STEP II: Mechanical Engineering Program

 

COURSE #: ME 382

 

COURSE TITLE: Mechanical Behavior Of Materials

 

TERMS OFFERED: Fall, Winter.

 

PREREQUISITES: ME 211: Introduction to Solid Mechanics.

 

TEXTBOOKS/REQUIRED MATERIAL:

Mechanical Behavior of Materials by N. Dowling.

Engineering Materials 2 by M. F. Ashby and D.R.H. Jones.

 

COGNIZANT FACULTY:

DATE OF PREPARATION:

 

COURSE LEADER(S): M. D. Thouless

 

SCIENCE/DESIGN:

 

CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Material microstructures, dislocations and defects; processing and mechanical properties of metals, polymers, and composites; heat treatment of metals; elastic, plastic, and viscoelastic behavior of materials, strain hardening; fracture, fracture mechanics, fatigue and multiaxis loading; creep and stress relaxation; materials-related design issues, materials selection, corrosion and environmental degradation of materials.

 

 

 

 

COURSE TOPICS:

  1. Bonding and defects.
  2. Phase diagrams and equilibrium microstructures.
  3. Elasticity.
  4. Plasticity - multi-axial yield criteria and hardening mechanisms.
  5. Kinetics of phase changes.
  6. Metallic alloys - heat treatment and microstructure.
  7. Deformation of polymers.
  8. Fracture and linear-elastic fracture mechanics.
  9. Fatigue - fatigue life and crack growth
  10. Creep - mechanisms and creep life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

COURSE OBJECTIVES*

 

 

 

(numbers shown in brackets are links to department educational outcomes)

To teach students:

  1. How atomic bonding and microstructure affect the properties of materials [1, 3].
  2. How processing and composition affect the microstructures of materials [1, 3].
  3. The mechanical properties of metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites [1].
  4. How to determine the strength of engineering components [1, 5, 11].
  5. How to determine the life of engineering components [1, 5, 11].
  6. How to select materials and use them in the design of engineering comoponents [3, 5, 11].

 

 

 

 

COURSE

OUTCOMES*

 

 

 

 

(numbers shown in brackets are links to course objectives)

At the end of the course students should be able to:

1. Understand and explain how the properties of a material may be modified by processing and alloying [1, 2].

2. Understand and explain how the modulus and density of a material are affected by bonding and atomic or molecular structure [1].

3. Compare two or more competing failure mechanisms to determine which is design limiting [4, 5, 6].

4. Interpret mechanical test data, including tensile/compression curves, fatigue-life diagrams, and creep curves [3].

5. Interpret binary-phase diagrams to predict equilibrium microstructures [2].

6. Understand and explain the role of kinetics in the development of non-equilibrium microstructures [2].

7. Understand and explain the hardening mechanisms that occur in metallic alloys, and the heat treatments that allow these mechanisms to be realized [1, 2].

8. Use von Mises and Tresca yield criteria to analyze an engineering component subjected to multi-axial loading [4].

9. Use linear-elastic fracture mechanics to determine the effect that a crack will have on the structural integrity of components subjected to a static load [4, 6].

10. Use Weibull statistics to calculate the probability of failure of brittle materials [3, 4, 6].

11. Determine the lifetime of a component containing a crack that is subjected to cyclic loading or environmental loading [5, 6].

12. Use a combination of S/N curves, Basquins Law, Goodman or Gerber relationship, and Miners' Law to predict fatigue life [5, 6].

13. Understand design and inspection procedures for components subjected to cyclic loading [6].

14. Determine the creep life of engineering components at elevated temperatures [5, 6].

15. Understand the physical origin of various models for creep of metallic components [1].

16. Use time-dependent properties of polymers in design calculations [4, 5, 6].

17. Understand and explain the origin of temperature and time-dependent properties of polymers [1].

18. Derive and use equations for the upper and lower bounds of the modulus of a composite [3].

 

ASSESSMENT TOOLS
  1. Regular homework problems.
  2. Exams.

*The ABET99 Group suggests up to 6 objectives and 1-3 outcomes per objective.