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APL 750
Modern Engineering Materials

Materials origin, evolution, classification and properties

Lecture 1
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Why to know about materials?

Because…
 Important to note:
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 Materials contribution is so significant
that history of human race is divided into
periods according to materials they used

 Stone, bronze and iron – were of such

importance that the era of their
dominance is named after them

 A very significant increase in available

material choices had occurred only in the
last 60 – 70 years

Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, 4th Edition © 2010 Michael Ashby

 Evolution of Materials – Timeline
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 Time scale is non-linear

 Rate of change is far faster
today than at any previous time
Colored zones indicate man-made materials in history
Materials: engineering, science, processing and design, 2nd edition Copyright (c)2010 Michael Ashby, Hugh Shercliff, David Cebon
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The development of
materials to meet demands
on strength and density is
illustrated by these material
property charts

Similar time plots show this

progressive filling for all
materials properties

Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, 4th Edition © 2010 Michael Ashby

 Why many choices are available today?
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 Material development is driven by the desire for ever greater performance

 Today, over 2,00,000 materials are available to engineers

 We are living in the age of advanced materials or age of immense

materials
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What are engineering materials?

Materials that are used as raw material for any sort of manufacturing or construction
in a defined way of engineering application are called as Engineering materials
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Why to know about engineering materials?

Because…
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‘Engineers’ role
 Engineers make things. They make them out of materials
- James Stuart, first professor of Engineering
at Cambridge University (1875-1890)
- In his days, the no. of materials for engineers was
a few hundred at most!

For today’s engineers (You and perhaps Me!) myriad number of materials exist!

How to optimally decide from this vast menu of ‘Engineering Materials’?!

(of course, Prof. Stuart never had this problem)
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Origin of ‘Engineering Materials’

Everything
in this world
is made of
~125
elements

 In ‘pure’ form elements are not useful materials (except Gold and few others)
 In combined form of elements originate many materials
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Such materials are classified as:

1. Organic Solids
2. Inorganic solids

They fall into 4 major categories:

1. Metals
2. Polymers
3. Ceramics
4. Composites & ….
 Engineering Materials Classification
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 Material families and classes
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The members of a material

family have certain features
in common
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Why materials knowledge is critical?

or
Why a materials engineer is needed?
IIT Delhi To avoid failures!
 Even if it happens, to analyse the reason and prevent such failures in future

How this is possible??

 By understanding the behaviour of materials under various conditions

 Creating materials with sufficient properties

 Dramatic Material Failure Incidence
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Liberty ships failure in WW-II Titanic ship failure

Helped to identify
Ductile to Brittle Transition in Steels
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WTC – Twin Towers Collapse
 steel used in the concrete structure melted due to
excessive temperature and collapsed the building
Helped to open up research on
Fire-resistant Steels
Space shuttle Columbia disaster
 a piece of foam insulation of fuel tank
broke apart and damaged the wing and
led to catastrophic failure of it
Better insulation Methods
 Dramatic Material Failure Incidence
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Fuselage failure in the air Deformed railway tracks of steel

 Dramatic Material Failure Incidence
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Oil rig mishap River Bridge collapse in Mississippi

Russian underwater
submarine failure
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Sometimes failures are good!?

Because it opens up new innovations/technologies…

Ask yourself is it always good to learn from failures/from

experience?
Or
Is it better to prevent failures by understanding the conditions
 Engineering Materials Classification
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(based on property profiles)
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What is property?

A property is defined as a characteristic or an attribute or a

quality of matter/material that may be observed and measured
 Material properties (with units)
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 Each material can be thought of as

having a set of attributes or properties

 The combination that characterizes a

given material is its property profile

Materials Selection in Mechanical Design, 4th Edition © 2010 Michael Ashby

 Mechanical Properties
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1. Stiffness, Elastic modulus

2. Yield strength
3. Tensile strength and ductility
4. Fracture toughness
5. Density
 Thermal Properties
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1. Maximum service temperature (creep)

Metals – upto 800 ˚C; polymers – 150 ˚C
2. Thermal expansion coefficient
3. Thermal conductivity
- high for cooking pans
- low for insulating homes, or
enable space vehicle to re-enter earth’s
atmosphere
4. Heat capacity and thermal diffusivity
metals - high heat capacity ( heat to ΔT)
polymers - low
 Electrical, Magnetic and Optical Properties
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1. Conductivity, Resistivity and dielectric

properties
2. Magnetism – Remanence (measure of
intensity of retained magnetism)
- Hard and soft magnetic materials
3. Optical – response to light
opaque material – reflect
transparent material – refract
 Chemical Properties
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Resistance to:
1. Water (corrosion, erosion)
2. Acids
3. Alkalis
4. Organic solvents
5. Oxidation
6. Radiation