Tensile testing

Tensile testing measures how a material specimen deforms and carries load when pulled, often through failure. The results characterize properties such as strength, stiffness, and ductility.

Engineering stress: Applied force divided by a specimen’s original cross-sectional area. It converts the measured tensile force into a quantity comparable across specimen sizes.
Universal testing machine: A machine that applies controlled tension or compression while measuring force and displacement. It supplies the tensile load and records the force response.
ASTM E8/E8M: An ASTM standard test method for tensile testing of metallic materials at room temperature. It specifies procedures and specimen requirements for common metal tests.
Compression testing: A mechanical test that measures a specimen’s response to compressive loading. It loads the specimen by squeezing rather than pulling.
Engineering strain: Change in a specimen’s length divided by its original length. It expresses elongation relative to the specimen’s starting gauge length.
Load cell: A transducer that converts applied force into an electrical measurement. Its readings provide the force data used to calculate stress.
ISO 6892-1: An international standard describing tensile testing of metallic materials at room temperature. It provides a standardized method for reporting metal tensile properties.
Flexural testing: A test that measures material response to bending under applied load. It combines tension and compression across a bent specimen rather than applying uniaxial tension.
Stress–strain curve: A graph showing how stress varies with strain in a material under load. It summarizes the specimen’s response throughout the tensile test.
Extensometer: An instrument that measures changes in length over a defined gauge section. It measures specimen strain more directly than crosshead displacement.

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