CVE 230 Mechanics of Materials

Spring 2013 Lab Report #4 PREPARED BY: Juan Villa

Tension Tests Using Steel and Aluminum

April 11, 2013

Steel and Aluminum are very essential tools for a civil engineer. Civil engineers must become very familiar with these two tools because they are frequently used in all various types of construction plans. If we think about it, a building for example is structured using steel and/or Aluminum in order for the building to support all of its own weight and the weight of the people that would be in the building. Construction companies, who work hand to hand with engineers are also very familiar with steel and Aluminum. When constructing street poles, or street signs, construction companies use steel and/or Aluminum frequently. Also, when constructing bridges, civil engineers and construction companies work together to create the appropriate steel for the bridge. Since its such a massive project, a large amount of specific steel is required for such project. The steel, or any type of metal used would be put into realworld tests for as long as it stands. This includes tension and compression tests by different kinds of loads. In this lab, we would put aluminum and steel into tensile tests and analyze the results.

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TE S TI N G O F F R E S H A N D HA R D E N E D C O N C R E TE

Introduction This lab had two primary objectives. The first objective of this lab was to plot the stress-strain curves for steel and aluminum that were tested. The secondary objective was to obtain various components from the graph. These included: the yield strength, Fy, ultimate tension strength, Fu, modulus of elasticity, E, for steel and aluminum.

Materials and Methods: The primary material used in this lab was Standard ASTM E8 steel and aluminum specimens The apparatuses used for this experiment were the Tinius Olsen Universal Testing Machine, with SR-2 Indicating System, a LVDT extensometer, as well as calipers The procedure for this lab was fairly simply. It all started with starting up the Navigator software. the extensometer was then attached on the specimen. the specimen was loaded. Minutes after yielding, the extensometer was removed and we continue to test the specimens, aiming for the failure of the specimen. Once the failure occurred, it was recorded. A file was received with the test data recorded in the software; this data included the stresses and strain loads. The next part of the procedure of this lab was to plot the stress-strain curves for steel and aluminum. I used Microsoft excel in order to obtain professional plots. From the data we determined the yield strength and the modulus of elasticity, which is the slope of the curve. We used the slope command in excel to get the modulus of elasticity. For the aluminum we used the offset method in order to get the yield stress.the ultimate tensile strength was also determined using the load at failure recorded earlier. Results: Steel: Fw= Ultimate Tensile Stress for: 68698.26933psi This number was derived by looking for the maximum y value on the plot Fy maximum yield stress= 50ksi This number was approximated by looking at the plot, in the area where the curve becomes nonlinear and this was approximately at 50ksi. Slope = Modulus of Elasticity: 23,000ksi This number was calculated using the slope function available on Microsoft excel for the plot that we had grafted.

Prepared by Juan Villa

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LAB REPORT #1
TE S TI N G O F F R E S H A N D HA R D E N E D C O N C R E TE

Stress (psi)
80000 70000 60000 50000 40000 30000 20000 10000 0 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 Strain 0.04 0.05 0.06 Stress (psi)

Slope = 23417838.9 psi The real value of E for Steel is 29,000ksi and the number that we calculated for the steel specimen that we tested was 23,000ksi. The numbers are not was close as we would have liked but there is a decent accuracy between them. Aluminum: Ultimate Tensile Stress: 50974.51525psi This number was derived by looking for the maximum y value on the plot Fy maximum yield stress (roughly) = 42ksi This number was approximated by using the offset method on the plot. The intersection between the parallel line from the point (0, 0) and the x value 0.002 came out to be roughly 42ksi. Slope = Modulus of Elasticity: 10,000ksi This number was calculated using the slope function available on Microsoft excel for the plot that we had grafted.

Prepared by Juan Villa

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LAB REPORT #1
TE S TI N G O F F R E S H A N D HA R D E N E D C O N C R E TE

Stress-Strain Plot for Aluminum

60000 50000 Stress (psi) 40000 30000 20000 10000 0 -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 Strain 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06

Slope = 10722519psi

The real value of E for Aluminum is roughly 10,000ksi which is, with a small room of error very close to the number that we calculated which 10722519psi was Conclusion The values that we obtained, in the context of engineering would be used if there was a construction project and we needed to know the characteristics of the steel that we were going to use. Getting these values would give both the engineers and the construction companys predictions as to how the material would be have and therefore they can better assist on the project at hand

References: ASTM E8, TEST METHODS FOR TENSION TESTING OF METALLIC MATERIALS. Any text on Mechanics of Materials

Prepared by Juan Villa

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