notes/mechanical/mmme1029_materials.md

---
author: Alvie Rahman
date: \today
title: MMME1029 // Materials
tags: [ uni, nottingham, mmme1029, materials ]
---

# Lecture 1 (2021-10-04)

## 1A Reading Notes

### Classification of Energy-Related Materials

- Passive materials---do not take part in energy conversion e.g. structures in pipelines, turbine
  blades, oil drills
- Active materials---directly take part in energy conversion e.g. solar cells, batteries, catalysts,
  superconducting magnests

- The material and chemical problems for conventional energy systems are mostly well understood and
  usually associated wit structural and mechanical properties or long standing chemical effects like
  corrosion:

    - fossil fuels
    - hydroelectric
    - oil from shale and tar
    - sands
    - coal gasification
    - liquefaction
    - geothermal energy
    - wind power
    - bomass conversion
    - solar cells
    - nuclear reactors

### Applications of Energy-Related Materials

#### High Temperature Materials (and Theoretical Thermodynamic Efficiency)

- Thermodynamics indicated that the higher the temperature, the greater the efficiency of heat to
work:

  $$ \frac{ T_{high} - T_{low} }{ T_{high} } $$ where $T$ is in kelvin

- The first steam engines were only 1% efficient, while modern steam engines are 35% efficient
  primarily due to improved high-temperature materials.
- Early engines made from cast iron while modern engines made from alloys containing nickel,
  molybdenum, chromium, and silicon, which don't fail at temperature above 540 \textdegree{}C
- Modern combustion engines are nearing the limits of metals so new materials that can function
  at even higher temperatures must be found--- particularly intermetallic compounds and ceramics are
  being developed

## Types of Stainless Steel

- Type 304---common; iron, carbon, nickel, and chromium
- Type 316---expensive; iron, carbon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum

## Self Quiz 1

1. What is made of billion year old carbon + water + sprinkling of stardust?

   > Me

2. What are the main classifications of materials?

   > Metals, glass and ceramics, ~~plastics, elastomers,~~ polymers, composites, and semiconductors

3. [There are] Few Iron Age artefacts left. Why?

   > They rusted away

4. What is maens by 'the micro-structure of a material'?

   > The very small scale structure of a material which can have strong influence on its physical
   > properties like toughness and ductility and corrosion resistance

5. What is a 'micrograph' of a material?

   > A picture taken through a microscope

6. What microscope is used to investage the microstructure of a material down to a 1 micron scale
   resolution?

   > Optical Microscope

7. What microscope is used [to investigate] the microstructure of a material down to a 100 nm scale
   resolution?

   > Scanning Electron Microscope

8. What length scales did you see in the first slide set?

   > 1 mm, 0.5 mm, 1.5 \textmu{}m

9. What material properties were mentioned in the first slide set?

   > Hardness, brittleness, melting point, corrosion, density, thermal insulation

## Self Quiz 2

1. What is the effect of lowering the temperature of rubber?

   > Makes it more brittle, much less elastic and flexible

2. What material properties were mentioned in the second slide set?

   > Young's modulus, specific heat, coefficient of thermal expansion

# Lecture 2

## Properties of the Classes

### Metals

- Ductile (yields before fracture)
- High UFS (Ultimate Fracture Stress) in tension and compression
- Hard
- Tough
- High melting point
- High electric and thermal conductivity

### Ceramics and Glasses

- Brittle --- elastic to failure, no yield
- Hard (harder than metals)
- Low UFS under tension
- High UFS under compression
- Not tough
- High melting points
- Do not burn as oxide ceramics are already oxides
- Chemically resistant
- Poor thermal and electric conductivity
- Wide range of magnetic and dielectric behaviours

### Polymers

- Organic---as in organic chemistry (i.e. carbon based)
- Ductile 
- Low UFS in tension and compression
- Not hard
- Reasonably tough
- Low threshold temperature to charring and combustion in air or pure oxygen
- Low electrical and thermal conductivity

  - There are some electrically conductive polymers 

### Composites

- Composed of 2 or more materials on any scale from atomic to mm scale to produce properties that
  cannot be obtained in a single material

  - Larger scale mixes of materials may be called 'multimaterial'

- Material propertes depends on what its made of

## Terms

### Organic vs Inorganic Materials

- Organic materials are carbon based
- From chemistry, organic compounds are ones with a C-H bond
- Inorganic compounds do not contain the C-H bond

### Crystalline vs Non-Crystalline Materials

- Most things are crystalline

  - Ice
  - Sugar
  - Salt
  - Metals
  - Ceramics

- Glasses are non-crystalline

## Material Properties

### Density

$$\rho = \frac m v$$

- Density if quoted at STP (standard temperature and pressure---$298$ K and $1.013\times 10^5$ Pa)
- Metals, ceramics, and glasses are high density materials
- Polymers are low density
- Composites span a wide range of density as it depends on the materials it is composed of

  e.g. composites with a metal matrix will have a much higher density than those with a polymer
  matrix

### Melting Points

- Measured at standard pressure and in an intert atmosphere (e.g. with Nitrogen, Argon, etc)

  - Diamond and graphite will survive up to 4000 \textdegree{}C in an inert atmosphere but would
    burn at around 1000 \textdegree{}C in oxygen

- High melting points -> high chemical bond strength

### Corrosion

- It's not just metals that corrode

- Polymers

  - UV degradation
  - Water absorption can occur in degraded polymers

- Glass

  - Leaching
  - Sodium ions can leave the glass when covered in water. If the water stays, the high pH water
    can damage the class

## Self Quiz

### Consolidation Questions 1

1. 

   i. Metal
   ii. Titanium

2. 
   i. Polymer
   ii. Polyester

3. 

   i. Ceramic
   ii. Alumino-silicate

4. 

   i. Composite
   ii. GFRP or CFRP

5. 

   i. Metal
   ii. Aluiminium alloy

6.

   i. Metal
   ii. Aluiminium alloy

7. 

   i. Polymer
   ii. Acrylic

8.

   i. Ceramimc
   ii. Glass

9.

   i. Composite
   ii. Concrete

### Consolidation Questions 2

> ~~C~~ B