Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Lab Report No. 1B

Uniaxial Compression Tests

Student Name
Kenneth Knowles

Student ID
41107018

Individual grade %20

Group grade %80

Final grade

/100

Lab Instructor: Lin Wang

September 24, 2013

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Table of Contents Objective....1 Procedure...1 Analysis of the Raw Test Data..3 Conclusion.....6

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Objective To determine the compressive stress strain relationship for materials such as steel, aluminum, and brass, and obtain the mechanical properties such as the modulus of elasticity (Youngs modulus), the yield stress,and the equivalent tensile ultimate stress, uniform elongation strain, and ductility ratio, etc. Materials, Tools and Equipment Cylindrical compression test coupons, micrometer/caliper, tape measure, and the Model 5582 Instron Universal Materials Testing System with a non-contact video extensometer Experimental Procedure Set-Up and Prepare the Instron machine 1. Turn on the Instron machine and computer. Then open Bluehill software, wait until the connection sound. 2. Select the test method compression test for ME2140, and create a new data folder name. The loading ramp consists of a holding period, initial loading, unloading, reloading, and final holding (at a preset maximum displacement or loading level), and final unloading steps. 3. Measure the specimen dimensions (height and diameter of cylinder) five times, get the average value and fill in the Method/Dimensions section of the Bluehill test method. 4. Manually move the platens for 5 mm to make sure the light and tracking dots is stable. 5. Lubricate the top and bottom surface with extreme pressure premium red grease, or put Teflon tape both faces. Put the specimen in the center of the platens. Balance the load so the reading on the load is nearly zero. Do both coarse and fine adjustment using the control panel until the compressive load has large change. 6. Reset the compression extension so the starting extension is zero.

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Set-Up and Prepare the video extensometer measurements 1. Camcorder set up of tripod and dots preparation and attachment 2. Turn on the light and adjust camera position 3. Turn on the camcorder to the record mode, manually zoom and switch to auto focus. Make sure the focus point is the dot. Execute the compression test and video extensometer measurements 1. Start the Bluehill test session for the Instron machine and start recording with the camcorder simultaneously. 2. When the Instron machine stops, manually stop the recording in camcorder. Assembly Test Data Files 1. Capture the recorded video in the save it in the computer. 2. Open the Labview file open video and tracking dots.vi for video extensometer in the Programming folder on the desktop. Press start arrow and load the saved video, then choose the file path to save video extensometer file. 3. Save the video extensometer file to xls format, replace : with ,, delete PM Go to Data/text to columns/delimiters (choose tab and comma). Then the time ( hour/min/sec/ were separated to three columns. 4. Save as csv file. And close. 5. Open cidapro.ini in newVideoExt_Program file folder. Copy 'Convert a video extensometer data file into a new format' part to the top and change the corresponding file names. Then save.

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Analysis of the Raw Test Data After the test, the Instron machine will generate a raw test data file automatically. The Bluehill software will output the raw test data as a CSV file, which can be read and edited by Microsoft Excel. Here a typical raw data file of a uniaxial compression test is used as an example to explain how to process the data. Plots of the Stress-Strain diagrams Each CSV data file has 4 columns: Time (t), Load (P), Extension of the crosshead, and Extension measured by the non-contact video extensometer. The Load values are in Newtons and the Extension values are in mm. It should be noted that what we get from the non-contact extensometer measurement represents the extensions between the two loading platens that sandwiches the cylindrical compression sample. The average compressive strain of the sample is given as engineering strain. We can calculate axial normal stress (engineering stress) by using the compressive axial load and A0 the area of cross-section of the cylindrical sample. We then plot the engineering stress-strain diagram.

Chart 1: Aluminum Stress-Strain Diagram

900 800 700 600 500 Stress [MPa] 400 300 200 100 0 1 162 323 484 645 806 967 1128 1289 1450 1611 1772 1933 2094 2255 2416 2577 2738 2899 3060 3221 3382 3543 3704 3865 4026 4187 Strain

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Chart 2: Brass Stress-Strain Diagram

900 800 700 600 500 Stress [Mpa] 400 300 200 100 0 1 83 165 247 329 411 493 575 657 739 821 903 985 1067 1149 1231 1313 1395 1477 1559 1641 1723 1805 1887 1969 2051 2133 2215 2297 Strain

Chart 3: Steel Stress-Strain Diagram

900 800 700 600 500 Stress [Mpa] 400 300 200 100 0 1 54 107 160 213 266 319 372 425 478 531 584 637 690 743 796 849 902 955 1008 1061 1114 1167 1220 1273 1326 1379 1432 1485 Strain

It is often observed that the initial slope of the compressive engineering stressstrain curve is rather small and nonlinear. It is mainly caused by the initial poor

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

matching quality between the platen surfaces and the test sample surfaces. One should thus use the linear portion of the stress-strain with a largest slope to compute the Youngs modulus and the correct the origin of the stress -strain curve. The elastic moduli, given by the slope of the line in Charts 4,5, and 6, is 8.70, 10.15, and 12.46 GPa for the aluminum, brass, and steel specimen respectively.

Chart 4: Young's Modulus Aluminum

160 140 120 100 Strain [MPa] 80 60 40 20 0 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 Strain y = 8700x + 27.74

Chart 5: Young's Modulus Brass

300 250 200 Stress [MPa] 150 100 50 0 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 43 49 55 61 67 73 79 85 91 97 103 109 115 121 127 133 139 Strain y = 10150x + 33.6

Mechanics of Materials Laboratory ME 2140

Fall 2013

Chart 6: Young's Modulus Steel

600 500 y = 12460x + 22.58 400 Stress [Mpa] 300 200 100 0 1 10 19 28 37 46 55 64 73 82 91 100 109 118 127 136 145 154 163 172 181 190 199 208 217 226 235 244 Strain

The yielding stresses from the .002 offset yield points are 43.23, 52.33, and 43.18 [MPa] for the aluminum, brass, and steel specimens respectively. These values were found by interpolating the data for stress and strain just below and just above the .002 strain data values. The reloading slope is found by finding the slope of the line approximated by Youngs Modulus during reloading of the specimen. The slope for aluminum using data points 936 and 1047 is 12.50 GPa; brass using data points 1049 and 1280 is 12.51 GPa, and steel using1173 and 1525 is 13.62 GPa. Conclusions From the raw data analysis, the compression test specimens behave as expected for a ductile material, with a linear elastic region. The stress-strain diagram for Aluminum was not as linear after reloading as steel and brass. The steel specimen reached maximum load the quickest, and the aluminum specimen the slowest. The steel and brass specimens were less compressible than aluminum specimen for the given load. Using the observed characteristics from the experiment and obvious physical characteristics of the test specimen, the specimen are easily recognizable.