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Mechanical Engineering vocabulary · Mechanics and Materials

Ductile

Meaning in mechanical engineering, with examples

/ˈdʌktəl/adjectiveCommon term

In mechanical engineering, ductile means: Able to stretch and bend a lot before breaking. Most steels, copper and aluminum are ductile; glass and gray cast iron are not.

In Turkish: sünek

How it is used

Used in materials science, failure analysis and design. Ductile materials give a warning by deforming before they fail, while brittle materials break suddenly. Engineers describe a ductile fracture or ductile behavior and measure ductility as elongation in a tensile test.

Example sentences

  1. The fracture surface shows that the bolt failed in a ductile way, probably from overload.

  2. Many steels become less ductile at very low temperatures.

Common collocations

  • ductile material
  • ductile fracture
  • ductile iron
  • ductile behavior
  • yield strengthThe stress at which a material stops behaving elastically and starts to deform permanently. Designers usually keep working stresses well below this value.
  • tensile testA test in which a standard sample is pulled until it breaks, to measure properties such as yield strength, tensile strength and elongation.
  • hardnessHow well a material resists being scratched, dented or worn at its surface. It is measured with tests such as Rockwell (HRC), Brinell (HB) or Vickers (HV).
  • alloyA metal made by mixing a base metal with other elements to improve properties such as strength, hardness or corrosion resistance. Steel and brass are alloys.
  • failureThe state in which a part or machine can no longer do its job, for example because it has cracked, worn out, leaked or stopped working.

More terms: Mechanics and Materials

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