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Stress-strain curve

 

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Stress-strain curve



 
 
During testing of a material sample, the stress–strain curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between stress
Stress (physics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces....
, derived from measuring the load applied on the sample, and strain
Strain (materials science)

In continuum mechanics, the infinitesimal strain theory, sometimes called small deformation theory, small displacement theory, or small displacement-gradient theory, deals with infinitesimal Deformation s of a Continuum mechanics....
, derived from measuring the deformation
Deformation

In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an applied force . This can be a result of tensile strength forces, compressive strength forces, Simple shear, bending or torsion ....
 of the sample, i.e. elongation, compression, or distortion. The nature of the curve varies from material to material. The following diagrams illustrate the stress–strain behaviour of typical materials in terms of the engineering stress and engineering strain where the stress and strain are calculated based on the original dimensions of the sample and not the instantaneous values.

Ductile materials
Steel generally exhibits a very linear stress–strain relationship up to a well defined yield point (figure 1).






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During testing of a material sample, the stress–strain curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between stress
Stress (physics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces....
, derived from measuring the load applied on the sample, and strain
Strain (materials science)

In continuum mechanics, the infinitesimal strain theory, sometimes called small deformation theory, small displacement theory, or small displacement-gradient theory, deals with infinitesimal Deformation s of a Continuum mechanics....
, derived from measuring the deformation
Deformation

In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an applied force . This can be a result of tensile strength forces, compressive strength forces, Simple shear, bending or torsion ....
 of the sample, i.e. elongation, compression, or distortion. The nature of the curve varies from material to material. The following diagrams illustrate the stress–strain behaviour of typical materials in terms of the engineering stress and engineering strain where the stress and strain are calculated based on the original dimensions of the sample and not the instantaneous values.

Ductile materials


Steel generally exhibits a very linear stress–strain relationship up to a well defined yield point (figure 1). The linear portion of the curve is the elastic
Deformation

In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an applied force . This can be a result of tensile strength forces, compressive strength forces, Simple shear, bending or torsion ....
 region and the slope is the modulus of elasticity or Young's Modulus
Young's modulus

In solid mechanics, Young's modulus is a measure of the stiffness of an isotropic elastic material. It is also known as the Young modulus, modulus of elasticity, elastic modulus or tensile modulus....
. After the yield point, the curve typically decreases slightly because of dislocations escaping from Cottrell atmospheres
Cottrell atmosphere

In materials science, the concept of the Cottrell atmosphere was introduced by Cottrell and Bilby in 1949 to explain how dislocations are pinned in some metals by carbon or nitrogen Interstitial_defect....
. As deformation continues, the stress increases on account of strain hardening until it reaches the ultimate strength. Until this point, the cross-sectional area decreases uniformly because of Poisson contractions
Poisson's ratio

Poisson's ratio , named after Simeon Poisson, is the ratio of the contraction or transverse strain , to the extension or axial strain .When a sample cube of a materials is stretched in one direction, it tends to contract in the other two directions perpendicular to the direction of stretch....
.

However, beyond this point a neck
Necking (engineering)

In engineering or materials science, necking is a mode of tensile deformation where relatively large amounts of Deformation_ localize disproportionately in a small region of the material....
 forms where the local cross-sectional area decreases more quickly than the rest of the sample resulting in an increase in the true stress
Stress (physics)

In continuum mechanics, stress is a measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area. It is a measure of the intensity of the total internal forces acting within a body across imaginary internal surfaces, as a reaction to external applied forces and body forces....
. On an engineering stress–strain curve this is seen as a decrease in the stress. Conversely, if the curve is plotted in terms of true stress and true strain the stress will continue to rise until failure. Eventually the neck becomes unstable and the specimen ruptures (fractures).

Less ductile materials such as aluminum and medium to high carbon steels do not have a well-defined yield point. For these materials the yield strength is typically determined by the "offset yield method", by which a line is drawn parallel to the linear elastic portion of the curve and intersecting the abscissa at some arbitrary value (most commonly 0.2%). The intersection of this line and the stress–strain curve is reported as the yield point.

Brittle materials

Stress V Strain Brittle 2
Brittle
Brittle

A material is brittle if it is liable to fracture when subjected to stress . That is, it has little tendency to deform before fracture. This fracture absorbs relatively little energy, even in materials of high Strength of materials, and usually makes a snapping sound....
 materials such as concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
 and carbon fiber
Carbon fiber

Carbon fiber or is a material consisting of extremely thin fibers about 0.005?0.010 mm in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. The carbon atoms are bonded together in microscopic crystals that are more or less aligned parallel to the long axis of the fiber....
 do not have a yield point, and do not strain-harden which means that the ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same. A most unusual stress-strain curve is shown in the figure. Typical brittle materials like glass
Glass

Glass generally refers to a Hardness, brittle, transparency amorphous solid, such as that used for windows, many Glass Bottles, or eyewear, including, but not limited to, soda-lime glass, borosilicate glass, acrylic glass, sugar glass, Muscovite , or aluminium oxynitride....
 do not show any plastic deformation but fail while the deformation is elastic
Elastic

Elastic may refer to:*Elastic collision, a term describing collisions in which kinetic energy is conserved*Elastic deformation, a reversible deformation of a material...
. One of the characteristics of a brittle failure is that the two broken parts can be reassembled to produce the same shape as the original component as there will not be a neck formation like in the case of ductile materials. A typical stress strain curve for a brittle material will be linear. Testing of several identical specimens will result in different failure stresses. The curve shown below would be typical of a brittle polymer tested at very slow strain rates at a temperature above its glass transition temperature
Glass transition temperature

The Glass transition temperature, Tg, is the temperature at which an amorphous solid, such as glass or a polymer, becomes wikt:brittle on cooling, or soft on heating....
. Some engineering ceramics show a small amount of ductile behaviour at stresses just below that causing failure but the initial part of the curve is a linear.

In brittle materials such as rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
, concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
, cast iron
Cast iron

Cast iron usually refers to Gray iron, but also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys, which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy....
, or soil
Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
, tensile strength is negligible compared to the compressive strength and it is assumed zero for many engineering applications. Glass fibers have a tensile strength
Tensile strength

Tensile strength , or is the Stress at which a material breaks or permanently deforms. Tensile strength is an Intensive and extensive properties and, consequently, does not depend on the size of the test specimen....
 stronger than steel, but bulk glass usually does not. This is because of the Stress Intensity Factor
Stress Intensity Factor

Stress Intensity Factor, K, is used in fracture mechanics to more accurately predict the stress state near the tip of a crack caused by a remote Structural load or residual stresses....
 associated with defects in the material. As the size of the sample gets larger, the size of defects also grows. In general, the tensile strength of a rope is always less than the tensile strength of its individual fibers.

Properties


The area underneath the stress–strain curve is the toughness
Toughness

Toughness, in materials science and metallurgy, is the resistance to fracture of a material when stress . It is defined as the amount of energy per volume that a material can absorb before rupture ....
 of the material—the energy the material can absorb prior to rupture.

The resilience
Resilience

Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed Elasticity and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered....
 of the material is the triangular area underneath the elastic
Deformation

In materials science, deformation is a change in the shape or size of an object due to an applied force . This can be a result of tensile strength forces, compressive strength forces, Simple shear, bending or torsion ....
 region of the curve. By Definition Resilience
Resilience

Resilience is the property of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed Elasticity and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered....
 is the property of a material to absorb energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
 when it is deformed elastically and then, upon unloading to have this energy recovered.

See also

  • Strength of materials
    Strength of materials

    In materials science, the strength of a material refers to the material's ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. Yield strength refers to the point on the engineering stress-strain curve beyond which the material begins deformation that cannot be reversed upon removal of the loading....
  • Tensometer
    Tensometer

    A tensometer is a device used to evaluate the Young's modulus of a material and other tensile properties of materials, such as tensile strength....