The purpose of this experiment is to become familiar with the technique of measuring the compression strength of ductile materials. In this experiment the material heat-treated steel was the subject used in the testing. The term tensile strength is that property of a material that gives it resistance to being separated by two forces acting in opposite directions. It is a measure of the maximum resistance to the separating forces. This experiment is perfon-ned on many materials to see how they will hold up in a particular ty 'e of setting and situation.
Tensile strength is perhaps the single p most important property of engineering materials.
Tensile test are the most commonly made and among the simplest of all mechanical tests. When tensile tests are made with a ductile material, it is common practice to also determine ductility of the specimen by measuring elongation of a portion of the sample. This experiment demonstrates typical procedures used in a tensile-elongation test. Knowledge of the following terms is necessary for understanding tensile properties of materials.