noun

• The resistance of a material to breaking under tension.

  Compare with compressive strength

  ‘Suddenly the polymer producers were challenged to develop specialty materials with higher tensile strengths, higher temperature resistance, higher abrasion resistance, and greater stiffness.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The tensile strength of clad material depends on the tensile strength of its components and their ratio to its thickness.’
  • ‘In any event, she can exert a surface pressure far in excess of the tensile strength of any material ever likely to be found on this planet or its environs.’
  • ‘For a large object to obtain a basically spherical form, the tensile strength of its component material must be overcome.’
  • ‘Unfortunately, the poor tensile strength of the materials did not prove equal to the job, and the structure was swept away in a storm on the night of 5 February, 1850.’
  • ‘The first thing I noticed about the bathing costume was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material.’
  • ‘For brittle materials, the tensile strength is a valid criterion for design.’
  • ‘The tensile stress, acting against the mobilized tensile strength, is primarily the fibers' response to shear deformation.’
  • ‘The principal limitation on the use of lead as a structural material is not its low tensile strength but its susceptibility to creep.’
  • ‘As this happens, bending forces are developed in the concrete, which the tensile strength of the concrete must resist and distribute.’
  • ‘Four sensors are installed side by side so that the tensile strength of the sheet can be tested over the full width as it is transported.’
  • ‘Their purpose was to build up early tensile strength to resist shrinkage stresses that increase as the concrete sets.’
  • ‘Some silk made by orb weaver spiders rivals the tensile strength of steel.’
  • ‘Fracture characteristics of these steels is strongly dependent on the tensile strength and hence on the transformation temperature.’
  • ‘Some of these chemical properties, high density, and tensile strength, made depleted uranium an attractive material for use in weapons.’
  • ‘Intriguingly, the tensile strengths of the mutant and wild type fibres were very similar which means that decreased coarseness was not achieved at the expense of strength.’
  • ‘Most domestic manufacturers comply with minimum tensile strengths.’
  • ‘For example, St. John and his colleagues are evaluating braiding metals with very high tensile strengths.’
  • ‘Healed full-thickness wounds have only 80% of the tensile strength of noninjured skin.’
  • ‘The tensile strength (ability to be stretched without tearing) of collagen fibers is comparable to that of steel.’