DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GIRIJANANDA CHOWDHURY University, Guwahati
Experiment No. 1
Title: PERFORM TENSION TEST ON REINFORCING STEEL BARS.
Object: - To conduct a tensile test on a mild steel specimen and determine the following:
i) Ultimate strength ii) Upper yield strength iii) Lower yield strength
iv) Percentage elongation
Equipment used: Universal testing machine
Fig. 1 Schematic of Universal Testing Machine
Description:
For structural steel and reinforcing bars, tensile test, a destructive material test, is the most
important. Tensile test provides relevant information for evaluation of the tensile properties and for
quality assurance purposes. One usually conducts a tensile test on a standard specimen of the material to
obtain the stress-strain diagram of a material. The diagram representing the relation between stress and
strain in a given material is an important characteristic of the material. Important basic properties, viz.,
the proportional limit, elastic limit, the yield strength, the ultimate stress, the elongation at fracture,
young’s modulus, etc. can be obtained from the stress-strain diagram. An idealized stress strain curve for
steel is shown in Figure 2. An axially loaded tension member exhibits an elastic range (a–b) ending at
yielding (b), followed by yield plateau (b–c). In the yield plateau, the load almost remains constant as the
elongation increases. On further loading, the material exhibits a smaller increase in tension due to
reorientation of the crystal structure of the metal with elongation (c–d). This region is referred to as the
strain hardening range. After reaching the ultimate load (d), the loading decreases as the elongation
increases (d–e), until the specimen eventually fractures at (e). The region (d-e) is referred to as the
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Engineering Materials and Application Laboratory
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GIRIJANANDA CHOWDHURY University, Guwahati
necking range. Since ductile materials are strong in tension, the failure is caused by shear stresses. The
direction of the shear makes an angle of 450 with the applied stress. Thus, the plane of failure is at 45 0
from the axis of the shaft, and the failure is known as cup and cone failure because of the fracture surface.
Figure 2: Engineering Stress-Strain Curve of metallic materials.
The following are the properties of steel determined from Stress-strain curve:
Proportional limit — It is the region in the stress-strain curve which obeys the Hooke’s Law. In this
region, the ratio of stress with strain gives a constant called Young’s Modulus.
Modulus of elasticity or Young’s Modulus, E — It is a measure of a material’s axial stiffness; it does
not change with the type of steel and has the value of 2.5 × 10 5 MPa.
Elastic limit — It is the point in the graph up to which the material returns to its original position when
the load acting on it is completely removed.
Yield stress, σy — It is the stress at which elongation first occurs in the test piece without increasing
the load during the tensile test. In the case of steels with no such definite yield point, proof stress shall
be applicable.
Ultimate or tensile strength, σu — It is the maximum load reached in a tensile test divided by the initial
cross-sectional area. It is the largest value of stress that the material can support. Ideally, the yield
stress and ultimate strength should be calculated based on reduced area of cross section, but it is not
practical to determine reduced area of cross section at various stages of loading. Thus, this stress is
also called the engineering stress.
Fracture Stress — It is the stress at which the failure of the material takes place.
Percentage permanent elongation (after fracture): The amount of permanent strain from
proportionality limit to the point of rupture or fracture is a measure of ductility. It is measured by
computing the percentage elongation of the test specimen over the specified or standard gauge length.
It is given by: Percentage permanent elongation = ( Lu - Lo )/ Lo ×100
where Lo is the gauge length before application of force and L u is the gauge length after rupture of the
test piece. The two pieces having been carefully fitted back together so that their axes lie in a straight
line.
Percentage Total Elongation at Maximum Force — It is the percentage elongation corresponding to
the maximum load reached in a tensile test expressed as a percentage of the original gauge length. It is
also termed as uniform elongation and is recorded before initiation of necking.
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DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GIRIJANANDA CHOWDHURY University, Guwahati
Figure 3: Cup and Cone Failure
Test Method
Determining the effective cross-sectional area
1. Measure the total length of the specimen using a measuring tape in meter up to 3rd decimal place.
2. Measure the weight of the specimen on a weighing balance in Kg up to 3rd decimal place.
3. Calculate the cross-sectional area (So), of the specimen. So = 𝑤 / 7.850𝐿, w = weight(g) and L = total
length(mm)
Choosing gauge length, Lo
1. Determine the original gauge length from L o = k √So, the specimen have a direct relationship between
the original gauge length and the original cross-sectional area (So), where k is a coefficient of
proportionality. The internationally adopted value for k is 5.65.
Lo may round to the nearest multiple of 5 mm, provided that the difference between the calculated and
chosen gauge length is less than 10 % of Lo.
Procedure:
1. Measure the diameter of the specimen at least three different places and determine the mean value. Also
measure its gauge length
2. Fix the specimen between the upper and middle cross head jaws of the machine
3. Close the release valve on the machine and turn on the machine
4. Now apply load on the specimen by turning slowly the load valve in anticlockwise direction until the
specimen fails.
5. Note down the load and its corresponding length. The observations are taken until the specimen
breaks.
6. Measure the final length and diameter of specimen at the fracture by joining the two broken halves of
the specimen together
7. Now calculate the desired values and plot a graph between stress vs. strain.
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Engineering Materials and Application Laboratory
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GIRIJANANDA CHOWDHURY University, Guwahati
Observation Table: (1)
Area at
Initial Final diameter Initial Initial cross
Sl. Final length fracture
diameter ‘D1’ ‘D2’ (mm) length ‘L1’ section area
No. ‘L2’ (mm) ‘A2’
(mm) (mm) ‘A1’ (mm2)
(mm2)
Observation Table: (2)
Sl. Load ‘P’ Displacement Stress ‘σ’ Modulus of elasticity
Strain ‘et’
No. (kN) ‘δl’ (mm) (kN/mm ) 2
‘E’ (kN/mm2)
Calculations:
𝑃
1. Stress = 𝐴1
Kn/mm2
𝛿l
2. Strain = 𝐿1
𝜎
3. Modulus of Elasticity = 𝑒𝑡
kN/mm2
𝑈𝑙𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑
4. Ultimate tensile strength = kN/mm2
𝐴1
𝐿2 −𝐿1
5. Percentage elongation = 𝐿1
x 100%
𝐴1 −𝐴2
6. Percentage reduction in area = x 100%
𝐴1
Conclusion:
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