Course syllabus

MTT100 Mechanical performance of engineering materials SP2 HT21 (7.5 HEC)

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.

Monday

2021-11-01

09:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

3h Intro to course + Ch 1: Introduction

Tuesday

2021-11-02

10:00

11:45

Lecture

EF

2h Overview of Mechanical testing

Studied together with course MMK082

Wednesday

2021-11-03

10:00

11:45

Lecture

MA

2h Ch 2: Elasticity

Monday

2021-11-08

9:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

3h Ch 3: Plasticity

Wednesday

2021-11-10

10:00

11:45

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises Chapters 1, 2

Wednesday

2021-11-10

13:15

15:00

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises Chapter 3

Monday

2021-11-15

09:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

3h Ch 7: Fracture, macroscopic aspects

Wednesday

2021-11-17

10:00

11:45

Lecture

MA

2h Summary of Chs 4, 5, 6 and 10: Imperfections and strengthening (Overview suitable only for non-MPAEM students)

Wednesday

2021-11-17

13:15

16:00

Tutorial

MA

3h Exercises Chs 4, 5, 6, 10

Monday

2021-11-22

9:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

2h Chs 8, 9: Fracture, microscopic effects & testing + 1h extra for quiz and repetition

Wednesday

2021-11-24

10:00

11:45

Lecture

MA

2h Ch 14: Fatigue 1

Wednesday

2021-11-24

13:15

15:00

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises Ch 7

Monday

2021-11-29

9:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

3h Ch 14: Fatigue 2

Wednesday

2021-12-01

10:00

11:45

Lecture

MA

2h Ch 14: Fatigue 3

Wednesday

2021-12-01

13:15

15:00

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises Chs 8, 9

Monday

2021-12-06

09:00

11:45

Lecture

MC

3h Ch 13: Creep and superplasticity, Old Exams, Q&A

Wednesday

2021-12-08

10:00

11:45

Project

Home

Groupwork, preparation for Case study pres.

Wednesday

2021-12-08

13:15

15:00

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises Chs 13,14

Monday

2021-12-13

9:00

11:45

Project

MC

Case study presentations

Wednesday

2021-12-15

10:00

11:45

Project

MA

Case study presentations

Wednesday

2021-12-15

13:15

15:00

Tutorial

MA

2h Exercises summary, Exam problems, Q&A

Please note that changes may apply (announced via Canvas), and that laboratory sessions will be scheduled later. 

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:

  1. Understand stress and strain concepts on global scale within a component and on local scale as affected by defects, microstructure and cracks.
  2. 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.
  3. Apply knowledge of underlying mechanisms to describe the response of ductile metals to cyclic mechanical loading, including cyclic plastic deformation, crack initiation and propagation.
  4. 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.
  5. Describe key concepts of important test methods and standards for mechanical evaluation.
  6. Analyse and interpret results from mechanical tests and describe material behaviour using simple material models.
  7. Take an active role in discussions on materials selection of load bearing components.
  8. Analyse and communicate methodology and conclusions from material investigations published in scientific literature.

Basic info on the course is available in the Study plan to be found at Study portal on URL (make sure to change to right year and click “>”!):

Study portal

Examination form

The course is assessed through a written exam after the course on 12 January 2022 at 08.30–12.30 (re-exam on 13 April 2022 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).