THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY - LEVEL 3

DMX 5204 – MATERIALS ENGINEERING

ACADEMIC YEAR 2020/2021

ASSIGNMENT 01

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. This assignment is based on course materials in Book 01.

2. Answer all questions.
3. Write your registration number clearly on your answer script. Write your address at the back of your
answer script.
4. Send your answer script under registered cover to the address given below or put it into the Assignment box
available at the Research Lab of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (S & T Building) Nawala, Nugegoda.
5. THE COURSE COORDINATOR OF DMX 5204,

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,

THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA,

P.O.BOX 21, NAWALA,

NUGEGODA.

6. Last date of submission is 14th of May.

7. No late submissions will be accepted.

(1)

i. Briefly explain the terms “Solubility” and “Phase Diagram”.

ii. State Hume-Rothery rules.

iii. A 90 wt% Ag -10 wt% Cu is heated to a temperature within β + liquid phase region. If the
composition of the liquid phase is 85 wt% Ag, determine the following by marking the necessary
regions in a Cu-Ag Phase diagram.

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 a) The temperature of the alloy

b) The composition of the β phase

c) The mass fractions of both phases

iv. For an iron-carbon alloy of composition 5 wt% C – 95 wt% Fe, make schematic sketches of the
microstructure that would be observed for conditions of very slow cooling at the following
temperatures: 1175oC, 1145oC, and 700oC. Label the phases and indicate their compositions
(approximate)

(2)

i. Explain the congruent melting and the incongruent melting with sketches.

ii. Name 3 types of flaws that can be found in a material and the methods to reduce/eliminate them.

iii. Briefly explain one strengthening mechanism used to strengthen engineering materials.

iv. The lower yield point for an iron that has an average grain diameter of 5 x 10-2 mm is 135 MPa.
At a grain diameter of 8 x 10-3 mm, the yield point increases to 260 MPa. At what grain diameter
will the lower yield point be 205 MPa?

(3)

i. Briefly explain second phase strengthening. State two methods of dispersion.

ii. What is aging of a material, briefly explain?

iii. Suppose that a steel of eutectoid composition is cooled to 550°C (1020°F) from 760°C (1400°F)
in less than 0.5 s and held at this temperature.

a. How long will it take for the austenite-to-pearlite reaction to go to 50% completion? And
then to 100% completion?

b. Name the regions of coarse pearlite, fine pearlite, austenite, banite, martensite occurs in
the given TTT diagram and sketch the microstructure of each form.

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(4)

i. Explain the difference between Hardness and Hardenability.

ii. Explain non-equilibrium heat treatment with jominy end-quench hardenability.

iii. Name 3 types of quenching media. State 3 advantages and disadvantages of each.

iv. Write brief short notes on the following topics

a. Martensitic stainless steel

b. Precipitation-hardening stainless steel

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(5)

i. What are two types of dislocation?

ii. How do shear lattice strains occur on the neighboring atoms of a material?

iii. Explain the slip planes and directions in BCC.

iv. A nickel monocrystal has been sheared to a strain γ = 0.1. Assuming that the dislocation density is
108 cm-2, and it remains constant, what is the average distance moved by each dislocation? If the
shear strain rate is 10-4 s-1, what is the mean velocity of the dislocation?

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