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Tensile Strength

Also: yield tensile strength, ultimate tensile strength

In a slab the tensile strength is important at the crown.

The tensile strength of a material is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can be subjected to before it deforms or breaks.

Once past its elastic limit, a material will not relax to its initial shape after the force is removed. The tensile strength where the material becomes plastic and suffers irreversible deformation (strain) is called yield tensile strength.

The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of a material is the stress at which the material actually breaks, with sudden release of the stored elastic energy.

Tensile strength is measured in units of force per unit area. In the SI system, the unit is newton per square metre (N/m² or Pa - Pascal). The U.S customary unit is pounds per square inch (or PSI).

This glossary is a work in progress and is made possible by AlpenPro.

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