The maximum stress a material sustains while being pulled apart.
Tensile strength is the peak of the stress-strain curve. It is the most-quoted strength figure and the least useful for design, because a part that reaches it is already permanently deformed and about to fail.
Design against yield, not ultimate. The tensile figure is for comparing materials and for acceptance testing, not for sizing a part that must remain functional.
Designing a part against tensile strength with no margin, which means it will yield in service long before the calculation says it fails.
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