Why would an engineer be interested in yield strength of a material for a particular application?
In civil engineering, an engineer should always be concerned in yield strength of a material for a particular application. Yield strength is defined as the point where materials begin to deform plastically. Before the prior of yield strength the materials deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed.
The knowledge of this is important for engineers especially who are in structural engineering. This is because when designing a structure such as building or bridge with construction materials like steel beam, it is compulsory to work out all of the forces that will act on it. From this, we can determine and choose the correct grade of materials for the structure to resists the load. If the engineers did not concerned about the yield strength of particular material, it might cause failure and damage to our structure.
For example, the yield strength of the beam is the magnitude of the load required to cause yielding in the beam, and the ultimate strength of a truss …show more content…
Strength is a general term that refers to the capacity of a structure to resist loads. The relation between the stress and the strain for a given material under tensile stress can be found experimentally. The stress-strain curves vary from material to material. These curves help us to understand how a given material deforms with increasing loads. From the graph (figure), we can see that in the region between 0 to A, the curve is linear. In the region from A to B, stress and strain are not proportional. Nevertheless, the body still returns to its original dimension when the load is removed. The point B in the curve is known as yield point (also known as elastic limit) and the corresponding stress is known as yield strength (Sy) of the