ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the basics of how materials behave under a mechanical load and shows how to compare among materials given available reference values. It presents how the properties of materials are intimately tied to the properties of the surrounding environment, the amount of load applied, and the frequency of the applied load. Many different companies make load frames and Universal Testing Machine (UTM) components with some variation on the underlying science. The chapter focuses on mechanical characterization relative to the tool used and reviews the power of structure-property relationships that can be gleaned with macroscopic and microscopic mechanical testing. It also focuses on uniaxial loading in tension and compression and provides more complex deformation modes in which are seen in dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). In DMA, an oscillating force is applied to a material at a known frequency in a known sample geometry and the resulting strain stress and strain are calculated.
