Course syllabus
MTT100 Mechanical performance of engineering materials lp2 HT20 (7.5 hp)
Course offered by the department of Industrial and Materials Science
Contact details
Examiner and lecturer: Prof Johan Ahlström johan.ahlstrom@chalmers.se
Tutor (exercises): Prof Yu Cao yu.cao@chalmers.se
Lab Session coordinator: MSc Erika Steyn erika.steyn@chalmers.se
Student Administration: Hanije Safakar hanije@chalmers.se
Course purpose
Different techniques for analysis of mechanical behaviour are covered: tensile, bend, hardness, fracture toughness, creep and fatigue testing. Interpretation of results, limitations and correlation with simple physically based or empirical models to rationalise the behaviour are included. Important questions include how fracture has occurred, how the appearance of fracture surfaces can be interpreted (fractography), how measured material properties shall be described and which performance can thus be expected in applications.
Schedule
TimeEdit contains the preliminary scheduling of lectures and tutorials, also copied below.
All lectures and tutorials will be given online using Zoom; the link and password for each lecture or tutorial will be sent out as an Announcement before each occasion.
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Please note that changes may apply (announced via Canvas), and that laboratory sessions will be scheduled later. Due to Covid-19, we will introduce changes to the laboratory sessions, and also enable on-line participation.
Course literature
The main literature source is the book:
Meyers and Chawla, Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, 2nd ed, Cambridge Univ Press 2009
The book will be available at Chalmers bookshop STORE, and can also be bought at Internet book stores (beware that prices can differ significantly). The book will be complemented by hand-outs of presentations that will be provided on the course home page after each lecture.
In some lectures, complements from other books will be used and hand-outs with sufficient information will be provided on the course home page, for example from:
Hertzberg: Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials, 4th ed, Wiley 1996
Complementary books available on-line via Chalmers library:
Joachim Rösler, Martin. Bäker, Harald. Harders: Mechanical Behaviour of Engineering Materials - Metals, Ceramics, Polymers, and Composites, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, URL
Hosford: Mechanical Behaviour of Materials, 2nd ed, Cambridge Univ Press 2010 URL
Course design
The course is based on overview lectures where typical material response to mechanical loadings and different evaluation techniques are presented and discussed. Tutorials will be provided to practice problem solving on the content. The lectures and tutorials will follow the structure in the book Mechanical Behaviour of Materials by Meyers and Chawla. There will be two laboratory exercises aiming at demonstrating mechanical behaviour under monotonic and cyclic deformation. A case study will be done, where published studies are read, interpreted, and reported. The course will be given entirely in English.
Laboratory sessions (LS)
The course includes two laboratory sessions in order to demonstrate and give hands on experience of evaluation of results from tensile and strain-controlled fatigue testing. Two parallel groups of 3+3 students will register for each occasion. It is not necessary that the same two groups meet at both laboratory sessions (LS 1 and LS 2, below). Further information on lab sessions imposed by the Covid-19 recommendations will be communicated.
LS 1: Monotonic deformation – Tensile testing Supervisor: Daniel Gren
LS 2: Cyclic deformation – Fatigue testing Supervisor: Erika Steyn
Booking of labs are done in Canvas. It is important to show up at booked times! We cannot guarantee new occasions before next time the course is given considering the preparation work for our supervisors and coordination with research activities in our laboratory.
Both laboratory sessions will be held in the mechanical testing laboratory (map available on course home page). Please be there on time to avoid time loss for your group members!
Brief lab reports (1-2 pages + appendix) are to be handed in within 1 week after the session according to instructions by each supervisor. Please note that the report shall be concise and should not include general descriptions of methods etc. Reports shall be submitted as attachments in pdf-format (not scanned) or MS Word-format (.doc /.docx) to the lab supervisors. Please note that any plagiarism (copied text etc) detected has to be reported!
Case study
The case study gives a chance to dig deeper into a subject of special interest, relevant for the course though ;). It could for example concern a material test method or a material property investigation. The work is done in groups of 3–4 students that themselves select their topic. The task is to summarize a scientific article and prepare a presentation for the class. No report is required. Each group will be given some 15 minutes to present at a scheduled occasion towards the end of the course. It is encouraged for everyone to arrange for peer feedback from a critical friend (Google it).
Subjects are booked with Johan Ahlström via email; a link to the source material must be submitted. Please also send your presentation to Johan in due time before the presentation if you do not present using your own computer (no memory sticks etc are accepted due to risk of viruses etc). The presentations can be in either PowerPoint or Pdf-format (max 10 slides).
Changes made since the last occasion
Changes made since the first version are marked with backgrounds "grey EXAMPLE" for deleted/cancelled, "yellow EXAMPLE" for new/changed information.
Learning objectives and syllabus
Learning objectives:
After the course, the student should be able to:
- Understand stress and strain concepts on global scale within a component and on local scale as affected by defects, microstructure and cracks.
- Apply knowledge of underlying mechanisms to describe the monotonic deformation response of materials, elasticity, monotonic plasticity and fracture including effects of time, strain rate and temperature.
- Apply knowledge of underlying mechanisms to describe the response of ductile metals to cyclic mechanical loading, including cyclic plastic deformation, crack initiation and propagation.
- Explain how different fracture processes give rise to different fracture surface topographies and, vice versa, to explain how a component has fractured after analysis of fracture surfaces and loading conditions.
- Describe key concepts of important test methods and standards for mechanical evaluation.
- Analyse and interpret results from mechanical tests and describe material behaviour using simple material models.
- Take an active role in discussions on materials selection of load bearing components.
- Analyse and communicate methodology and conclusions from material investigations published in scientific literature.
Link to the Study plan on Studieportalen:
Examination form
The course is assessed through a combined oral (theory) and written (computations) exam after the course on 13 January 2021 at 08.30–12.30 (re-exam on 9 April 2021 at 08.30–12.30). Make sure to register to the exam in due time according to what is written at the Student Portal. It will not be possible to write the exam if you are not registered! The exam is formulated in English, and only answers in English are accepted according to Chalmers rules for Master’s programs. Permitted aids are a dictionary and a basic calculator. Except for the exam, the laboratory sessions need to be attended and the reports passed before a grade is given for the course. However, the laboratory sessions constitute a separate part of the course, and is attributed 1.5 out of 7.5 Higher Education Credits (HEC).