The most common mechanical properties are yield stress, elongation, hardness, and toughness. The first two are measured in a tensile test, where a sample is loaded until it begins to undergo plastic strain (i.e., strain that is not recovered when the sample is unloaded). This stress is called the yield stress. It is a property that is the same for various samples of the same alloy, and it is useful in designing structures since it predicts the loads beyond which a structure will be permanently bent out of shape.

If the tensile test is continued past yielding, the load reaches a maximum as the strain localizes and a neck develops in the sample. The maximum load, divided by the initial cross-sectional area of the sample, is called the ultimate tensile stress (UTS). The final length minus the initial length, divided by the initial length, is called the elongation. Yield stress, UTS, and elongation are the most commonly tabulated mechanical properties of metals.

The hardness of a metal can be measured in several ways. If a hard indenter (a sphere, cone, or pyramid) is pushed a short distance into a metal with a defined load, the load divided by the contact area becomes the measure of hardness. For testing steel, one of the oldest of such tests, the Brinell hardness test, uses a 10-millimetre-diameter ball and a 3,000-kilogram load. Brinell hardness values correlate well with UTS. Much smaller loads and diamond microindenters also can be used in conjunction with a microscope to measure the hardness of quite small regions (down to a few micrometres, or millionths of a metre, across).

A different type of testing machine, which indicates hardness directly, bears the name Rockwell. Here, instead of measuring the width of the indentation after the indenter has been removed, a sensitive gauge indicates the depth to which the indenter sinks into the surface under a given load. Various sizes of indenters and loads allow a wide range of hardness to be measured. These hardness numbers are useful for quality control in manufacturing, especially in assuring consistency from batch to batch.

Of particular concern in engineering structures is the prevention of sudden, complete failure, as in the fracture of a brittle material. Much to be preferred is a structure that will deform under an overload but not fail. Sudden failure begins at a notch or crack that locally concentrates the stress, and the energy required to extend such a crack in a solid is a measure of the solid’s toughness. In a hard, brittle material, toughness is low, while in a strong, ductile metal it is high. A common test of toughness is the Charpy test, which employs a small bar of a metal with a V-shaped groove cut on one side. A large hammer is swung so as to strike the bar on the side opposite the groove. The energy absorbed in driving the hammer through the bar is the toughness.

A test requiring more instrumentation, but measuring material properties that are more useful for analysis, is the pulling apart of two sides of a sample containing a crack that is initially cut about one-third of the way through the sample. The use and analysis of such a test is called fracture mechanics, and the information acquired is used to demonstrate the integrity of structures made of strong materials that contain small flaws—for example, rocket casings, airplanes, and nuclear reactor pressure vessels.

If a part is loaded once to a stress near the yield stress, it will not break. However, if it is loaded repeatedly to this level, it will eventually break. This failure is called fatigue, and avoiding fatigue is an important goal in the design of moving machinery. The more cycles a part will undergo, the lower the allowable stress it must be assigned in order to avoid failure by fatigue.

Another type of failure observable at loads below the yield stress is called creep. If a load is applied and left on the sample for months or years, the sample will slowly extend. In metals with high melting temperatures, creep becomes a problem at higher temperatures. It becomes a limiting consideration in gas turbines that operate at the highest temperature the metal parts can take.