MATSE 308: Materials Laboratory, II

Homepage:

Textbook: Laboratory Manual with each section dedicated to an individual experiment.

References: (Numerous reference texts and Handbooks are on reserve in the Grainger Engineering Library)

Catalog Description:

Experiments characterizing mechanical, transport, and magnetic-electric properties of materials. Prerequisite: Completion of Campus Composition I requirement; MatSE 207; and credit or concurrent registration in MatSE 204 and 306. 3 hours 2 hours lecture, 3 hours laboratory/week.

Course Topics:

1. Tensile Stress-Strain Relations
2. Impact and Fracture Toughness Testing
3. Precipitation Hardening and Microstructural Analysis
4. Order-Disorder Transition I: Experiment (Cu3Au)
5. Order-Disorder Transition II: Computer Simulation
6. Diffusion in Solids I: Experiment (Decarburization of High Carbon Steel)
7. Diffusion in Solids II: Computer Simulation
8. Tensile Creep
9. Ceramic Processing
10. Electrical Properties of Materials

Course Objectives:

The overall objectives of this course are to provide students: (1) hands-on knowledge and experience in the measurement of various material properties; (2) tools for the analysis and interpretation of data and (3) rapid feed back on their report writing in order for them to improve their technical writing skills. The specific objectives of each experiment are given below. Small groups of about 5 to 6 students participate as teams in each laboratory session with the reports prepared "independently".
1. Tensile Stress-Strain Relations: To test, evaluate, and compare the tensile properties of several different materials. To compare and understand the difference between engineering stress-strain and true stress-strain. To investigate the relationship between strength, ductility, and fracture surface appearance in materials with a range of mechanical behaviors
2. Impact and Fracture Toughness Testing: To become familiar with the standard toughness measuring tests. To investigate the important effect of temperature on impact toughness and to observe the ductile/brittle transition temperature. To measure and compare the impact toughness of several different materials
3. Precipitation Hardening and Microstructural Analysis: To introduce the concept of strengthening alloys through precipitation. To investigate the effects of aging temperature and times on the overall strength of 2024 Aluminum alloy. To correlate the microstructure with the corresponding strength
4. Order-Disorder Transition I: Experiment (Cu3Au): To study the changes in the ordered structure of Cu3Au with temperature and time and to determine the order-disorder transition temperature. To investigate the order-disorder kinetics in Cu3Au
5. Order-Disorder Transition II: Computer Simulation: To introduce the basic concepts and the tools of computer simulation through simple exercises. To reinforce the understanding of what makes an alloy ordered or disordered (i.e. thermodynamics), how to describe the ordered crystal structure (i,e.crystallography), and how the ordering parameters vary with time (i.e. kinetics). To compare and contrast the simulation and the experimental results
6. Diffusion in Solids I: Experiment (Decarburization of High Carbon Steel): To measure the diffusion coefficient of carbon in g-Fe. To compute the activation energy of carbon diffusion in g-Fe by measuring the diffusion coefficient at various temperatures
7. Diffusion in Solids II: Computer Simulation: To reinforce the understanding of fundamental atomic processes of diffusion in solids through simple exercises. To investigate the effect of several variables on diffusion. To correlate the simulation and experimental results
8. Tensile Creep: To observe various stages of creep in metals at different temperatures. To determine the values of stress exponent and the activation enthalpy for creep in pure Al
9. Ceramic Processing: To introduce a few fundamental steps in ceramic processing. To understand the basic concepts of slurry preparation, spray drying, dry pressing, binder burn-off and sintering processes. To investigate the sintering kinetics of ZnO
10. Electrical Properties of Materials: To strengthen the fundamental understanding of the major differences among metals, semiconductors and insulators by evaluating their resistivities as a function of temperature. To introduce the concept of Hall Effect. To measure dielectric properties of BaTiO3 based materials and to find the effect of composition on dielectric constant

Course Outcomes:

1. Ability to prepare quality (composition and technical) laboratory reports describing the results of experiments
2. Ability to operate the equipment used for the experiments and interpret the data obtained.

Assessment Tools:

1. Four formal journal-type reports 10-13 pages long and 3 short reports 7-10 pages long, excluding tables and figures.
2. The reports are evaluated as follows: (a) format: 30% of the grade (b) technical content: 70% of the grade. The goal is to make the students understand the technical concepts and be able to express them in the form of a good technical report confirming to a standard format. This will assess the student's compositional skills as well as their laboratory experience.
3. Graded reports are returned within a week after their submission with constructive comments. The students are constantly encouraged to read the comments and make use of them to further enhance their report writing skills. The goal is to make sure that each report they submit will be an improvement over the previous report.

Contribution of Course to Meeting the Professional Component:

100%

Prepared by:

Raju Perecherla, March, 2001