materials testing

Introduction

      measurement of the characteristics and behaviour of such substances as metals, ceramics, or plastics under various conditions. The data thus obtained can be used in specifying the suitability of materials for various applications—e.g., building or aircraft construction, machinery, or packaging. A full- or small-scale model of a proposed machine or structure may be tested. Alternatively, investigators may construct mathematical models (mathematical model) that utilize known material characteristics and behaviour to predict capabilities of the structure.

      Materials testing breaks down into five major categories: mechanical testing; testing for thermal properties; testing for electrical properties; testing for resistance to corrosion, radiation, and biological deterioration; and nondestructive testing. Standard test methods have been established by such national and international bodies as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with headquarters in Geneva, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Philadelphia.

Mechanical testing

      Structures and machines (machine), or their components, fail because of fracture or excessive deformation (deformation and flow). In attempting to prevent such failure, the designer estimates how much stress (load per unit area) can be anticipated, and specifies materials that can withstand expected stresses. A stress analysis, accomplished either experimentally or by means of a mathematical model, indicates expected areas of high stress in a machine or structure. Mechanical property tests, carried out experimentally, indicate which materials may safely be employed.

Static tension and compression tests

      When subjected to tension (pulling apart), a material elongates and eventually breaks. A simple static tension test determines the breaking point of the material and its elongation, designated as strain (change in length per unit length). If a 100-millimetre steel bar elongates 1 millimetre under a given load, for example, strain is (101–100)/100 = 1/100 = 1 percent.

      A static tension test requires (1) a test piece, usually cylindrical, or with a middle section of smaller diameter than the ends; (2) a test machine that applies, measures, and records various loads; and (3) an appropriate set of grips to grasp the test piece. In the static tension test, the test machine uniformly stretches a small part (the test section) of the test piece. The length of the test section (called the gauge length) is measured at different loads with a device called an extensometer; these measurements are used to compute strain.

      Conventional testing machines are of the constant load, constant load-rate, and constant displacement-rate types. Constant load types employ weights directly both to apply load and to measure it. Constant load-rate test machines employ separate load and measurement units; loads are generally applied by means of a hydraulic ram into which oil is pumped at a constant rate. Constant displacement-rate testing machines are generally driven by gear-screws.

      Test machine grips are designed to transfer load smoothly into the test piece without producing local stress concentrations. The ends of the test piece are often slightly enlarged so that if slight concentrations of stress are present these will be directed to the gauge section, and failures will occur only where measurements are being taken. Clamps, pins, threading, or bonding are employed to hold the test piece. Eccentric (nonuniform) loading causes bending of the sample in addition to tension, which means that stress in the sample will not be uniform. To avoid this, most gripping devices incorporate one or two swivel joints in the linkage that carries the load to the test piece. Air bearings help to correct horizontal misalignment, which can be troublesome with such brittle materials as ceramics.

      Static compression tests determine a material's response to crushing, or support-type loading (such as in the beams of a house). Testing machines and extensometers for compression tests (compressive strength test) resemble those used for tension tests. Specimens are generally simpler, however, because gripping is not usually a problem. Furthermore, specimens may have a constant cross-sectional area throughout their full length. The gauge length of a sample in a compression test is its full length. A serious problem in compression testing is the possibility that the sample or load chain may buckle (form bulges or bend) prior to material failure. To prevent this, specimens are kept short and stubby.

Static shear and bending tests

      Inplane shear tests indicate the deformation response of a material to forces applied tangentially. These tests are applied primarily to thin sheet materials, either metals or composites, such as fibreglass reinforced plastic.

      A homogeneous material such as untreated steel casting reacts in a different way under stress (shear stress) than does a grained material such as wood or an adhesively bonded joint. These anisotropic materials are said to have preferential planes of weakness; they resist stress better in some planes than in others, and consequently must undergo a different type of shear test.

      Shear strength of rivets and other fasteners also can be measured. Though the state of stress of such items is generally quite complicated, a simple shear test, providing only limited information, is adequate for most purposes.

      Tensile testing is difficult to perform directly upon certain brittle materials such as glass and ceramics. In such cases, a measure of the tensile strength of the material may be obtained by performing a bend test, in which tensile (stretching) stresses develop on one side of the bent member and corresponding compressive stresses develop on the opposite side. If the material is substantially stronger in compression than tension, failure initiates on the tensile side of the member and, hence, provides the required information on the material tensile strength. Because it is necessary to know the exact magnitude of the tensile stress at failure in order to establish the strength of the material, however, the bending test method is applicable to only a very restricted class of materials and conditions.

Measures of ductility

      Ductility is the capacity of a material to deform permanently in response to stress. Most common steels, for example, are quite ductile and hence can accommodate local stress concentrations. Brittle materials, such as glass, cannot accommodate concentrations of stress because they lack ductility; they, therefore, fracture rather easily.

      When a material specimen is stressed, it deforms elastically (i.e., recoverably) at first; thereafter, deformation becomes permanent. A cylinder of steel, for example, may “neck” (assume an hourglass shape) in response to stress. If the material is ductile, this local deformation is permanent, and the test piece does not assume its former shape if the stress is removed. With sufficiently high stress, fracture occurs.

      Ductility can be expressed as strain, reduction in area, or toughness. Strain, or change in length per unit length, was explained earlier. Reduction in area (change in area per unit area) may be measured, for example, in the test section of a steel bar that necks when stressed. Toughness measures the amount of energy required to deform a piece of material permanently. Toughness is a desirable material property in that it permits a component to deform plastically, rather than crack and perhaps fracture.

Hardness (hardness tester) testing

      Based on the idea that a material's response to a load placed at one small point is related to its ability to deform permanently (yield), the hardness test is performed by pressing a hardened steel ball (Brinell test) or a steel or diamond cone (Rockwell test) into the surface of the test piece. Most hardness tests are performed on commercial machines that register arbitrary values in inverse relation to the depth of penetration of the ball or cone. Similar indentation tests are performed on wood. Hardness tests of materials such as rubber or plastic do not have the same connotation as those performed on metals. Penetration is measured, of course, but deformation caused by testing such materials may be entirely temporary.

      Some hardness tests, particularly those designed to provide a measure of wear or abrasion, are performed dynamically with a weight of given magnitude that falls from a prescribed height. Sometimes a hammer is used, falling vertically on the test piece or in a pendulum motion.

Impact test

      Many materials, sensitive to the presence of flaws, cracks, and notches, fail suddenly under impact. The most common impact tests (Charpy and Izod) employ a swinging pendulum to strike a notched bar; heights before and after impact are used to compute the energy required to fracture the bar and, consequently, the bar's impact strength. In the Charpy test, the test piece is held horizontally between two vertical bars, much like the lintel over a door. In the Izod test, the specimen stands erect, like a fence post. Shape and size of the specimen, mode of support, notch shape and geometry, and velocities at impact are all varied to produce specific test conditions. Nonmetals such as wood may be tested as supported beams, similar to the Charpy test. In nonmetal tests, however, the striking hammer falls vertically in a guide column, and the test is repeated from increasing heights until failure occurs.

      Some materials vary in impact strength at different temperatures, becoming very brittle when cold. Tests have shown that the decrease in material strength and elasticity is often quite abrupt at a certain temperature, which is called the transition temperature for that material. Designers always specify a material that possesses a transition temperature well below the range of heat and cold to which the structure or machine is exposed. Thus, even a building in the tropics, which will doubtless never be exposed to freezing weather, employs materials with transition temperatures slightly below freezing.

Fracture toughness tests

      The stringent materials-reliability requirements of the space programs undertaken since the early 1960s brought about substantial changes in design philosophy. Designers asked materials engineers to devise quantitative tests capable of measuring the propensity of a material to propagate a crack. Conventional methods of stress analysis and materials-property tests were retained, but interpretation of results changed. The criterion for failure became sudden propagation of a crack rather than fracture. Tests have shown that cracks occur by opening, when two pieces of material part in vertical plane, one piece going up, the other down; by edge sliding, where the material splits in horizontal plane, one piece moving left, the other right; and by tearing, where the material splits with one piece moving diagonally upward to the left, the other moving diagonally downward to the right.

Creep test

      Creep is the slow change in the dimensions of a material due to prolonged stress; most common metals exhibit creep behaviour. In the creep test, loads below those necessary to cause instantaneous fracture are applied to the material, and the deformation over a period of time (creep strain) under constant load is measured, usually with an extensometer or strain gauge. In the same test, time to failure is also measured against level of stress; the resulting curve is called stress rupture or creep rupture. Once creep strain versus time is plotted, a variety of mathematical techniques is available for extrapolating creep behaviour of materials beyond the test times so that designers can utilize thousand-hour test data, for example, to predict ten-thousand-hour behaviour.

      A material that yields continually under stress and then returns to its original shape when the stress is released is said to be viscoelastic; this type of response is measured by the stress-relaxation test. A prescribed displacement or strain is induced in the specimen and the load drop-off as a function of time is measured. Various viscoelastic theories are available that permit the translation of stress-relaxation test data into predictions about the creep behaviour of the material.

fatigue

      Materials that survive a single application of stress frequently fail when stressed repeatedly. This phenomenon, known as fatigue, is measured by mechanical tests that involve repeated application of different stresses varying in a regular cycle from maximum to minimum value. Most fatigue-testing machines employ a rotating eccentric weight to produce this cyclically varying load. A material is generally considered to suffer from low-cycle fatigue if it fails in 10,000 cycles or less.

      The stresses acting upon a material in the real world are usually random in nature rather than cyclic. Consequently, several cumulative fatigue-damage theories have been developed to enable investigators to extrapolate from cyclic test data a prediction of material behaviour under random stresses. Because these theories are not applicable to most materials, a relatively new technique, which involves mechanical application of random fatigue stresses, statistically matched to real-life conditions, is now employed in most materials test laboratories.

      Material fatigue involves a number of phenomena, among which are atomic slip (in which the upper plane of a metal crystal moves or slips in relation to the lower plane, in response to a shearing stress), crack initiation, and crack propagation. Thus, a fatigue test may measure the number of cycles required to initiate a crack, as well as the number of cycles to failure.

      A cautious designer always bears the statistical nature of fatigue in mind, for the lives of material specimens tested at a common stress level always range above and below some average value. Statistical theory tells the designer how many samples of a material must be tested in order to provide adequate data; it is not uncommon to test several hundred specimens before drawing firm conclusions.

Measurement of thermal properties

Thermal conductivity

       heat, which passes through a solid body by physical transfer of free electrons and by vibration of atoms and molecules, stops flowing when the temperature is equal at all points in the solid body and equals the temperature in the surrounding environment. In the process of attaining equilibrium, there is a gross heat flow (heat transfer) through the body, which depends upon the temperature difference between different points in the body and upon the magnitudes of the temperatures involved. Thermal conductivity is experimentally measured by determining temperatures as a function of time along the length of a bar or across the surface of flat plates while simultaneously controlling the external input and output of heat from the surfaces of the bar or the edges of the plate.

specific heat

      Specific heat of solid materials (defined as heat absorbed per unit mass per degree change in temperature) is generally measured by the drop method, which involves adding a known mass of the material at a known elevated temperature to a known mass of water at a known low temperature and determining the equilibrium temperature of the mixture that results. Specific heat is then computed by measuring the heat absorbed by the water and container, which is equivalent to the heat given up by the hot material.

thermal expansion

      Expansion due to heat is usually measured in linear fashion as the change in a unit length of a material caused by a one-degree change in temperature. Because many materials expand less than a micrometre with a one-degree increase in temperature, measurements are made by means of microscopes.

Measurement of electrical properties

      An understanding of electrical properties and testing methods requires a brief explanation of the free electron gas theory of electrical conduction. This simple theory is convenient for purposes of exposition, even though solid-state physics has advanced beyond it.

      Electrical conductivity involves a flow or current of free electrons through a solid body. Some materials, such as metals, are good conductors of electricity; these possess free or valence electrons that do not remain permanently associated with the atoms of a solid but instead form an electron “cloud” or gas around the peripheries of the atoms and are free to move through the solid at a rapid rate. In other materials, such as plastics, the valence electrons are far more restricted in their movements and do not form a free-electron cloud. Such materials act as insulators against the flow of electricity.

      The effect of heat upon the electrical conductivity of a material varies for good and poor conductors. In good conductors, thermal agitation interferes with the flow of electrons, decreasing conductivity, while, as insulators increase in temperature, the number of free electrons grows, and conductivity increases. Normally, good and poor conductors are enormously far apart in basic conductivity, and relatively small changes in temperature do not change these properties significantly.

      In certain materials, however, such as silicon, germanium, and carbon, heat produces a large increase in the number of free electrons; such materials are called semiconductors (semiconductor). Acting as insulators at absolute zero, semiconductors possess significant conductivity at room and elevated temperatures. Impurities also can change the conductivity of a semiconductor dramatically by providing more free electrons. Heat-caused conductivity is called intrinsic, while that attributable to extra electrons from impurity atoms is called extrinsic.

      Conductivity of a material is generally measured by passing a known current at constant voltage through a known volume of the material and determining resistance in ohms. The total conductivity is then calculated by simply taking the reciprocal of the total resistivity.

Testing for corrosion, radiation, and biological deterioration

      Testing for breakdown or deterioration of materials under exposure to a particular type of environment has greatly increased in recent years. Mechanical, thermal, or electrical property tests often are performed on a material before, during, and after its exposure to some controlled environment. Property changes are then recorded as a function of exposure time. Environments may include heat, moisture, chemicals, radiation, electricity, biological substances, or some combination thereof. Thus, the tensile strength of a material may fall after exposure to heat, moisture, or salt spray or may be increased by radiation or electrical current. Strength of organic materials may be lessened by certain classes of fungus and mold.

Corrosion

      Corrosion testing is generally performed to evaluate materials for a specific environment or to evaluate means for protecting a material from environmental attack. A chemical reaction, corrosion involves removal of metallic (metal) electrons (electron) from metals and formation of more stable compounds such as iron oxide (rust), in which the free electrons are usually less numerous. In nature, only rather chemically inactive metals such as gold and platinum are found in pure or nearly pure form; most others are mined as ores that must be refined to obtain the metal. Corrosion simply reverses the refining process, returning the metal to its natural state. Corrosion compounds form on the surface of a solid material. If the compounds are hard and impenetrable, and if they adhere well to the parent material, the progress of corrosion is arrested. If the compound is loose and porous, however, corrosion may proceed swiftly and continuously.

      If two different metals are placed together in a solution ( electrolyte), one metal will give up ions to the solution more readily than the other; this difference in behaviour will bring about a difference in electrical voltage between the two metals. If the metals are in electrical contact with each other, electricity will flow between them and they will corrode; this is the principle of the galvanic cell or battery. Though useful in a battery, this reaction causes problems in a structure; for example, steel bolts in an aluminum framework may, in the presence of rain or fog, form multiple galvanic cells at the point of contact between the two metals, corroding the aluminum.

      Corrosion testing is performed to ascertain the performance of metals and other materials in the presence of various electrolytes. Testing may involve total immersion, as would be encountered in seawater, or exposure to salt fog, as is encountered in chemical-industry processing operations or near the oceans where seawater may occur in fogs. Materials are generally immersed in a 5 percent or 20 percent solution of sodium chloride or calcium chloride in water, or the solution may be sprayed into a chamber where the specimens are freely suspended. In suspension testing, care is taken to prevent condensate from dripping from one specimen onto another. The specimens are exposed to the hostile environment for some time, then removed and examined for visible evidence of corrosion. In many cases, mechanical tests after corrosion exposure are performed quantitatively to ascertain mechanical degradation of the material. In other tests, materials are stressed while in the corrosive environment. Still other test procedures have been developed to measure corrosion of metals by flue or stack gases.

radiation

      Materials may be tested for their reactions to such electromagnetic radiation as X rays, gamma rays, and radio-frequency waves, or atomic radiation, which might include the neutrons emitted by uranium or some other radioactive substance. Most affected by these forms of radiation are polymers (polymer), such organic compounds as plastic or synthetic rubber, with long, repeated chains of similar chemical units.

      Radiation tests are performed by exposing the materials to a known source of radiation for a specific period of time. Test materials may be exposed by robot control to nuclear fuels in a remote chamber, then tested by conventional methods to ascertain changes in their properties as a function of exposure time. In the field, paint samples may be exposed to electromagnetic radiation (such as sunlight) for prolonged periods and then checked for fading or cracking.

      Exposure to radiation is usually, but not always, detrimental to strength; for example, exposure of polyethylene plastic for short periods of time increases its tensile strength. Longer exposures, however, decrease tensile strength. Tensile and yield strength of a type of carbon-silicon steel increase with exposure to neutron radiation, although elongation, reduction in area, and probably fracture toughness apparently decrease with exposure. Certain wood/polymeric composite materials are even prepared by a process that employs radiation. The wood is first impregnated with liquid organic resin by high pressure. Next, the wood and resin combination is exposed to radiation, causing a chemical change in the form of the resin that produces a strengthened material.

Biological deterioration

      In recent years there has been considerable activity in the new field of formulating tests to ascertain the resistance of organic materials to fungi, bacteria, and algae. Paints, wrappers, and coatings of buried pipelines, structures, and storage tanks are typical materials exposed to biological deterioration.

      When biological composition of the soil in a given area is unknown, colonies or cultures of its various fungi, bacteria, or algae are isolated and incubated by standard laboratory techniques. These are then used to test materials for biological degradation or to test the effectiveness of a fungicide or bactericide. In testing for algae resistance, for example, treated and untreated strips of vinyl film—such as might be used to line a swimming pool—are immersed in growing tanks along with seed cultures of algae plants. Within three days, luxuriant algae growths appear on untreated samples.

Nondestructive testing

      The tensile-strength test is inherently destructive; in the process of gathering data, the sample is destroyed. Though this is acceptable when a plentiful supply of the material exists, nondestructive tests are desirable for materials that are costly or difficult to fabricate or that have been formed into finished or semifinished products.

Liquids (liquid)

      One common nondestructive technique, used to locate surface cracks and flaws in metals, employs a penetrating liquid, either brightly dyed or fluorescent. After being smeared on the surface of the material and allowed to soak into any tiny cracks, the liquid is wiped off, leaving readily visible cracks and flaws. An analogous technique, applicable to nonmetals, employs an electrically charged liquid smeared on the material surface. After excess liquid is removed, a dry powder of opposite charge is sprayed on the material and attracted to the cracks. Neither of these methods, however, can detect internal flaws.

radiation

      Internal as well as external flaws can be detected by X-ray or gamma-ray (gamma ray) techniques in which the radiation passes through the material and impinges on a suitable photographic film. Under some circumstances, it is possible to focus the X rays to a particular plane within the material, permitting a three-dimensional description of the flaw geometry as well as its location.

sound

      Ultrasonic (ultrasonics) inspection of parts involves transmission of sound waves above human hearing range through the material. In the reflection technique, a sound wave is transmitted from one side of the sample, reflected off the far side, and returned to a receiver located at the starting point. Upon impinging on a flaw or crack in the material, the signal is reflected and its traveling time altered. The actual delay becomes a measure of the flaw's location; a map of the material can be generated to illustrate the location and geometry of the flaws. In the through-transmission method, the transmitter and receiver are located on opposite sides of the material; interruptions in the passage of sound waves are used to locate and measure flaws. Usually a water medium is employed in which transmitter, sample, and receiver are immersed.

magnetism

      As the magnetic characteristics of a material are strongly influenced by its overall structure, magnetic techniques can be used to characterize the location and relative size of voids and cracks. For magnetic testing, an apparatus is used that contains a large coil of wire through which flows a steady alternating current (primary coil). Nested inside this primary coil is a shorter coil (the secondary coil), to which is attached an electrical measuring device. The steady current in the primary coil causes current to flow in the secondary coil through the process of induction. If an iron bar is inserted into the secondary coil, sharp changes in the secondary current can indicate defects in the bar. This method only detects differences between zones along the length of a bar and cannot detect long or continuous defects very readily. An analogous technique, employing eddy currents (eddy current) induced by a primary coil, also can be used to detect flaws and cracks. A steady current is induced in the test material. Flaws that lie across the path of the current alter resistance of the test material; this change may be measured by suitable equipment.

Infrared (infrared radiation)

      Infrared techniques also have been employed to detect material continuity in complex structural situations. In testing the quality of adhesive bonds between the sandwich core and facing sheets in a typical sandwich construction material such as plywood, for example, heat is applied to the surface of the sandwich skin material. Where bond lines are continuous, the core materials provide a heat sink for the surface material, and the local temperatures of the skin will fall evenly along these bond lines. Where the bond line is inadequate, missing, or faulty, however, temperature will not fall. Infrared photography of the surface will then indicate the location and shape of the defective adhesive. A variation of this method employs thermal coatings that change colour upon reaching a specific temperature.

      Finally, nondestructive test methods also are being sought to permit a total determination of the mechanical properties of a test material. Ultrasonics and thermal methods appear most promising in this regard.

Kenneth E. Hofer, Jr.

Additional Reading

Zbigniew D. Jastrzebski, The Nature and Properties of Engineering Materials, 3rd ed. (1987), describes the qualitative mechanical behaviour of materials. W.D. Kingery, H.K. Bowen, and D.R. Uhlmann, Introduction to Ceramics, 2nd ed. (1976), illustrates the utilization of ceramic materials. Harmer E. Davis, George Earl Troxell, and George F.W. Hauck, The Testing of Engineering Materials, 4th ed. (1982), is a highly comprehensive and easily understood work offering detailed information on the various testing methods for use in the training of materials testing personnel. Discussions of testing techniques for various materials include three volumes in the Metals Handbook, 9th ed., prepared under the direction of the ASM International Handbook Committee: vol. 8, Mechanical Testing (1985), vol. 13, Corrosion (1987), and vol. 17, Nondestructive Evaluation and Quality Control (1989); Robert Baboian and Sheldon W. Dean (eds.), Corrosion Testing and Evaluation (1990); R.S. Sharpe, Research Techniques in Nondestructive Testing (1970– ); Don E. Bray and Roderick K. Stanley, Nondestructive Evaluation: A Tool for Design, Manufacturing, and Service (1989), examining the theory and practice of ultrasonic techniques, magnetic flux leakage techniques, radiographic methods, penetrant inspection, and eddy current concepts, with an extensive bibliography and examples of actual applications; Josef Krautkrämer and Herbert Krautkrämer, Ultrasonic Testing of Materials, 4th fully rev. ed. (1990), a classic text treating the use of ultrasonic waves to detect such defects as strength variations, nonbonding, and cavities; and International Advances in Nondestructive Testing (annual), addressing methods that currently have applications in various industries and new techniques for possible future applications. Kenneth E. Hofer, Jr. Ed.

* * *