Tensile Testing of Metal Specimens

What you should learn from this practical

An appreciation of the change in mechanical properties resulting from the addition of
alloying elements (in this case carbon).
How the % carbon in steel changes the tensile strength, hardness and microstructure of
carbon steels.

Practical Skills
Team working.
Familiarity with data-logging.
Setting up a tensometer to measure tensile strength of a material.
Use of a hardness indenter to measure hardness.
Use of an optical microscope to see the microstructure of different steels.
Use of a spreadsheet to store, manipulate and display data.

Background
Stone and concrete have significant strength in compression, but are brittle and of little value in
tension. Metals have excellent strength both in compression and tension: consequently metals are
used when tensile forces will be in effect.
Materials Engineers / Scientists study materials to understand why one material has a unique set of
properties and another even a similar one has different properties.
This experiment investigates the influence of carbon on the mechanical properties of steel.
Furthermore, physical properties are characteristic of materials and their processing history. Data
such as that obtained by tensile testing can be used to characterise an unknown sample.
Steel exhibits a mixture of elastic and plastic deformation before it breaks. The presence of carbon
modifies the crystal structure and hence the mechanical properties of the steel.
You will test the following steels as a group and share results
0.1% carbon as would be used in sheet steel to make car body panels.
o The material needs to be very tough that is, able to absorb lots of energy when it is
shaped without any cracking.
0.4% carbon as might be used in steel girders for building bridges or skyscrapers.
o This material needs greater strength and rigidity.
o Must still be tough if a building or part of a building was to fail, a ductile failure
would give recognisable warnings before collapsing, but a brittle structure may fail
suddenly, killing many people.
0.54% carbon as might be used to make railway lines.
o Needs to be very hard and wear resistant
o Needs to have some toughness to resist crack formation and propagation.
0.8% carbon as might be used to make hand tools, such as saw blades, hammers etc.
Experimental overview
You will be shown how to set up a tensile specimen in a tensometer and test it to destruction.
Numeric data will be downloaded from a tensometer onto a computer and from here it will be
imported into an Excel spreadsheet from which Stress v Strain plots will be prepared.
The extent of plastic deformation will be recorded by measuring the amount of necking (thinning of
the steel in the region where fracture finally occurs) and permanent elongation of the specimens.
Hardness tests will be conducted on identical steel specimens and that data, too, will be plotted.
The microstructures of the different steels will also be looked examined.
There is a lot of work involved in this experiment; to make the process as efficient as possible, you
will need to organise your group such that different people concentrate on different tasks.

Method
Whole Group
1. Make sure that the tensometer and computer are switched on.
2. Log onto the computer to record your data in the appropriate Excel spreadsheet. You will be
provided with log-on instructions separately.
a. Load the following programmes
i. Excel
ii. Hounsfield Logger
3. You should have a labelled tensile test specimen with the tensometer. Check that you can
find it.
4. Click the My Computer icon, and use the program to find the folder O:\My Documents.
5. This folder will contain two files. You will need the file Headstart Tensile Testing.xls.
a. Double click this file to load it.
b. Note the warning at the top of the page as it opens. Only copy or type into cells that
have a BLUE background.
c. There are some notes on one worksheet, but you do not need much background
information for this exercise.
6. Decide who in your group will collect which data and who will enter it into Excel. There
are several areas to get on with
a. Tensile test data
b. Plastic deformation (necking and permanent elongation)
c. Hardness
d. Images
e. Entering data into the computer.
Tensile test data
1. DO NOT PRESS THE LARGE EMERGENCY STOP BUTTON UNLESS THERE IS AN
EMERGENCY.
2. Mount the specimen in the tensometer making sure that all slack is taken up. If the initial
load recorded is about 100 to 200 N, this is sufficient.
3. Press buttons to
a. Zero force.
b. Zero extension (ext).
c. Zero auxiliary (aux).
4. The message Test 1 should appear on the control panel.
5. Press the test button a red light appears.
6. Press the blue triangular arrow pointing to the right the tensile test starts.
7. Check that the outputs for force and extension are increasing.
8. The specimen will break after a minute or two, possibly with a bang be ready for it.
9. Stop the tensometer and remove the specimen use this for the plastic deformation
measurements.
10. The Hounsfield logger program should have been loaded. If not do this now.
11. Press the Print key and data is downloaded into the Hounsfield Logger Programme.
12. In the Hounsfield Logger window, click the button Save to Excel. This will automatically
save to a folder called My Documents\Hounsfield\Data
13. Give the file a name, indicating your specimen and your group e.g. 54C a2.xls (NO
decimal point before the 5 and NO quotes!) then save it.

Treatment of Tensile Test Data

1. Find the file you have just saved and open it.
2. Find the data for the experiment, headed mm and N.
3. Highlight this data including the headings. Click to copy this data.
4. Open the file Headstart Tensile Testing.xls; look at the Hounsfield Data worksheet and
find the columns relating to the sample you have just tested.
5. Click on the cell marked mm and paste your data into it.
6. Look in the worksheet Stress-Strain you will see that the extensions and load are
automatically converted to Engineering Stress and Strain.
7. Repeat the above procedure for as many different metals as you can.
8. An X-Y plot of Stress v Strain for each sample recorded should be plotted automatically.
9. Make sure that you can identify your own graph and print it by
a. Click File; Print
b. Select one of the following printers
i. \\NSMS60\Materials-tl-fs1010.Student Printers......
ii. \\NSMS60\Materials-tl-fs1920.Student Printers......
c. Both of these printers are in the computer room where you will collect your printout.
Plastic Deformation Measurements
These are made simple by the use of special tools which have already been set to the dimensions of
the specimens you are using.
Reduction in area Gauge
1. The Gauge is set by closing the gauge around the middle of the specimen and locking it at
the 0 position. THIS IS DONE FOR YOU. THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU TO RESET
THIS.
2. After breaking, the thinnest part of the specimen is slid down the gauge until it sticks. The
reading on the scale at this point is the percentage reduction in area for the specimen.
3. Care is needed to get this reasonably accurate, as the specimens may fracture across the
narrowest line.
4. Record this in the Headstart Tensile Tests.xls file located in the My Documents folder.
Elongation Gauge
1. As before, to save time, the Elongation Gauge is set and ready to use.
2. Place the broken ends of the specimen together, in the compartment such that the ends fit
together like jig-saw puzzle pieces.
3. Move the slider to press against the specimen and read the percentage permanent elongation
directly from the scale.

Treatment of Plastic Deformation Measurements

1. Check each value two or three times for each steel. Calculate the average value for your
specimen.
2. The data must be entered into the appropriate cells of the Headstart Tensile Tests.xls
spreadsheet.
3. Repeat the procedure for other steels and enter them in the same spreadsheet. If time is
running out, share data with other groups. You should collect data for all four steels.
4. Data should be plotted automatically showing the relationship between plastic deformation
and carbon content of the steel.
5. Clearly label your graph to identify your group and print it.

Hardness Data
1. There is only one hardness tester in the lab, so you will have to wait for your turn
2. You will be shown how to use the indenter, which is not complicated, but needs several
adjustments. Collect two or three readings and calculate an average value.
3. Record this on the Headstart Tensile Tests.xls file located in the My Documents folder.
4. Repeat the procedure for other steel samples and collect data for all four available steels.
5. Clearly label the graph in your spreadsheet to identify your group and print it.
Microstructure data
1. Use a specially prepared polished and etched steel specimen of the same steel that you have
tested to examine under an optical microscope.
2. The microscope is expensive and the software is complicated make sure that you have one of
the demonstrators to show you how to use it safely.
3. Make sure that the computer is logged on to your account.
4. Examine the microstructure of the steel at different magnifications (demonstrator).
5. Make sure any image you save has a scale bar attached.
6. Save an image (or images at different magnifications) to your folder, making sure that the
filename indicates...
i. The steel carbon content
ii. The magnification
iii. Your group identity
iv. E.g. 80C-x200-b1.jpg
7. Repeat this procedure this for as many different steel specimens that you can.
8. Images can be imported into word and printed together with captions dont forget to identify
your group on any printouts you have.

Write up
1. Determine a value for Youngs Modulus for each steel. This can be obtained from the slope
of the first stage (elastic region) of the Stress v Strain plot where it should be linear.
2. Collect and collate your printouts. Write a brief account commenting on the effect of carbon
content on the physical properties and appearance that you have measured.
3. Make a final check that all of your work can be assigned to your group and leave it to be
collected on the tensometer.