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Homework # 2

This document contains 3 homework problems related to materials science: 1) Plotting modulus of elasticity vs crystallinity for polyethylenes and determining the trend and a linear relationship between the two. 2) Discussing the elastic isotropy of amorphous vs crystalline aluminum oxide and the origins of elasticity in terms of bonding. 3) Plotting true and engineering stress-strain curves for copper using stress-strain data and estimating the point of necking.

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93 views2 pages

Homework # 2

This document contains 3 homework problems related to materials science: 1) Plotting modulus of elasticity vs crystallinity for polyethylenes and determining the trend and a linear relationship between the two. 2) Discussing the elastic isotropy of amorphous vs crystalline aluminum oxide and the origins of elasticity in terms of bonding. 3) Plotting true and engineering stress-strain curves for copper using stress-strain data and estimating the point of necking.

Uploaded by

antoniushadi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
Download as pdf or txt
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MECH 532:

Materials Issues in Mechanical Design Homework #2 Fall 2020

Homework # 2
Problem 1: The data below shows the modulus of elasticity (E) for a wide range of synthesized
polyethylenes measured at T=23◦ C. Plot the modulus as a function of percent crystallinity. What
is the trend of the modulus with crystallinity and can you explain why this is so using your
understanding of bonding of polymers. Now, we can hypothesize that the modulus of elasticity is
a linear function of crystallinity:

E = E0 + E 0 χ

where χ is the fraction of crystalline material in the sample. Determine E0 and E 0 and estimate,
based on this hypothesis, what should the modulus of a completely amorphous polyethylene be?
Comment on your results.

Modulus (MPa) 362 520 701 800 770 932 982 1055 1269 1344 1496 1573
% Crystallinity 50.7 52.4 54.1 59.1 61.5 64.6 65.0 68.6 73.1 74.7 76.6 79.5

Problem 2: Aluminum is a highly reactive element and in pure form is used a solid rocket
propellant. We can use aluminum as a structural material because it forms a stable 2-3 nm thick
coating on its surface of amorphous aluminum oxide (aluminum oxide is called alumina), a-Al2 O3 .
Al2 O3 can also crystallize and its lowest energy crystal structure is corundum, or α-Al2 O3 , which is
naturally completely transparent (although when colored by defects it is called sapphire, unless it
is red when it is called ruby). Which of these two forms are intrinsically elastically isotropic? How
can the forms that are not intrinsically isotropic be made to behave in an isotropic way? Why?
Now, discuss the origins of elasticity in both of these two materials with regards to bonding. What
are the dominant types of bonding in these materials (you may need to do a little review of chemical
bonding to be certain) and do you think the dominant bonding is the same in the two materials?

Problem 3: The following true stress-strain data was obtained for copper (elastic strains can be
neglected).
First, plot dσ T
dεT
on the same graph as the true stress-strain curve. To compute the derivative,
use the forward difference for the first data point, backwards difference for the last data point and
central difference for all other data points. The forward difference formula for derivatives is:

dσT
= (σi+1 − σi ) / (εi+1 − εi ) (1)
dεT i

The central difference method is:



dσT
= (σi+1 − σi−1 ) / (εi+1 − εi−1 ) (2)
dεT i

and the backward difference method is:



dσT
= (σi − σi−1 ) / (εi − εi−1 ) (3)
dεT i

Use this plot to estimate the stress and strain at which copper necks in tension.

MECH 532 Page 1 of 2


MECH 532:
Materials Issues in Mechanical Design Homework #2 Fall 2020

Second, assuming the material deforms such that volume is conserved, plot the true stress-
strain curve and the engineering stress-strain curves for tension and compression assuming the
material behavior is independent of loading direction. Explain why your plots look the way they
do and justify all of your reasoning. [NOTE: be careful in plotting past necking in engineering
stress strain curves).

Stress (MPa) 0 141 202 252 290 319 343 360 373 390
Strain 0.00 0.087 0.172 0.259 0.339 0.413 0.482 0.547 0.608 0.770

MECH 532 Page 2 of 2

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