Chapter 1: Introduction to

Materials Science & Engineering

ISSUES TO ADDRESS...
• What is materials science and engineering?

• Why are materials important?

• Why is it important for engineers to understand

materials ?

Slides credit: Dr. Candan Tamerler, University of Kansas Chapter 1 - 1

What is Materials Science & Engineering?

• Materials science
– Investigate relationships between structures and
properties of materials
– Design/develop new materials

• Materials engineering
– Create products from existing materials
– Develop materials processing techniques

Chapter 1 - 2
 Why Are Materials Important?
• Materials drive advancements in our society
– Stone Age
– Bronze Age
– Iron Age

• What is today’s material age?

– Silicon (Electronic Materials) Age?
– Nanomaterials Age?
– Polymer Age?

Chapter 1 - 3
 Materials: Artificial Hip Replacement
(cont.)
Hip joint problems can be painful and disabling
• Joint deterioration (loss of cartilage) as one ages
• Joint fracture

arrows point to
ends of fracture line

X-ray of normal hip joint X-ray of fractured hip joint

Chapter 1 - 4
 Example of Materials Selection:
Artificial Hip Replacement

• Anatomy of a human hip

joint and adjacent
skeletal features
Design:
Mechanical Strength
Lubricity
Biocompatible

Chapter 1 - 5
 Materials: Artificial Hip Replacement
(cont.)

• Damaged and diseased hip joints can be

replaced with artificial ones
• Materials requirements for artificial joints
– Biocompatible – minimum rejection by surrounding
body tissues
– Chemically inert to body fluids
– Mechanical strength to support forces generated
– Good lubricity and high wear resistance between
articulating surfaces

Chapter 1 - 6
 Materials: Artificial Hip
Replacement (continued)

Acetabular
Head shell and liner
(Ball)

Schematic diagram of an X-ray of an implanted

artificial hip artificial hip
Chapter 1 - 7
 Materials: Artificial Hip Replacement
(cont.)
• Femoral stem — inserted
Head
into top of hip bone (femur)
(Ball)
• Head (Ball) — affixed to
femoral stem
• Shell — attached to pelvis Liner & Shell
(Acetabular)
• Liner — into which head fits Femoral
• List the design components Stem
– Fixation material of shell
– Material for lubricating the liner Photograph courtesy of
Zimmer, Inc., Warsaw, IN,
– Fixation material of Femoral stem USA.

– No debris in the cup

Chapter 1 - 8
 Materials: Artificial Hip Replacement
(cont.)
• Materials used
- Femoral stem — titanium or CoCrMo alloy
- Head (Ball) — CoCrMo alloy or Al2O3 (ceramic)
- Shell — titanium alloy
- Liner — polyethylene (polymer) or Al2O3 (ceramic)

Chapter 1 - 9
 Why is it Important for Engineers to
Understand Materials?
• Products/devices/components that engineers
design are all made of materials

• To select appropriate materials and

processing techniques for specific
applications engineers must
– have knowledge of material properties and
– understand the structure-property relationships

Chapter 1 - 10
 Relationships Among Processing,
Structure, & Properties
• Processing (e.g., cooling rate of steel from high
temperature) affects structure (microstructure)
• Structure in turn effects hardness
ex: hardness vs structure of steel
Structure (d)
Property
600
Hardness (BHN)

30 μm
500 (c)
Data obtained from Figs. 10.32(a) and
400 (b) 10.33 with 0.4 wt% C composition, and
(a) from Fig. 11.18, Callister & Rethwisch 10e.
Micrographs adapted from (a) Fig. 10.19;
4 μm
300 (b) Fig. 9.30; (c) Fig. 10.34; and (d) Fig.
10.22, Callister & Rethwisch 10e. (Figures
30 μm 10.19, 10.22, & 10.34 copyright 1971 by United
200 30 μm States Steel Corporation. Figure 9.30 courtesy
of Republic Steel Corporation.)

100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 Processing
Cooling Rate (ºC/s)
Chapter 1 - 11
 Four Cornerstones of MSE
(Materials Tetrahedron)

• Melting/Solidification Processing
• Sintering
• Casting/Forging/Shaping

Performance
• Colloidal processing
• Vacuum deposition In the context of
• Bioprocessing applications

Structure
• Molecular-, nano-, micro-
& macro-structures
Properties
• Defect engineering • Mechanical, electrical,
optical, magnetic, thermal Chapter 1 -
 Types of Materials
• Metals:
– Strong, ductile
– High thermal & electrical conductivities
– Opaque, reflective

• Polymers/plastics: compounds of non-metallic elements

– Soft, ductile, low strengths, low densities
– Low thermal & electrical conductivities
– Opaque, translucent or transparent

• Ceramics: compounds of metallic & non-metallic elements

(oxides, carbides, nitrides, sulfides)
– Hard, Brittle
– Low thermal & electrical conductivities
– Opaque, translucent, or transparent

Chapter 1 - 13
 Materials Selection
Engineers often solve materials selection problems.
Procedure:
1. For a Specific Application Determine Required Properties
• Properties: mechanical, electrical, thermal,
magnetic, optical, deteriorative.

2. From List of Properties Identify Candidate Material(s)

3. Best Candidate Material Specify Processing technique(s)

• To provide required set of properties
• To produce component having desired shape and size
• Example techniques: casting, mechanical forming, welding,
heat treating

Chapter 1 - 14
 Material Property Types

Properties of materials fall into six categories as

follows:
• Mechanical
• Electrical
• Thermal
• Magnetic
• Optical
• Deteriorative

Chapter 1 - 15
 Mechanical Properties
Affect of carbon content on the hardness of a
common steel:
Fig. 10.31, Callister & Rethwisch 10e.
[Data taken from Metals Handbook: Heat
320 Treating, Vol. 4, 9th edition, V. Masseria
(Managing Editor), 1981. Reproduced by
Brinell hardness

permission of ASM International, Materials Park,

OH.]

240

160

80
0 0.5 1 wt%C

• Increasing carbon content increases hardness of steel.

Chapter 1 - 16
 Electrical Properties
Factors that affect electrical resistivity – for copper:
6 Fig. 18.8, Callister & Rethwisch 9e.
t%Ni [Adapted from: J.O. Linde, Ann Physik 5, 219

5 3 .3 2a (1932); and C.A. Wert and R.M. Thomson,

Physics of Solids, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill

C u+ Ni
Company, New York, 1970.]
Resistivity, ρ

t%
(10-8 Ohm-m)

4 2 . 16 a t %Ni
+ 2 a
Cu +1 . 1
3 C u
e d
e fo rm % N i
d 2 a t
2 . 1
u +1
C
1 r e ” Cu
“Pu
0
T (°C)
-200 -100 0
• Increasing temperature increases resistivity.
• Increasing impurity content (e.g., Ni) increases resistivity.
• Deformation increases resistivity.
Chapter 1 - 17
 Thermal Properties
Thermal Conductivity – measure of a material’s ability to
conduct heat

400
Thermal Conductivity

300 Fig. 19.4, Callister & Rethwisch 10e.

(W/m-K)

[Adapted from Metals Handbook: Properties

and Selection: Nonferrous alloys and Pure

200 Metals, Vol. 2, 9th ed., H. Baker, (Managing

Editor), ASM International, 1979, p. 315.]

100

0
0 10 20 30 40
Composition (wt% Zinc)

• Increasing impurity content (e.g., Zn in Cu) decreases

thermal conductivity.
Chapter 1 - 18
 Thermal Properties (continued)
Highly porous materials are Material used for space
poor conductors of heat shuttle

Courtesy of Lockheed Aerospace Ceramics

Courtesy of Lockheed Missiles and Space

Systems, Sunnyvale, CA

Company, Inc.
100 μm

• Ceramic Fibers: • Demonstration:

– significant void space – low thermal conductivity
– low thermal conductivity of this material

Chapter 1 - 19
 Magnetic Properties
• Magnetic Storage: • Magnetic Permeability
-- Recording medium is vs. Composition:
magnetized by recording -- Adding 3 atomic % Si makes
write head. Fe a better recording medium!
Fe+3%Si

Magnetization
Fe

Magnetic Field
Adapted from C.R. Barrett, W.D. Nix, and
Fig. 20.23, Callister & Rethwisch 10e. A.S. Tetelman, The Principles of Engineering
(Courtesy of HGST, a Western Digital Company.) Materials, Fig. 1-7(a), p. 9, 1973.
(Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey.)

Chapter 1 - 20
 Optical Properties
• The light transmittance of some materials depend on their
structural characteristics:
Aluminum oxide Aluminum oxide
Aluminum oxide single
polycrystalline material polycrystalline
crystal (high degree of
(having many small material having some
perfection)—is optically
grains)—is optically porosity—is optically
transparent
translucent opaque
(Specimen preparation, P.A. Lessing)

Chapter 1 - 21
 Deteriorative Properties
• Small cracks formed in steel bar that was simultaneously
stressed and immersed in sea water
- Form of stress-corrosion cracking

Cracks

Fig. 17.21, Callister & Rethwisch 10e.

(from Marine Corrosion, Causes, and Prevention, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1975.)
Chapter 1 - 22
 Deteriorative Properties (cont.)
• For stress-corrosion cracking, rate of crack growth is
diminished by heat treating
Adapted from Fig. 11.20(b), R.W.

“as-received” Hertzberg, "Deformation and

Crack Growth Rate (m/s)

10-8 Fracture Mechanics of Engineering

Materials" (4th ed.), p. 505, John
Wiley and Sons, 1996. (Original
source: Markus O. Speidel, Brown
“heat treated” Boveri Co.)

10-10

load
For Aluminum alloy 7178 that is stressed while immersed in a
saturated aqueous NaCl solution, crack growth rate is reduced by
heat treating (160C for 1 h prior to testing).
Chapter 1 - 23
 Materials science and Materials engineering
Materials science involves
investigating the relationships that exist between the structures and
properties of materials.
to develop or synthesize new materials

Materials engineering involves,

on the basis of these structure-property correlations, designing or
engineering the structure of a material to produce a predetermined set of
properties.
to create new products using existing materials and develop
techniques for processing

Chapter 1 - 24
 SUMMARY
• Appropriate materials and processing decisions
require engineers to understand materials and their
properties.
• Materials' properties depend on their structures;
structures are determined by how materials are
processed
• In terms of chemistry the three classifications of
materials are metals, ceramics, and polymers
• Most properties of materials fall into the following six
categories: mechanical, electrical, thermal, magnetic,
optical, and deteriorative.
• An important role of engineers is that of materials
selection.

Chapter 1 - 25