TyErd said:
Okay so the answer to the second part of the question is simply the yield strength. But the first part where it asks to calculate the strain at fracture confuses me. for material a, the stress at fracture is 3%. what do i do with that?
Actually for the fist sample, the stain at fracture is 3%, the stress was 300 odd if I recall correctly
Once you have found the fracture point, reading from one axis will give you the stress at fracture - which is also called strength - while the other axis will tell you the strain at the time.
If you look at (b) and find the yield point, that will tell you the stress at yield point, which I believe is called the yield strength and strain at the time can be found from the other axis.
Strain energy was not part of this question - but may be coming into your thoughts.
The area under the stress strain curve gives you the strain energy per unit volume absorbed by the material. The larger the area the tougher the material.
If we consider the area under the graph only as far as the yield point, then the greater the area, the more resilient the material - the energy it absorbs but is still able to spring back.
With sample (b) the amount of strain energy coming back after fracture is approximately the same as that absorbed up to yield point - all the energy absorbed during deformation is gone for good.