I am trying compare metals, mostly stainless steels, with plastics and I've noted that modulus of elasticity often appears on metal data sheets and flexural modulus often appears on plastics data sheets. Is it acceptable to compare values for flex mod with those for elastic mod, or is that like comparing apples and oranges?
Thanks, Leigh
It's more like comparing two varieties of apples.
Elastic modulus is a fundamental material property of both metals and plastics and can be estimated by either tension, flexural or other mechanical tests.
Values derived from flexural and tensile testing can be compared legitimately and this may be useful for a broad brush examination of possible material selections for a design. However, for more exact comparisions, it is desirable to use the same method. That is "Granny Smith to Granny Smith".
RT
You can compare mechanical properties of steel with plastics, for design purposes, but you also need to know and consider the conditions at which the various properties were determined, which can vary quite a lot! Also, mechanical properties of plastics are much more affected by "environmental factors", like humidity, temperature, chemicals etc., than metals are. Within the normal temperature range plastics are used in, e.g. -50°C -
+250°C, the modulus and strength of plastics change dramatically, whereas steel is virtually unchanged ...."Leigh Nathan" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...
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