Fundamentals Unit 5

Unit 5: Aerospace Materials

(Mechanical Properties of the
Materials)

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 Fundamentals Unit 5

 Mechanical Properties:

o What are these mechanical Properties?

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 Fundamentals Unit 5

 Mechanical Properties:

o What are mechanical Properties?

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 Fundamentals Unit 5

 Mechanical Properties:
o Why are mechanical Properties important?

Graphene Sheet:
It takes a adult elephant standing
on a pencil tip, to puncture a
Graphene sheet which is just 1
atom thick.

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 Fundamentals Unit 5

 Mechanical Properties:
o Why are mechanical Properties
important?

Flexible Touch Screens

Graphene Aero-gel:
 ρ = 0.16 milligrams/cc
 Density slightly higher than
Hydrogen, but lower than Helium 6
 Fundamentals Unit 5
 Mechanical Properties:
Bullet Proof Glass

Human Thigh Bone

~ Load of ~8600 Kg/ inch3
~ Stronger than steel and half
its weight,

~ 4 times stronger than concrete 7

 Fundamentals Unit 5
 Mechanical Properties:

Spray on Fabric:
~ A fabric made by
Aerosol based material
can be sprayed directly
on the body.

Developed by: ~ The fabric can be simply removed,

Imperial College, London. washed and worn again.
Fundamentals Unit 5

 Basic Mechanical Properties:

1. Isotropy 6. Brittleness 11. Fatigue
2. Anisotropy 7. Hardness 12. Creep e.t.c
3. Elasticity 8. Toughness
4. Plasticity 9. Stiffness
5. Ductility 10. Resilience

13. Strength:
a) Ultimate Strength e) Compressive Strength
b) Elastic Strength f) Shear Strength
c) Plastic Strength g) Bending Strength
d) Tensile Strength h) Torsional Strength 8
 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Isotropy:
 Body is said to be isotropic if its physical properties are not dependent
upon the direction in the body along which they are measured,

 Ex: A polycrystalline material in which the grains or crystals are

oriented behaves isotropically, i.e. its properties are independent of
direction.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Anisotropy:
 The quality of variation of a physical property with the direction in a
body along which the property is measured.

 It is the state of having different properties in different directions.

 Ex. Single crystals, Multi Laminar Composites e.t.c

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Elasticity:
It is the property of a material which enables it to regain its original
shape and size after deformation within the elastic limit.

However, in nature no material is perfectly elastic, i.e., a certain limit

exists for every material beyond which it will not be able to regain its
original shape and size. This limit is termed as elastic limit.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Plasticity:

 It is the ability of material to be permanently deformed (without fracture)

even after the load is removed. To some extent all materials are plastic.

Metals possess more plasticity at high temperatures. Usually, plasticity of

a material increases with increase in temperature and this is important in
deciding the further operations.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain

 Stress:
A measure of the average amount of force exerted per unit area.

When the force is applied on the body, it deforms. If the force is

compressive, the body compresses. If the force is tensile, the body expands.
Both the compressive and tensile stresses are called direct stresses.

stress = stress measured in Nm-2

(σ) or Pascals (Pa)

F = force in newtons (N)
A = cross-sectional area in m2
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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain (Types of Stresses)
There are five basic types of stresses possibly applied on materials.

Tensional Compressive Bending

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain (Types of Stresses)
There are five basic types of stresses possibly applied on materials.

Torsional Shear
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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Poisson’s Ratio

When a material is compressed in one direction, it usually tends to

expand in the other two directions perpendicular to the direction of
compression. This phenomenon is called the Poisson effect.

Poisson's ratio (nu) is a measure

of this effect.

Tension 17
 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Poisson’s Ratio
The Poisson ratio is the fraction (or percent) of expansion divided by the
fraction (or percent) of compression.

Compression
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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain

 Strain:
It is the deformation per the unit of the original length.

When ever stresses are applied on a body, there will be deformation i.e.
there will be variation in the size of the object (either decreases or increases).
This deformation is called Strain.

Δl is the variation in size (or

(ε) Δl extension)
l0 l0 is the original length

Strain does not have any units.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain (example problem)

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain

 Hooks Law:
It states that Stress and Strain in a material are proportional to each
other within the elastic limits.

σ 𝖺 ε
 The ratio between Stress and strain is always a constant.

σ=E ε E = σ/ ε

Where the constant E is called the Young’s modulus

or Modulus of Elasticity.
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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain
 Hooks Law:
It states that Stress and Strain in a material are proportional to each
other within the elastic limits.

E = σ/ ε

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Stress and Strain
 Hooks Law:
It states that Stress and Strain in a material are proportional to each
other within the elastic limits.

E = σ/ ε

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Elastic Properties of the materials:

Above point Y, material tends

to show plastic behavior, i.e.,
any deformation occurring is
permanent.
The Point Y is called Yield
Point.
Yield Strength is the lowest
stress that produces a
permanent deformation in a
material.
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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Elastic Properties of the materials:

When a tensional stress is

applied to a material, it
elongates.

Till the Point Y, Stress is

equal to Strain of the material,
i.e. material retains its elastic
property till point Y.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Ductility:
 It is defined as the property of a metal by virtue of which it can be drawn
into wires or elongated before rupture takes place.

It is the deformation produced in a material at the breaking point and

measured by the percentage of elongation and the percentage of reduction
in area before rupture of test piece.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Ductility:

 Its value is expressed as elongation, i.e., percentage elongation is most

widely used to measure ductility.

Percentage of Reduction

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Ductility & Malleability:
Ductility is an important property of a material which governs its ability to
be deformed in processes, e.g. drawing, rolling and forging. Adequate
ductility ensures that the material during these processes will not fracture.

There is an associated property by virtue of which sheets can be rolled

from material is called ‘malleability’.

Both Ductility & Malleability of material are inversely proportional to

strength of the material. And both the properties are effected by temperature.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Stress – Strain Curve of Ductile Materials:

 L = the limit of proportionality,

Hooke’s law applies up to this point.

E = elastic limit, beyond this point

the material is permanently stretch and
it will not go back to its original
length.

Elastic behaviour is when a material

returns to its original length, plastic
behaviour is when the stretched
material does not return to its original
length.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Stress – Strain Curve of Ductile Materials:

Y = yield point, beyond this point

small increases in force give much big
increases in length.

B = breaking point / breaking stress,

the material breaks at this point.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Brittleness:
A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it breaks without
significant deformation (strain).

Brittle materials absorb relatively little energy prior to fracture, even those
of high strength.

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5
o Brittleness:
Breaking is often accompanied by a snapping sound. Brittle materials
include most ceramics , glasses and concrete (which do not deform
plastically)

Many steels become brittle at low temperatures, depending on their

composition and processing..

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Ductility & Brittlness:

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Ductility & Brittlness:

Schematic appearance of
round metal bars after tensile
testing.

(a) Brittle fracture

(b) Ductile fracture

(c) Completely ductile fracture

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 Mechanical Properties Unit 5

o Ductility & Brittlness: Platinum is the Most Ductile Material.

Gold is most Malleable Material

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