ABSTRACT
For engineers to be able to select a suitable material fulfilling the functional requirements of a component, they must have a broad knowledge of: The properties of the materials available The properties of materials may be divided into the following four groups: Physical properties, Chemical properties, Mechanical properties and Manufacturing properties. This chapter considers only the mechanical properties of materials and their determination, since they are important to both the design and the manufacturing engineer. To determine the mechanical properties of materials, various standardized testing methods have been developed. The materials are subjected to these laboratory tests under controlled conditions so that their reactions to changes in the conditions may be determined. From the tensile test, considerable information about the properties of a material can be obtained. A specimen with a standardized geometry is gripped between two sets of jaws and pulled in tension until fracture occurs.
