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Laboratory 4: Bend testing

Mechanical Metallurgy Laboratory 431303 1

T. Udomphol

LLaabboorraattoorryy 44

Bend Testing

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Objectives

Students are required to study the principles of bend testing, practice their testingskills and interpreting the experimental results of the provided materials when failed

under three-point bending.

Investigate responses of metals when subjected to bending Determine parameters such as bend strength, yield strength in bending and elastic

modulus.

Students can interpret the obtained test data and select appropriate engineeringmaterials for their intended uses in order to prevent creep failures.

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1. Literature review

1.1 Bend or flexure testing

Bend or flexure testing is common in springs and brittle materials whose failure behaviours

are linear such as concretes, stones, woods, plastics, glasses and ceramics. Other types of brittle

materials such as powder metallurgy processed metals and materials are normally tested under a

transverse flexure. Bend test is therefore suitable for evaluating strength of brittle materials where

interpretation of tensile test result of the same material is difficult due to breaking of specimens

around specimen gripping. The evaluation of the tensile result is therefore not valid since the failed

areas are not included in the specimen gauge length.

Smooth rectangular specimens without notches are generally used for bend testing under

three-point or four-point bend arrangements as shown in figures 1 a) and b) respectively. Figure 2

illustrates three-point bending which is capable of 180o

bend angle for welded materials.

Figure 1: Bend testing of a rectangular bar under a) three-point bend and b) four-point bend arrangements.

Considering a three point bend test of an elastic material, when the load P is applied at the

midspan of specimen in an x-y plane, stress distribution across the specimen width (w = 2c) is

demonstrated in figure 3 a). The stress is essentially zero at the neutral axis N-N. Stresses in the y

axis in the positive direction represent tensile stresses whereas stresses in the negative direction

represent compressive stresses. Within the elastic range, brittle materials show a linear relationship of

load and deflection where yielding occurs on a thin layer of the specimen surface at the midspan.

This in turn leads to crack initiation which finally proceeds to specimen failure. Ductile materials

however provide load-deflection curves which deviate from a linear relationship before failure takes

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place as opposed to those of brittle materials previously mentioned. Furthermore, it is also difficult to

determine the beginning of yielding in this case. The stress distribution of a ductile material after

yielding is given in figure 3 b). Therefore, it can be seen that bend testing is not suitable for ductile

materials due to difficulties in determining the yield point of the materials under bending and the

obtained stress-strain curve in the elastic region may not be linear. The results obtained might not be

validated. As a result, the bend test is therefore more appropriate for testing brittle materials whose

stress-strain curves show its linear elastic behaviour just before the materials fail.

Figure 2:Example of a weld plate bend tested under athree-point bend arrangement.

Figure 3: Stress distributions in a rectangular bar when a) elastically bended and b) after yielding [1].

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For brittle materials having a liner stress-strain relation, the fracture stress (f) can be

determined from the fracture stress in bending according to a linear elastic beam analysis as shown in

equation 1

22

3

tc

M

I

Mcf == (1)

3

2 3tcI =

(2)

where M is the bending moment

c is half of the specimen width as shown in figure 1

t is the thickness of the specimen as shown in figure 1

I is the moment of inertia of the cross-sectional area

Under there-point bending as shown in figure 1 a) when the load Pis applied at the midspan

of a rectangular bar of a length L between the two rollers, the highest bending moment at the midspan

is equal to

4

PLM = (3)

We then have

22

2

3

8

3

tw

LP

tc

LP fffb == (4)

where fb

is the calculated fracture stress

Pf

is the fracture load obtained from the bending test

w is the width of the specimen of length = 2c

The fracture stress in bending is called the bend strength or flexure strength, which is

equivalent to the modulus of rupture in bending. The bend strength is slightly different from the

fracture stress obtained from the tensile test if failure takes place further away from yielding.

However, brittle materials possess higher strength in compression than in tension. The material

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failure under bending is therefore owing to the tensile stresses especially along the surface opposite to

the load direction.

The determination of the yield strength (y) is carried out by replacing the load at yielding P

f

in equation 4. The yielding load is determined at the definite yield point or at certain % offset.

Hence, we now have the yield strength in equation 5. It should be noted that the yield strength

obtained from the bend test is not different from the yield strength achieved from the tensile test. This

is because the relationship between the load and the deflection remains linear at yielding.

22

3

tw

LPyo = (5)

Moreover, from the experimental result, we can also obtain the elastic modulus of the

material according to the linear-elastic analysis. The deflection of the beam (v) from the center as

illustrated in figure 3 can be expressed in equation 6

EI

PLv

48

3

= (6)

where the elastic modulus (E) can be calculated from the slope of the load-deflection curve

)(dv

dPin the linear region as follows

)(32

)(48 3

33

dv

dP

tc

L

dv

dP

I

LE == (7)

The elastic moduli achieved from the bend test are generally close to the elastic moduli

obtained from tension and compression using the same material. However, there are several factors

that might affect the elastic moduli, which are 1) elastic and plastic deformation at the rollers at the

supports or the loading points might not be sufficiently small in comparison to the beam deflection.

2) If a short specimen is bend tested, deformation due to shear stress may take place, which are not

ideal for the calculation according to the beam theory. 3) Materials might have different elastic

moduli under bending, tension and compressive. Therefore, the elastic moduli in bending should be

identified to any avoid confusions for the interpretation of the mechanical behaviour of the material.

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According to figure 4 b), Finite Element Analysis (FEM) of a rectangular bar when the load P

is applied. Under three point bending, strain is confined in the midspan area of the specimen which

finally leads to yielding of the bar.

Figure 4: a) Deflection of the beam and b) Finite Element Analysis (FEM) for three-point bending.

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2. Experimental procedure

2.1 Bend specimens

2.2 Micrometer or vernia caliper

2.3 Permanent pen

2.4 Universal testing machine

3. Experimental procedure

3.1 Measure the width and thickness of the specimen including the span length in the table

provided for the calculation of the stress and elastic modulus. Mark on the locations where

the load will be applied under three-point bending.

3.2 Bend testing is carried out using a universal testing machine until failure takes place.

Construct the load-extension or load-deflection curve if the dial gauge is used.

3.3 Calculate the bend strength, yield strength and elastic modulus of the specimen

3.4 Describe the failure under bending and sketch the fracture surfaces in the table provided.

3.5 Discuss the obtained experimental results and give conclusions.

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4. Results

Description Specimen 1 Specimen 2

Thickness, t(mm)

Width, w (mm)

Span length,L (mm)

Fracture load,Pf(N)

Load at yielding,Pf

(N)

Bend strength, fb

(MPa)

Yield strength in bending, yb

(MPa)

Elastic modulus (GPa)

Fracture details

Table 1: Experimental data for bend testing of materials

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Figure 5:Load-deflection curves of the tested specimens

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5. Discussion

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6. Conclusions

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7. F (Questions)

7.1 Explain how did cast iron fail under bending? Would it be different from a failure of

aluminium under bending?

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7.2 What do you expect if the bending experiment has been carried out at elevated temperatures?

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7.3 Give three examples of engineering applications which involve bending properties of the

materials.

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8. F (References)

8.1 Dowling, N.E., Mechanical behavior of materials: Engineering methods for deformation,

fracture and fatigue, 2nd

edition, 1999, Prentice Hall, ISBN-0-13-010989-4.

8.2 Hibbleler, R.C.,Mechanics of materials, SI second edition, 2005, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-

186-638-9.

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