FreshmanEngineeringClinicIISpring2011.docVIP

Freshman Engineering Clinic II Spring 2011 Dr. Kauser Jahan Materials Engineers use a wide variety of materials in their engineering products. Materials range from metals and alloys, ceramics and glasses, polymers, composites and semiconductors. Soil, aggregates, wood, concrete and asphalt are common materials used by civil engineers. Engineers thus need to have a fundamental understanding of material properties because material selection is the final practical decision in the engineering design process and can ultimately determine the success or failure of the design. The simplest question an engineer can ask of a material is (a) how strong is it? (b) How much deformation occurs under a certain load? The objective of this laboratory is to provide some basic understanding of mechanical properties of materials when subjected to an axial force. This force can subject the member either to tension or compression as shown in Figure 1. Stress and Strain: Stress, ?? is defined as the force per unit area on a material. Therefore it has the units of psi (pounds per square inches) or Pa (Pascals). Strain, ?, is defined as the deformation per unit length. It is dimensionless. Therefore, for a rod under applied load as indicated in Figure 2, the stress is ? = F/A and the strain is ? = ?x/L. All engineering materials deform under applied forces. Some materials are ductile while others are brittle. Steel and ferrous allows are ductile while ceramics and glass are brittle. The steel rod in Figure 2, subjected to an applied force F, has deflected an amount equal to ?x. Typically, this deflection is proportional to the applied force. Stress-Strain Diagram Stress-strain diagrams of various materials vary widely. It is possible however to distinguish materials