Far-fetched Discovery doesn’t stop at archaeological discoveries or submerged cities. The material engineering spectrum of discovery is a ‘by chance’ sort of materials. You can stumble on buried treasure in your backyard as execute miners who often stumble on new substances.
Discovery of new materials has baffled researchers from long ago. As a result, anything phenomenal that shows up on the mineralogy and metals radar is harvested for study. Such studies acquire enormous significance because newly discovered material could positively influence your life in the future.
Material Engineering
Material engineering studies materials and recites them to their properties. It is particularly curious in the discovery of new materials existing in solid state. Enlightenment, a period in history sparked this study hence prompting researchers to borrow knowledge from engineering, chemistry and physics to understand more about discovered material.
Material Engineering pays reference to ceramics, metallurgy, chemistry and solid-state physics in an effort to understand new material substances. Material engineering bore material scientists who study history of material and their findings you can call material paradigm.
Features of Material
Engineering Structure
- are a key component of material engineering being examined right from off the atomic core to the macro scale. The way of study of structure by material scientists is referred to as characterization.
You can examine structure by diffraction or spectroscopy. The forms of diffraction you can use are electrons, x-rays and neutrons. Spectroscopy is more of chemical analysis with branches like chromatography and thermal analysis. The various levels on which you can consider structure include:
- This level of structure studies objects which are within 1-100 nano range.
- Refer to either a thin roll of material under a microscope above 25x magnification or a structure of prepared material. Microstructure deals with material ranging from 100 nm to a few cm.
You can classify microstructure as composite, metallic, ceramic and polymeric. What’s significant about this level of structure is that it has immense influence on physical properties like strength, toughness, resistance, ductility and corrosion.
Microstructure is the form that most traditional materials like metals, semiconductors, ceramics and polymers implore.
- Macro-structure. Refer to the general appearance of material and ranges from millimeters to meters. This level of structure is the kind which you observe with your naked eye.
- Atomic structure. Atomic structure deals with the atoms of materials and how they give molecules and crystals via their arrangement. From the atomic structure arises against magnetic, electromagnetic and chemical properties of materials.
To have a better understanding on the behavior and properties of materials, you need to have to keep tabs on how atoms and molecules of a material are bonded and arranged.
- Bonding is significant in how your engineering application will hold up. It is, therefore, your duty, as is a material scientist to understand how different ions, atoms and molecules are bonded to each other as well as their arrangement.
Getting a clear-cut understanding on bonding, you have to be intimately acquainted with either quantum physics or chemistry.
- Crystallography considers the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. This feature of material engineering is essential for material scientists to learn. Crystalline defects often control the tangible properties of materials. Therefore by understanding crystallography, you will know how to counter the crystalline defects which can physically incapacitate your engineering product.
Material Paradigm
The material paradigm is basically understanding how the processing of material influences its structure and how that translates to their properties as well as performance. This study confines itself to a processing-structure-properties-performance outline and is represented as a tetrahedron.
Material paradigms is beneficial as it is an instrument used to broaden understanding more so in a couple of research areas such as metallurgy, nanotechnology and biomaterials.
What is Material in Material Engineering?
Material engineering considers a material as a substance that exists in solid state although it includes other condensed phases. Materials are normally intended for suing in certain applications. There is a whole lot of a material around you found in anything either buildings or spacecraft.
Material can be classified into two forms material; crystalline and non-crystalline. The dawn of materials science has been a new dawn for material as well. If you look back at the then traditional material and the now advanced material, there is rift and advanced form sophistication.
Traditional material forms include semi-conductors, metals, ceramics and polymers. Advanced material forms include energy materials, nano materials and biomaterials. This new advancement has stemmed out of material engineering which endeavors to study material structure and recount them to their properties.
Knowing the structure-property correlation of a material will assist you study the performance of a given material in an application. Chemical elements are a structure giver to materials and are a determinant of properties as well. You can also review processing because a material’s final form defines its structure-properties attributes.
Material laws like kinetics and thermodynamics correlate with the structure and properties of material. This correlation governs the microstructure of materials and thus its properties.
Properties of Material in Material Engineering
The material which material scientists uncover to have properties that are classified for easy understanding. This classification justifies the structure and property of materials.
- Mechanical properties. Refer to the mechanical properties of a material which has implications on how the material can withstand extreme exertion or a load. Include bulk modulus, brittleness, creep and slip as well as flexibility just to name a few.
- Atomic properties. Refer to the study of how atoms are arranged and bonded together in materials. Atomic properties have a tremendous impact on mechanical engineering because the defectiveness of its forms alters the tangible properties of material.
- Chemical properties. Chemical elements like its affiliate; mechanical elements are a structure giver to material. Studying chemical elements helps recall how structure-property of material affects its processing.
Material engineering has been with us for an extensive time. Though it receives little applause, this field of science is crucial in explaining phenomenon you stumble upon. Conceivably this is the threshold to getting answers for unresolved mysteries such as Rosewood UFOs.
