Engineering Materials: Properties, Testing, Phase Diagrams & Processing Guide
Materials engineering explains how metals and other engineering materials behave and why. These guides cover common materials, mechanical property testing, phase diagrams and solidification, and the processes that turn materials into parts.
- Start here
- Mechanical properties & testing
- Phase diagrams & solidification
- Processing
- Composites, lightweighting & fluids
- FAQ
Start here
What engineering materials are and how to tell them apart.
Mechanical properties & testing
How strength, toughness and stiffness are measured.
How to Test Mechanical Properties
Common methods for testing engineering materials.
Tensile Test
Procedure, stress-strain curve and calculations.
Charpy Impact Test
Measuring notch toughness by absorbed energy.
Impact Testing and Temperature
How temperature affects energy absorption and hardness.
Determining a Material from Its Properties
Identifying an unknown specimen from Young’s modulus.
Simple Torsion
How twisting loads create shear strain.
Combined Loading Explained
Axial load, bending and normal stress formulas.
Phase diagrams & solidification
How alloys form and what structure they end up with.
Processing
Turning materials into parts.
Composites, lightweighting & fluids
Materials in vehicles and a related lab.
Frequently asked questions
What is a tensile test?
A tensile test pulls a standard specimen until it breaks to measure properties such as yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and ductility. The result is plotted as a stress-strain curve.
What does a Charpy impact test measure?
The Charpy impact test measures the energy a notched specimen absorbs when it fractures under a sudden blow, which indicates the material’s notch toughness.
What is the lever rule?
The lever rule is used on a phase diagram to find the fraction of each phase present in a two-phase alloy at a given temperature and overall composition.
What is the difference between a metal and an alloy?
A metal is a single element, while an alloy is a mixture of a metal with one or more other elements that gives different properties, such as higher strength.
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