topaz Gypsum

Talc Apatite
calcite

Feldspar

fluorite Quartz
 History of gemstone use

Neolithic Chinese were using diamonds to polish a special

group of ceremonial stone burial axes as early as 2500 BC,
made predominantly of the mineral corundum (sapphire).

Unpolished, rougher versions of similar axes made from

the same stone appear as early as 4000 BC, pushing back
the first known use of the mineral corundum to that time.

3300BC 1000BC Classical antiquity 500AD 1500AD

Prehistory Ancient history Post classical history Modern history

Stone Age (Neolithic) Bronze Age Iron Age

Early modern period Late modern period

1500AD Age of Enlightenment 1800AD present

http://www.peterlu.org/content/first-use-diamond
MateriaLab 6: Mohs Hardness Lab