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Material Science Lecture 03 2018 2019
Material Science Lecture 03 2018 2019
Material properties are a set of characteristics which define each material and distinguish it
from others.
1. Mechanical Properties:
It is the properties of material that determine its behaviour under applied forces.
Mechanical Properties:
➢ Elasticity: ability of a deformed material body to return to its original shape and
size when the forces causing the deformation are removed. A body with this ability
is said to behave (or respond) elastically.
Explanation: When a body is subjected to an external force the body will tend to
deform. and after removing the force on the body will get its original shape.
Example materials: Rubber (Natural/synthetic)
Some materials are affected a lot by a force e.g., rubber, while others change their
size very little e.g., steel. We are thinking here about pieces of equal size, of course.
Hooke's Law
The more force that is put on to a piece of elastic or a spring the more it will stretch.
If you plot the extension against the force applied to a copper wire or a steel spring
you will get a graph like the one drawn in Figure 1.
As the force is increased so the length of the sample increases and so the extension
gets bigger. You will find that for every Newton increase in the force the length of the
sample will increase by the same amount.
If you stretch an elastic material too much it will not go back to its initial size and if it
is stretched even more it will break.
Example problems
If a load of 5 N extends a spring by 4 cm then a load of 15 N will extend it by 12cm.
Remember that it is the extension that is proportional to the force and NOT the total
length of the spring.
You can compare how much different materials will stretch using the following
table. This shows the relative extensions for samples of the same length and
diameter but of different materials using the same force.
Material Extension Material Extension
Diamond 1 mm Concrete 59 mm
Steel 5 mm Beech 67 mm
Copper 8 mm Oak 91 mm
Example:
A copper wire 1.00 mm in diameter and 2.0 m long is used to support a mass of 5.0
kg. by how much does the wire stretch under this load?
Solution:
➢
Elastic and plastic materials
You can divide materials into two main types when you consider their elastic
properties:
(a) those which will go back to their original length when the force is removed after
stretching, these are called ELASTIC materials such as steel and rubber
(b) those which stay stretched after the force is removed- these are called PLASTIC
materials such as putty or plasticine
Explanation: When a body subjected to tensile load. the ability to draw the
material into wires is possible. The materials which are rich in elasticity will have
better ductility.
Example materials: Copper, aluminium.
Explanation: When a body subjected to tensile load. the ability to draw the
material into wires is possible. The materials which are rich in elasticity will have
better malleability.
Examples & Facts: aluminum is very malleable; clay is also malleable.
Substances that are malleable are usually not very brittle. Gold is the most
malleable metal; a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter.
Explanation: When a body subjected to load. the body can resist the deformations
Measurement: N/mm (Load / Deformation )
This property Consider in the design of springs.
An impact toughness versus temperature graph for a steel is shown in the image.
It can be seen that at low temperatures the material is more brittle and impact
toughness is low. At high temperatures the material is more ductile and impact
toughness is higher.
The amount of energy per unit volume that a material can absorb before rupturing.
This property Consider in the design of springs.
Hardness: The ability of a material to resist scratching, wear and tear (the damage
that happens to an object in ordinary use during a period) and indentation (a hole or
mark on the surface of something).
The hard materials can scratch softer materials. In science, we measure hardness
with the Mohs scale.
Examples: glass is 5.5, iron nail is 4.5, steel is 4, brass is 3, diamond is the hardest
and it is 10 on the scale.
This property will highly consider when designing of the sliding parts.