2030 – 03 -Stress & Strain

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Manufacturers will test a metal’s properties to determine its limitations. One way to test a material’s strength is to put force on it until it breaks. Specific equipment is used to pull apart, indent, or bend sample pieces of the material to see how it will react to force.
Stress is a force that is applied either by pound per square inch (psi) or megapascals (MP). Strain is the ratio of change in that occurs under stress in comparison with a metal’s original state. Strain represents the change that occurs physically because of stress.
Special equipment is needed to test these qualities in metals. The data from all these different tests is plotted onto a strain/stress graph. These graphs give industry experts general information about certain materials.