Tensile Testing of Metals Experiment

The three metal tensile samples are made from 1018 Steel, 360 Brass and 2024-T3 Aluminum. The properties measured for these samples include Young’s Modulus, Yield Strength, Tensile Strength, Ductility, and Modulus of Toughness. These properties are the same ones found in materials handbooks and databases and are used by engineers to design bridges, buildings, and machines.

• Measure the slope in the linear portion of the Stress vs. Strain graph to find Young’s Modulus for the material.
• Estimate the Yield Strength by examining the Force vs. Position graph to see where the linear part of the curve ends.
• Find the maximum stress on the graph to determine the Tensile Strength.
• Find the maximum strain just before it breaks to determine the Ductility of the material.
• Take the area under the Stress vs. Strain graph to determine the Modulus of Toughness for the material.

PASCO Advantage

The hand-cranked Materials Testing Machine allows students to feel the different forces required to break different samples. Data is recorded live and can be played back in PASCO Capstone software.

Concepts

• Young’s Modulus
• Yield Strength
• Tensile Strength
• Ductility
• Modulus of Toughness

Experiments

• Tensile Testing Experiment