With cold work, mechanical strength (measured either by yield strength or ultimate tensile strength) increases and ductility (measured by elongation, reduction of area, or fracture toughness) normally decreases. This chapter discusses the mechanisms that produce these changes and the factors that influence them. It explains how cold working increases dislocation density and how that affects the stress-strain characteristics of steel, particularly the onset of deformation. It describes the effects of deformation on ferrite, austenite, cementite, and pearlite, and how to optimize their microstructure for various applications through controlled deformation. It also provides information on subcritical annealing, the examination and control of texture, the use of optical microscopy to monitor the effects of recrystallization, and the effect of cold working on threaded fasteners, nails, and filaments used to manufacture cords.

This chapter discusses the stress-strain response of ferritic microstructures and its influence on tensile deformation, strain hardening, and ductile fracture of carbon steels. It describes the ductile-to-brittle transition that occurs in bcc ferrite, the effects of aging and grain size on strength and toughness, continuous and discontinuous yielding behaviors, and dispersion and solid-solution strengthening processes.

This chapter focuses on some of the facts of mechanical properties of metals that must be understood to successfully undertake the task of failure analysis. The discussion begins by describing the causes and effects of elastic and plastic deformation followed by a section describing the effects of temperature variations on mechanical properties, both in tension and in compression. The nonlinear behavior of gray cast iron caused by the graphite flakes is then described. Finally, the effect of stress concentrations on high-strength metals is considered.

This chapter is a detailed account of the tensile testing procedure used for evaluating metals and alloys. The discussion covers the stress-strain behavior of metals determined by tensile testing, properties determined from testing, test machines for measuring mechanical properties, and general procedures of tensile testing. Three distinct aspects of standard test methods for tension testing of metallic materials are discussed: test piece preparation, geometry, and material condition; test setup and equipment; and test procedure.

This chapter discusses the stress-strain response of materials, how it is measured, and how it used to set performance expectations. It begins by describing the common tensile test and how it sheds light on the elastic design of structures as well as plasticity and fracture behaviors. It explains how engineering and true stress-strain curves differ, how one is used for design and the other for analyzing metal forming operations. It discusses the effect of holes, fillets, and radii on the distribution of stresses and the use of notch tensile testing to detect metallurgical embrittlement. The chapter also covers compression, shear, and torsion testing, the prediction of yielding, residual stress, and hardness.

This chapter introduces the concepts of mechanical properties and the various underlying metallurgical mechanisms that can be used to alter the strength of materials. The mechanical properties discussed include elasticity, plasticity, creep deformation, fatigue, toughness, and hardness. The strengthening mechanisms covered are solid-solution strengthening, cold working, and dispersion strengthening. The effect of grain size on the yield strength of a material is also discussed.

This chapter familiarizes readers with the methods used to quantify the effects of fatigue on component lifetime and failure. It discusses the development and use of S-N (stress amplitude vs. cycles to failure) curves, the emergence of strain-based approaches to fatigue analysis, and important refinements and modifications. It demonstrates the use of approximate equations, including the method of universal slopes and the four-point correlation technique, which provides reasonable estimates of elastic and plastic lines from information obtained in standard tensile tests. It also discusses high-cycle, low-cycle, and ultra-high cycle fatigue and presents several models that are useful for fatigue life predictions.

This chapter discusses the concept of mean stress and explains how it is used in fatigue analysis and design. It begins by examining the stress-strain response of test samples subjected to cyclic forces and strains, noting important features and what they reveal about materials and their fatigue behaviors. It then discusses the challenge of developing hysteresis loops for complex loading patterns and accounting for effects such as ratcheting and stress relaxation. The sections that follow provide a summary of the various ways mean stress is described in the literature and the methods used to calculate or predict its effect on the fatigue life of machine components. The discussion also sheds light on why tensile mean stress is detrimental to both fatigue life and ductility, while compressive mean stress is highly beneficial.

This chapter reviews the theories that have emerged from the widespread study of multiaxial fatigue and assesses their validity using data from different sources. It begins by providing background on the studies that the chapter draws on, pointing out differences in methodology and explaining how they influence test results and data. It then discusses the concept of critical planes and how they are used to correlate the effects of uniaxial loading with multiaxial fatigue behaviors. The section that follows covers the various methods used to analyze multiaxial fatigue and identifies one that best treats the general case. The chapter also defines two important factors, the triaxiality factor and the multiaxiality factor, and presents the results of an extensive study to determine how the two factors are related. One of the more interesting findings is that the atomic structure of a material has a significant effect on which theory best describes its fatigue behavior.

This chapter discusses the effect of fatigue on polymers, ceramics, composites, and bone. It begins with a general comparison of polymers and metals, noting important differences in microstructure and cyclic loading response. It then presents the results of several studies that shed light on the fatigue behavior and crack growth mechanisms of common structural polymers and moves on from there to discuss the fatigue behavior of bone and how it compares to stable and cyclically softening metals. It also discusses the fatigue characteristics of engineered and composited ceramics and ceramic fiber-reinforced metal-matrix composites.

This chapter examines the phenomena of deformation and fracture in metals, providing readers with an understanding of why it occurs and how it can be prevented. It begins with a detailed review of tension and compression stress-strain curves, explaining how they are produced and what they reveal about the load-carrying characteristics of engineering materials. It then discusses the use of failure criteria and the determination of yielding and fracture limits. It goes on to describe the mechanisms and appearances of brittle and ductile fractures and stress rupture, providing detailed images, diagrams, and explanations. It discusses the various factors that influence strength and ductility, including grain size, loading rate, and temperature. It also provides information on the origin of residual stresses, the concept of toughness, and the damage mechanisms associated with creep and stress rupture, stress corrosion, and hydrogen embrittlement.

This chapter explains how to determine flow stress and forgeability using data from tensile tests, compression tests, ring tests, and torsion tests. It describes sample preparation, tooling and equipment, test procedures, error sources, and data plotting techniques. It also provides a significant amount of experimentally derived flow stress data, including K and n values for steel, copper, and aluminum alloys, C and m values (at various temperatures) for steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, and other alloys, and average flow stress for several alloys determined by compression testing.

This appendix contains abbreviations and symbols related to aluminum alloy castings.

Tensile tests are performed for several reasons related to materials development, comparison, selection, and quality control. The properties derived from tensile tests are used in selecting materials for engineering applications. Tensile properties often are used to predict or estimate the behavior of a material under forms of loading other than uniaxial tension. This chapter provides a brief overview of tensile specimens and test machines, stress-strain curves, true stress and strain, and test methodology and data analysis.

This chapter focuses on mechanical behavior under conditions of uniaxial tension during tensile testing. It begins with a discussion of properties determined from the stress-strain curve of a metal, namely, tensile strength, yield strength, measures of ductility, modulus of elasticity, and resilience. This is followed by a section describing the parameters determined from the true stress-true strain curve. The chapter then presents the mathematical expressions for the flow curve. The chapter reviews the effect of strain rate and temperature on the stress-strain curve and describes the instability in tensile deformation and stress distribution at the neck in the tensile specimen. It discusses the processes involved in ductility measurement and notch tensile test in tensile specimens. The parameter that is commonly used to characterize the anisotropy of sheet metal is covered. Finally, the chapter covers the characterization of fractures in tensile test specimens.

The stress-strain curves in this data set are representative examples of the behavior of several cast alloys under tensile or compressive loads. The curves are arranged by alloy designation. Each figure cites the original source of the curve and provides pertinent background information as available. Compressive tangent modulus curves are presented for certain alloys. The effects of cyclic loading are given on several curves.