Copper alloy demonstrates largest tensile elastic strain

When subjected to particular levels of stress, metals can revert to their original shape due to elasticity. Materials with large elastic deformation provide greater flexibility in items including sporting goods and medical devices.

Theoretically, most metals and alloys can endure a strain value of about 10 per cent when the metals are reduced to micro or nano scales. When these metals are in their bulk shape, as they are for most practical engineering applications, the elastic strain drops below one per cent.

Led by Sheng Xu, specially appointed assistant professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Engineering, the group's bulk copper-based alloy demonstrated a tensile elastic strain greater than 4.3 per cent at room temperature.

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The elastic softening behaviour exhibited by the material meant that the relationship between tensile stress and strain was not linear and did not adhere to Hooke's law, a theory of elasticity generalising that the elasticity of an object is proportional to the stress applied.