MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

OF
DENTAL MATERIALS

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 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF
DENTAL MATERIALS
 Defined by the laws of mechanics.
 The physical science that deals with energy
and forces and their effects on the bodies.
 Mechanical properties need to be
considered collectively.
 Intended application of a material is
important.
 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF
DENTAL MATERIALS
 Failure or success potential of any
prosthesis / restoration is dependent upon
the mechanical properties of the material.
 The material response may be,
1. Elastic …. reversible on force removal.
2. Plastic …… Irreversible / non-elastic.
 Mechanical properties are expressed in
terms of stress and/or strain.
 MASTICATORY FORCES
Tooth Average
 Occlusal forces force (N)
applied by adult
dentition is greatest in Second 800
posterior region. molar
 In growing children First molar 390
there is an average
annual increase in Bicuspids 288
force of 22 N.
Cupids 208
 Denture wearers only
apply 40% of the Incisors 155
forces given in table.
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 STRESS
 When a force acts on the body, a resistance is
developed to the external force applied.
 This internal reaction is equal in
magnitude/intensity and opposite in direction
to the applied force and is called as “STRESS”
 Denoted by “S” or “σ”
 Designated as force per unit area (σ=N/m²)
 Pascal = 1 N / m².
 Commonly stress is reported in terms of
megaPascals.
 STRAIN
 Relative deformation of an object that is
subjected to stress.
 It is change in length per unit length.
 It may be elastic, plastic or both elastic and
plastic.
 It is denoted by “ε”
 Designated as ∆L / L.
 TYPES OF FORCES APPLIED
 Generally, the force applied may be
1. Axial (tensile or compressive)
2. Shear (sliding, rubbing)
3. Bending (bending movement)
4. Tortional (twisting movement)
 TYPES OF FORCES APPLIED
 Tension results when a body is subjected to
two sets of forces directed away from each
other in a straight line. Force is directed
away from the objcet.
 Compression results when the body is
subjected to two sets of forces directed
towards each other in a straight line.
TYPES OF FORCES APPLIED

TENSION COMPRESSION

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 TYPES OF FORCES APPLIED
 Shear is a result of two sets of forces
directed parallel to each other , but not
along the same straight line.
 Torsion results from the twisting of the
body.
 Bending results by applying bending
movement.
 TYPES OF STRESSES
 3 simple types.
1. TENSILE STRESS:
causes the body to stretch or elongate.
Tensile stress is always accompanied by
tensile strain.
2. COMPRESSIVE STRESS:
causes the body to shorten or compress.
Compressive
3. SHEAR STRESS:
resist the sliding or twisting of one portion of
the body over another.
 TYPES OF FORCES APPLIED
Complex stresses
FLEXURAL STRESS:
 Also called as bending stress.
 Produced by bending forces over the
dental appliance.
 Application of shear force may produce
elastic shear strain or plastic shear strain.
 Flexural Stress: Bending forces
 Elastic Strain

 Plastic Strain
 Hooke's Law
Hooke's Law states that "within the
limits of elasticity the strain produced by a
stress (of any one kind) is proportional to
the stress".
 The stress at which a material ceases to
obey Hooke's Law is known as the limit of
proportionality.

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 Hooke's Law
 Hooke's law can be expressed by the
formula
stress / strain = a constant.
 The value of the constant depends on the
material and the type of stress. For tensile
and compressive forces it is called Young's
modulus, E; for shearing forces, the shear
modulus, S; and, for forces affecting the
volume of the object, the bulk modulus, K.

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 PROPORTIONAL LIMIT
 It is the maximum stress at which the
stress is equivalent/proportional to strain
and above this limit the plastic
deformation of a material occurs.
 The material may be subjected to any
type of applied force.

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 STENGTH
Strength is the maximum stress that a
material can withstand without sustaining
a specific amount of plastic strain.

OR

Stress at the point of fracture.

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 STRENGTH PROPERTIES
ULTIMATE TENSILE STENGTH :
Simply called as TENSILE STRENGTH.
It is defined as the Tensile stress at the
point of fracture.
YIELD STRENGTH :
It is the stress at which a test specimen
exhibits a specific amount of plastic strain.
Used in the conditions when proportional
limit cannot be determined with accuracy.
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 STRENGTH PROPERTIES
SHEAR STRENGTH:
Maximum shear stress at the point of
fracture.
FLEXURAL STRENGTH:
Defined as “force per unit area at the
point of fracture of a specimen that is
subjected to flexural loading”
Also called as “BENDING STRENGTH” or
“MODULUS OF RUPTURE”
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 STRENGTH PROPERTIES
FATIGUE STRENGTH:
 Determined by subjecting a material to cyclic
stress of maximum known value and
determining the number of cycles required to
cause failure of the material.
 Maximum service stress (endurance limit) can be
maintained without failure over an infinite
number of cycles.
 Endurance limit is lower for materials with brittle
and rough surface.
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 STRENGTH PROPERTIES
FATIGUE STRENGTH:
 Dental restorative materials may exhibit static
fatigue failure or dynamic fatigue failure.
 Depends upon the nature of loading or residual
stress situations.
 Failure begins as a flaw that propagates till the
catastrophic fracture occurs.

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 STRENGTH PROPERTIES
IMPACT STRENGTH:
 Impact is the reaction of a stationary
object to a collusion with a moving body.
 Impact strength is defined as energy
required to fracture a material under an
impact force.
 The energy units are joules.

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 ELASTIC MODULUS
 Also called as modulus of elasticity or Young’s
modulus.
 It is the relative stiffness or rigidity of a material.
 Measured by the slope of the elastic region of
the stress strain curve.
 If a tensile or compressive stress (below the
proportional limit) is divided by corresponding
strain value, a constant of proportionality will be
obtained.

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 ELASTIC MODULUS
 Unaffected by the amount of elastic or plastic
stress induced in the material.
 Independent of ductility of a material.
 The lower the strain for a given stress, greater
will be the elastic modulus bcoz it represent
the ratio of elastic stress to elastic strain.
 E.g. two wires of same shape and size.
 Polyether impression materials –high E,greater
force is needed to remove imp. Trays from
undercut area in mouth 25
 STRESS-STRAIN CURVE
 For materials in which strain is
independent of the length of time that a
load is applied “ STRESS STRAIN CURVES“
are important.

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ANALYSIS FOR A STRESS STRAIN
CURVE
STIFFNESS & FLEXIBILITY
1) If longitudinal portion of the curve is
closer to the long axis the material is stiff
& not flexible.
2) If it is away from the long axis the
material is flexible.

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ANALYSIS FOR A STRESS STRAIN
CURVE
TOUGHNESS & BRITTLENESS
1) If material fractures after a long concave
portion of the curve, it donates that the
material is tough & ductile.
2) If elastic portion of the curve is minimal,
it shows the brittleness of the material.

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ANALYSIS FOR A STRESS STRAIN
CURVE
STRNGTH & WEAKNESS
 If longitudinal portion of curve is longer,
means that the material is strong.
 If longitudinal portion is short the material
is weak.
HENCE FROM THE ANALYSIS OF THE
STRESS STRAIN CURVE IT IS
POSSIBLE TO HAVE AN IDEA ABOUT
THE PROPERTIES OF A MATERIAL. 29
 STRAIN TIME CURVES
 For materials in which the strain is
dependent upon the time for which the
load is being applied “STRAIN TIME
CURVES” are mor useful in explaining the
properties of a material than stress strain
curves.
 Examples:
Alginate & rubber base impression
materials, dental amalgam & human
dentin.
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STRESS STRAIN CURVES

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STRESS STRAIN CURVES

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 Dynamic Young’s Modulus
 Can be measured by dynamic method.
 Ultrasonic longitudinal and transverse
wave transducers and appropriate
receivers are used.
 The velocity of sound wave and density of
material are used to calculate elastic
modulus.

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 RESILIENCE

 With increase in interatomic spacing the

internal energy increases.
 Until the stress is lower than proportional
limit, the energy is called as RELILIENCE.
 The amount of energy absorbed within a
unit volume of structure when it is
stressed to its proportional limit.
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 Toughness
 The resistance of a
material to fracture

So what does yellow

area under curve
represent?
 DUCTILITY and MALLEABILITY
 DUCTILITY:
Ability of a material to deform plastically
under a tensile stress before fracture. e.g.
metal drawn readily into long thin wires.
 MALLEABILITY:
The ability of a material to sustain plastic
deformation, without fracture under
compression.
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 DUCTILITY and MALLEABILITY
 Gold is the most ductile and malleable
pure metal, followed by silver.
 Platinum is ranked third in ductility.
 Copper ranks third in malleability.

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 HARDNESS
 In mineralogy, relative hardness of a
substance is based upon its ability to resist
scratching.
 In metallurgy and mostly in all other
disciplines, hardness is defined as
resistance to indentation.
 Designated as
 KNOOP HARDNESS NUMBER.
 BRINELL HARDNESS NUMBER.
 VICKERS HARDNESS NUMBER. 38
 ROCKWELL HARDNESS NUMBER.
 TERMS TO REMEMBER
Shapes produced by indentors
On materials

KNOOP HARDNESS VICKERS

TEST HARDNESS
TEST

BRINELL &
ROCKWELL
39 HARDNESS TEST
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