Products, devices, and components that you purchase and use are all made of materials. To select appropriate materials, and processing techniques for specific applications, you must have knowledge of the material properties and understand how the structure affects the material properties.
Understanding a material’s properties is important when deciding whether the material is suitable for the use planned for it. Materials may be soft, hard, flexible (bendable), rigid (stiff), transparent (see-through), opaque (meaning light does not shine through it), rough, smooth, shiny, or dull.
To make any engineered device, structure or product, you need the right materials. Materials science teaches us what things are made of and why they behave as they do. Materials engineering shows us how to apply knowledge to make better things and to make things better.
The various important engineering properties (i.e. Key Properties) of a material could be summarized as follows: High strength, ductility, thermal and electrical conductivity. Hardness, brittleness, high melting point, and thermal stability. Low density, good corrosion resistance, low thermal and electrical conductivity, and lower melting point.
Materials science is an important discipline in the development of reliable materials and structures. By understanding material behavior and properties, they can be designed to meet safety and durability requirements. This is critical in areas such as civil engineering, the automotive industry, and aerospace.
The three important properties of materials could be summarized as follows:
Mechanical Properties: e.g. stiffness, strength, ductility, hardness, toughness, etc.
Physical Properties: e.g. density, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, etc.
Chemical Properties: e.g. corrosion resistance in various environments.
The Importance of Studying Mechanical Properties of Engineering Materials.pdf (632.9% u)