Mechanical Behaviour of Materials and Alloy

Theory and Equilibrium Diagrams

By Titus Mulembo
Department of Mechatronic Engineering, DEKUT
Overview
The mechanical properties of a material are those properties that involve a
reaction to an applied load.

Why is an understanding of the mechanical behaviour of materials

important?

• The mechanical properties of metals determine the range of usefulness of a

material and establish the service life that can be expected.
• Mechanical properties are also used to help classify and identify material.
• The most common properties considered are strength, ductility, hardness,
impact resistance, and fracture toughness.

Basic facts about Mechanincal properties of materials

• Most structural materials are anisotropic, which means that their material
properties vary with orientation.
• Mechanical properties are generally specific to product form such as sheet,
plate, extrusion, casting, forging, and etc.
• The mechanical properties of a material are not constants and often change
as a function of several factors including temperature, rate of loading, and
other conditions.
Modes of failure in materials

Depending on the mechanical properties of a material, there are several

reasons/modes of failure. These include:-
• Plastic deformation: Permanent distortion that occurs when a material
is subjected to tensile, compressive, bending, or torsion stresses that
exceed its yield strength and cause it to elongate, compress, buckle,
bend, or twist.
Yield point

Elastic
deformation
region Plastic deformation
region

Fig 1: Stress strain curve for conventional materials such

as steel
• By yielding: Yield strength is the maximum stress that can be applied
before a material begins to change shape permanently.
• This is an approximation of a material’s elastic limit.
• If stress is added to a material but does not reach the yield point,
the material will return to its original shape after the stress is
removed.
• By fracture: This is the separation or
fragmentation of a solid body into two or more
parts under the action of stresses. Fracture can
be ductile or brittle.

• Ductile fracture involves a lot of plastic

deformation and can be detected
beforehand.

• Brittle failure is the brisk propagation of

Fig 2: Ductile and brittle
cracks through a material which typically fracture
occurs so quickly that no plastic
deformation takes place before fracture
Modes of failure in materials

• By fatigue (delayed fracture): Fatigue failure is the formation and

propagation of cracks due to a repetitive or cyclic load. Most fatigue
failures are caused by cyclic loads significantly below the loads that
would result in yielding of the material.

Fig 3: Fatigue failure

demonstration.

Comparison of loading and

unloading cycles from nitinol
samples machined using micro-
EDM with different discharge
energies

• By environmentally-assisted cracking (delayed fracture) e.g., by bending

a material back and forth under salty water.
• By corrosion and/or wear (surface damage)
Key mechanical properties of materials

Stress – When a force is applied on an elastic body, the body deforms and the
way a body deforms depends on the type of force applied.
• A compressive force makes the body shorter whereas a tensile force
makes the body longer. These are DIRECT FORCES.
• Shear forces are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one
specific direction, and another part of the body in the opposite direction.

Stress is force per the unit

area on which it acts.
Stress, σ

Fig 4: Compressive, tensile and shear

forces
Strain: This is the measure of the deformation
of an object under stress and is defined as the
fractional change of the object’s length when
the object experiences tensile stress.
Strain, ε
Elongation is a percentage calculated as
% ɛ = (ΔL/L) x 100.
Ultimate elongation is the elongation at fracture
point.

Example: A steel rod is 2.5 mm in diameter

and 2 mm long. A force of 12 N is applied to it
and it streches 0.3 mm. Assuming that the
material is in the elastic region, determine the
stress and strain in the steel rod.
Ans: σ = 2.44 Mpa and ε = 0.00015

Reading assignment: Distinguish between

engineering stress and stain vs true stress Fig 5: Compressive and tensile forces
and their resulting elongations
and strain.
Engineering vs true stress and strain

Engineering stress – This is the force

divided by the original area of the
specimen before loading: σ = F/Ao.

However, as a material is loaded, the

area decreases. Therefore, the true
stress is the value of stress in the
material considering the actual area of
the specimen.

Because the area decreases as a

material is loaded, true stress is higher
than engineering stress.
Fig 6: True and Engineering Stress-Strain
Curves
The engineering stress-strain curve
drops after the ultimate strength is
reached because the force that can be
supported by the material drops as it
Young‘s Modulus (Elastic Modulus): This is in essence the stiffness of a
material. In other words, it is how easily it is bended or stretched.
Young's Modulus, E = =

Yield stress: Unless directly given, the most common engineering

approximation for yield stress is the 0.2 percent offset rule. To apply this rule,
assume that yield strain is 0.2 percent, and multiply by Young's Modulus for your
material σ = 0.002 x E.
Yield Stress,

Proof stress: The proof stress of a material is defined as the amount of stress it
can endure until it undergoes a relatively small amount of plastic deformation.
Specifically, proof stress is the point at which the material exhibits 0.2% of plastic
deformation.

Ultimate tensile strength: Ultimate strength is the point that separates the strain
hardening region and the necking region (refer to Fig. 1). It shows the maximum
amount of stress a material can bear before failure.
Ultimate tensile strength,
Fracture stress: Fracture strength, also known as breaking strength, is
the stress at which a specimen fails via fracture.
Fracture stress =
Toughness: It denotes how well a material can resist fracturing when force is
applied. It requires strength & ductility which allows a material to deform before
fracturing.
Modulus of Toughness: The modulus of toughness is the amount of strain
energy per unit volume that a material can absorb just before it fractures. The
modulus of toughness is calculated as the area under the stress-strain curve up
to the fracture point.
Modulus of toughness
can be approximated
as:-

Where: is yield stress, is

the ultimate tensile stress
and is the strain at
fracture.
Fig 7: Illustration of modulous of
toughness
Stress-Strain Curves for conventional materials – steel example

Characteristics

1. Recoverable
elongagtions usually
less that 1%
2. Performs poorly under
cyclic loading (low
fatigue resistance)

Fig 8: Stress stain relationship for conventional materials such

as steel
Stress-Strain Curves for superelastic materials – nitinol example

Characteristics

1. Recoverable
elongagtions of over
8% achievable
2. Performs well under
cyclic loading (high
fatigue resistance)

Fig 9: Stress stain relationship for superelastic

nitinol
Superelasticity (pseudoelasticity) is the ability of a material to recover the original
shape after undergoing large deformations induced by mechanical loads.
• It is caused by a phase transformation between the austenitic and martensitic
phases of a crystal.
• It is exhibited in shape-memory alloys and allows for large stains of over 8% to
be recovered as is the case in nitinol (unlike 0.8% for steel).
• The superelastic nature of nitinol shape memory alloys alows the material to be
applied in areas where a lot of cyclic loading is involved such as in making
• stents
As shownbodyinimplants.
Figure 9, nitinol's stress-
strain behaviour also exhibits a close
similarity to that of bone and tendon,
as opposed to steel which has a
significantly different stress-strain
behaviour.
• This allows nitinol to be successfully
utilized in medical applications thus
leading to more rapid healing times
and less trauma infliction to
surrounding tissues. Fig 10: Typical stress - strain relationship for
NB: Read on other mechanical tests: hardness, nitinol, stainless steel, bone and tendon
impact, creep, fatigue, bending, torshion, tissues
Phase diagrams
 Introduction
Phase:
A region in a material that differs in structure and function from other
regions.

Phase diagrams:
• Represents phases present in metal at different conditions (Temperature,
pressure and composition).

• Indicates equilibrium solid solubility of one element in another.

• Indicates temperature range under which solidification occurs.

• Indicates temperature at which different phases start to melt.

Phase diagrams of pure substances
• Pure substance exist as solid, liquid and vapor.
• Phases are separated by phase boundaries.
• Example : Water, Pure Iron.
• Different phases coexist at triple point.

Fig. 1(a): Pure water phase diagram Fig. 1(b): Pure iron phase diagram
Cooling curves
• Used to determine phase transition temperature.
• Temperature and time data of cooling molten metal is recorded and plotted.
• Thermal arrest : heat lost = heat supplied by solidifying metal
• Alloys solidify over a range of temperature (no thermal arrest)
• The liquidus temperature is the temperature above which a material is
completely liquid.
• The solidus temperature is the temperature which the alloy is 100% solid.
• The freezing range of the alloy is the temperature difference between the
liquidus and solidus where the two phases exists, ie., the liquid and solid.

Fig. 2(a): Pure metal cooling curve Fig. 2(b): Iron cooling curve
Lever rule
• The Lever rule gives the weight % of phases in any two phase regions.

Wt fraction of solid phase

= Xs = w0 – w1
ws – w1

Wt fraction of liquid phase

= Xl = ws – w0
ws – w1
W0 is the weight percentage of the alloy.
Ws is the weight percentage within the
solid phase
Fig. 7: Lever rule representation Wl is the weight percentage in the liquid
phase
Iron-Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
• Iron is an allotropic
material (the existence
of a chemical element in
two or more forms).
• The temperature at
which the allotropic
changes take place in
iron is influenced by
alloying elements, the
most important of which
is carbon.
• Phases present:
• α-Ferrite:
• Austenite (γ-phase of
iron)
• δ-ferrite
• Cementite (Fe3C) Fig. 8: Iron-Carbide Equilibrium
diagram
Iron-Carbon Equilibrium Diagram

Fig. 9: Iron-Carbide Equilibrium

diagram
end