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Stress, Strain, & Strength: An Introduction to Materials Science

Introduction

Introduction

A collage of eight photos overlaid with text

A collage of 8 photos with the text "What do all of these pictures have in common?" over the center of the collage. The pictures, clockwise from top left: the leaning tower of Pisa, the armless statue of the Venus de Milo, a soda can about to be popped open, a snapped pencil, a dog chewing a bone, the cracked Liberty Bell, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as its deck collapses and the shattered face and eroded body of the Sphinx.


A collage of eight photos

A collage consisting of 8 pictures, clockwise from top left: the leaning tower of Pisa, the armless statue of the Venus de Milo, a soda can about to be popped open, a snapped pencil, a dog chewing a bone, the cracked Liberty Bell, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as its deck collapses and the shattered face and eroded body of the Sphinx.


A collage of eight photos overlaid with text

A collage of 8 photos with the text "Each is an example of how stuff breaks!" over the center of the image. The pictures, clockwise from top left: the leaning tower of Pisa, the armless statue of the Venus de Milo, a soda can about to be popped open, a snapped pencil, a dog chewing a bone, the cracked Liberty Bell, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as its deck collapses and the shattered face and eroded body of the Sphinx.

How Stuff Breaks!

Sometimes we want things to break . . .

A finger lifts the tab of a closed can of soda

Breaking is not always a bad thing. With soda cans, for example, we want the rim around the opening to break before anything else. Have you ever had the pull tab break off before the can opens? Don't you hate it when that happens? Think of two different explanations for this kind of soda can failure.

Sometimes we don't!

Black and white photo of a bridge collapsing

For obvious reasons, we want bridges to be strong and hold up to a many different environmental conditions.

For more information on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster, these online references are a good place to start:

Vocabulary

Questions

Vocabulary

Magnitudes

Metric Prefixes
Yotta- Y 1024 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
Zetta- Z 1021 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
Exa- E 1018 1 000 000 000 000 000 000
Peta- P 1015 1 000 000 000 000 000
Tera- T 1012 1 000 000 000 000
Giga- G 109 1 000 000 000
Mega- M 106 1 000 000
kilo- k 103 1000
hecto- h 102 100
deka- da 101 10
deci- d 10-1 0.1
centi- c 10-2 0.01
milli- m 10-3 0.001
micro- μ 10-6 0.000 001
nano- n 10-9 0.000 000 001
pico- p 10-12 0.000 000 000 001
femto- f 10-15 0.000 000 000 000 001
atto- a 10-18 0.000 000 000 000 000 001
zepto- z 10-21 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001
yocto- y 10-24 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001

In the U.S. we use the English system, but everyone else in the world (including England!) uses the metric system. You've certainly seen some of these metric prefixes before, for example: millimeters, Gigabytes, nanoseconds.

For an interesting exercise on the magnitudes of things, try and think of different measurements for which each of the above prefixes would be convenient. Here are some references:

Stress

Is this stress??

Drawing of a stressed woman in a room with a ringing phone, crashed computer, spilled drink and stack of books

When you hear the word "stress," what do you usually think of?

No, this is stress!

Drawing shows a weight suspended from a rod under tensile stress and a weight over a rod experiencing compressive stress

Diagram of tensile and compressive stress. Stress is the force on a material divided by the material's cross-sectional area. If the force is stretching the material (a weight hanging from an object), it is called tensile stress. If the force is compressing the material (a weight placed on top of an object), it is called compressive stress.

In terms of materials science and mechanical engineering, stress is defined as the force on a material divided by the material's cross-sectional area (A in the diagram above). We can talk about different types of stress, depending on how the force is applied. For example, if the force is tending to stretch out the material (as in the diagram on the left), we call it tensile stress. If the force is tending to squish the material (as in the diagram on the right), we call it compressive stress.

What happens when you put something under stress?

Photo of a person lifting the back end of a car next to a drawing explaining tension and compression

Photo and drawings show strain as the change in the length of a material divided by the original length of the material. Under tension, the material may show an incremental increase in length. Under compression, the material may show an incremental decrease in length. A person lifting a car experiences tensile stress as their arms stretch.

Strain is the response of a material to stress. It is defined as the change in length of the material under stress (L' L0) divided by the original length (L0). For a material under tension, the material may show an incremental increase in length. For a material under compression, the material may show an incremental decrease in length.

One way to demonstrate strain for yourself is to use compressible packing foam (beams) or insulation (tubes). Draw regular grids on the foam (as shown below). What happens to the grid spacing as you squish, stretch and bend the foam? When you bend the foam, you can see a combination of compressive and tensile stresses on opposite sides of the bend.

Mechanical Properties of Materials

A rectangular prism made of foam has grid lines drawn on each side

Diagram describes the relationship between stress and strain in materials

A diagram describes elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio regarding stress and strain in a material. Elastic modulus is equal to stress divided by strain and is represented by a capital E. Poisson's ratio equals the change in stress along the x-axis divided by the change in stress along the z-axis or the change in stress along the y-axis divided by the change in stress along the z-axis.

How do mechanical engineers describe the way a material behaves when under stress? One measurement is called the elastic modulus, and is defined as stress divided by strain. It is a measure of how much strain is produced by a given amount of stress on a material. Another measure is Poisson's ratio, which describes how a stress applied along one dimension of a material affects the other dimensions.

Here's a demonstration you can try for yourself. As one example, compare tootsie rolls vs. jolly ranchers. What's the difference? How does each respond to tensile and compressive forces? If you squish a tootsie roll, what happens to it? Materials like tootsie rolls, taffy and caramel deform plastically (change shape permanently). They also get lots wider as they are squished shorter, or narrower if they are stretched longer. How about a jolly rancher? These are brittle, so they do not deform plastically before they break by fracturing. Other materials you might try are silly putty (see Slime Chemistry for a recipe for making your own) and ice cubes.

Testing Materials

Tension Test Equipment

Photo of a tension test machine next to drawings of testing materials and equations for stress and strain

Photo of a tension testing machine shows drawings of a metal rod that is placed in the center of the machine to test its strength. The machine has two heads, one suspended above the other, that hold a material while arms on the side of the machine push or pull the heads together to test the material. Underneath the photo are equations for stress (force/cross-sectional area) and strain (change in length/original length).

Materials scientists and mechanical engineers use specialized test equipment, like the tension test machine in the diagram above, for measuring a material's response to stress. The test equipment can apply a large amount of force. Both the magnitude and duration of the force can be measured with precision. The diagram also shows typical responses of ductile materials under tension.

As you might guess, this type of specialized test equipment is expensive. There are much cheaper methods that you can use to measure stress and strain for your science fair project. For example, see Strength in Numbers?

Why test materials?

Black and white photo of a garage sized tension test machine

Good questions to ask:

These are some of the many good reasons for carefully testing materials.

Tension Test Results

Stress-Strain Plot for Ductile Materials

Example of a stress-strain graph for ductile material

Example graph of stress over strain shows the applied stress and measured strain in a ductile material before the material breaks. A ductile material is a material that can bend or flex before breaking. The graph shows a steady increase in stress and strain before a slight dip where the material can no longer bend and stress begins to build within the material. The stress continues to increase slowly until it peaks and decreases slowly while the strain coninuously builds. Finally the stress and strain become too much and the object ruptures or breaks. The stress measured at the point of rupture is the fracture stress point.

Here is an example of the type of data engineers use when evaluating ductile materials. The applied stress is plotted along the y-axis, and the measured strain in response to that stress is plotted along the x-axis. The definitions below will help you understand the diagram.

A broken metal rod tapers in towards the area where it fractured

Moments and Torques

Drawing shows a rectangle bending downward labeled as a moment and a cylinder twisting labeled as a torque

Moments and torques are engineering-speak for the stresses we normally call "bending" and "twisting." It's still the same ideas of stress and strain that we've been talking about, and the same units of measurement. The difference is the axis of application of the stress.

You can see in the diagram that moments produce both compressive (−σ) and tensile (+σ) stresses, depending on which part of the material you examine. You can use gridded foam beams and tubes (from compressible foam packing material and pipe insulation, respectively) to visualize the effects of moments and torques for yourself. Draw the grid lines at 2–3 in intervals.

Ductile or Brittle?

A rectangular prism made of foam with grid lines drawn on each side next to a foam tube   Photo of a bent paperclip labeled as yield and a shattered windshield labeled as fracture

Materials with different properties break differently. Think back to jolly ranchers and tootsie rolls. Which is ductile and which is brittle? Think about a paper clip. Ductile or brittle? You can use it on a small stack of paper many times, and it will spring back to its original shape. But if you open a paper clip out as shown above, you deform it plastically, and it retains the new shape permanently after exceeding the yield point. How about a windshield?

How Materials Break

How Does Stuff Break?

Corrosion

Photo of a large rusted gear next to a photo of a rusted nail head protruding from a piece of wood

Metals are strong, but they corrode or rust. Paint helps protect the metal from water and air which are the ingredients of corrosion.

Fatigue

Photo of a broken metal spring next to a photo of a cracked crank arm

Repeated loading opens and closes tiny defects over and over, and eventually those defects become cracks which propagate and fracture or tear. Under repeated loading, structures ultimately fail at much lower loads than originally thought. Take a paperclip and try unfolding and refolding it in different directions (rotating vs. bending). Try cycling with different ranges of deflection and count the number of cycles needed to break the paper clip. Is there a relationship between deflection angle and number of cycles before breakage?

Plastic Man or the Man of Steel?

Photo of various sized plastic bottles next to a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge

Plastics are cheap, easy to shape, light, and pretty strong for their weight, but they easily soften with temperature. Their strength-to-weight ratio is not as good as steel, a popular structural material. Steel, however, is quite heavy and subject to corrosion.

What about these materials?

A ceramic bowl, a soda can and a paved concrete sidewalk pictured side-by-side

Ceramic is brittle, aluminum is ductile. Concrete is usually reinforced with metal bars inside, so the total structure has mixed properties.

Structure of Materials

Putting Materials Together

How strong are different structures? What are the advantages of different shapes?

Corrugated cardboard, a soda can and piles of steel I beams pictured side-by-side

Strength depends on:

How do the materials in the illustration above differ in terms of material properties, geometry and support placement?

What about these structures?

A motorcycle helmet, two violin bows and a hockey stick pictured side-by-side

These products were engineered using carbon fiber composites to be light, yet very strong. How do the material properties, geometry and support placement give each product strength?

For projects that explore strength vs. geometry see:

Making Things Strong and Light

How do we make things strong and light?

It takes a combination of good materials and the right shapes.

Strength-to-weight ratio

How can we measure to see what works best?

Strong and Light: Image Gallery

Geometry—Buildings

This gallery of images can give you inspiration for making structures that are both strong and lightweight. For a project where you can apply these ideas, see: The Leaning Tower of Pasta.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building has triangle frames around tall rods to make sure that the rods can support the building and don't buckle. Architects often play with geometry when designing buildings. Using simple shapes helps to keep the cost and weight of material down while keeping the building safe and supported.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building

The Eiffel Tower achieves a large strength-to-weight ratio by utilizing a truss support structure.

The Eiffel Tower

A construction crane is a tall tower with a truss frame that is designed to lift and move heavy objects. The height of the structure compared with its weight is very good in comparison to how much weight it can lift.

A construction crane

Structural plastics

A plastic wheelbarrow, step-ladder and slide pictured side-by-side

Different materials have different properties. A lot of metals, like steel, are very strong, but also very heavy. Structural hard plastics are strong and durable, can be molded in just about any shape, and are lightweight.

Ropes and cords

Two photos of helicopters carrying objects from cables next to a photo of ropes securing a ship to a dock

Even simple things like ropes and cords can exhibit enormous strength for their weights. They use the fact that the materials they are made of are very strong in tension.

Superstrong: Materials and Geometry

Photo of a honeycomb next to photos of structures made from metal arranged in a honeycomb pattern

Carbon fiber is another material that is strong in tension. When you combine it with a honeycomb shape, which is good in compression, you get a very strong structure.

Photo of a bicycle next to a photo of a man riding a bicycle

Both the materials (for example, a hollow titanium or carbon fiber frame) and the geometric triangular shape of a bicycle allow it to be very strong for its low weight.

Natural Materials

Two photos of different spiderwebs

Spider silk has some amazing properties.

Many materials occurring in nature have very interesting properties that humans haven't been able to copy.

A small wooden table with a drawer

Wood exhibits a high strength-to-weight ratio due to its cellular microstructure. The way the cells of the tree grow (in grains) helps to make the wood strong.

Photo of a balsa wood structure supporting weights next to a photo of students loading weights onto a balsa wood structure

Even different woods have different properties. Balsa wood is extremely light, for example, but when formed into the right shapes is also extremely strong. This structure made of balsa wood and super glue weighed only 18 grams but supported 990 kg before breaking!!

Photo of a drawing of a bridge made from bamboo next to a photo of the same bridge made from bamboo
A slide with a photo of a bamboo bridge and listed advantages of using bamboo

Photos of a bridge made of bamboo and bamboo growing in nature. The stalk of a bamboo plant is called the culm, and is light weight and strong due to walled septa which travel and strengthen the entire stalk. Bamboo also grows quickly, can be found in various shapes and sizes and is excellent for buildings, bridges and instruments.

Bamboo is another of nature's resources for building materials.

Credits

Credits

The "Stress, Strain and Strength" pages were adapted from a workshop program developed at Stanford University for 7th grade participants interested in engineering. Stanford freshmen served as program mentors. The workshop was developed by:

Professor Beth Pruitt, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
Tori Bailey, Ph.D. Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
Alex Tung, Ph.D. Candidate, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University

The developers gave their permission for these materials to be published on the Science Buddies website.

Edited by Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies.

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