Mechanical Properties of Materials

Abstract

The mechanical properties of a material reverberate the correlation between its response and deformation to an applied load. Some of the very important mechanical properties are ductility, strength, stiffness, and hardness. These properties can be studied by using various instruments available in the metallurgy or mechanical engineering laboratories. The mechanical properties of materials mainly depend upon the factors like nature of the applied load, its duration, and environmental conditions. The applied load may be tensile, compressive, or shear in nature; and its magnitude may be constant or may fluctuate continuously with time. Another important factor is time or duration, and it may vary from a fraction of a second to many years. Some of the important tests used to study mechanical properties are, creep test, tensile test, compression test, fatigue test, hardness test, impact tests, etc.

Keywords: Creep, Ductility, Elastic region, Engineering stress-strain curves, Fracture stress, Hardness, Malleability, Necking, Proof stress, Proportional stress, Strain, Strain hardening, Stress, Toughness, Tensile test, Ultimate tensile strength, Yielding region, Yield stress.