What property measures a material's ability to absorb energy before failure?

The property that measures a material's ability to absorb energy before failure is toughness. Toughness combines strength and ductility, reflecting how much energy a material can absorb before it fractures. A tough material can withstand both hard loads and impact forces, meaning it can endure significant stress and deformation without breaking.

Toughness is particularly important in applications where materials are subjected to dynamic loading scenarios, such as in construction, automotive, and aerospace industries. It indicates the resilience of the material, making it suitable for structures that need to absorb energy during sudden impacts or torque.

In contrast, hardness measures a material's resistance to deformation, particularly permanent deformation or scratching. Ductility refers to a material's ability to deform under tensile stress, which is important for processes like stretching or shaping but does not necessarily imply energy absorption capacity before failure. Brittleness defines a characteristic of materials that fail suddenly without significant plastic deformation, indicating low toughness. Therefore, toughness is the comprehensive property that encapsulates a material's energy absorption capacity leading to failure.