Metals Engineering MMK232 - fall 2022

Overall Objective

The aim of the course is to make sure that the participants have acquired relevant in-depth knowledge regarding engineering metals for advanced reasoning about and assessment of the most common alloys used in society.

The focus is placed on the correlation between microstructure, processing/manufacture and the resulting properties of engineering metals when used in different automotive and mechanical engineering applications. Issues covered are microstructure control and strengthening of metals (ferrous and non-ferrous) including basics behind strengthening of metals and strengthening mechanisms; processing and heat treatment including use of phase diagrams and TTT/CCT diagrams, etc.; hardening, residual stresses, etc.; certain fundamentals of brittleness, toughness and ductility; deformation behaviour; certain fundamentals of environmental impact on materials with respect to oxidation/corrosion. Materials covered are low-alloy and high strength steel, tool steel, stainless steel, superalloys, titanium alloys, cast iron, copper alloys, aluminium alloys and magnesium alloys.

Learning Goals

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• Describe and understand the basic principles for microstructure design of engineering metals on advanced level
• Apply this knowledge in various situations of potential importance in practical engineering
• Apply principles for different processes in order to create specific microstructure and properties
• Apply basic corrosion and oxidation mechanisms for assessing the behaviour of engineering metals in various applications
• Describe typical properties for different classes of engineering metals with particular emphasis on role of microstructure and how this can be achieved

Important Issues

An important part in the course is to acquire understanding how material properties are affected by different manufacturing process, heat treatment protocols and conditions for use in applications. This includes, for example, the impact of high and low temperatures, stress levels and strain rates. The course connects in particular to subject areas adjacent to materials technology such as solid mechanics, machine design and manufacturing technology.

In the course we also cover application of optical microscopy and introduction to materials and process modelling including software tools for thermodynamic and kinetics based  tools as Thermo-Calc and JMatPro as well as FE-based tools as Deform 2D/3D. With JMatPro, for example, advanced prediction and modelling of phase constitution and properties of steel, cast iron, aluminium alloys and nickel-base alloys can be done.

Note that the labs are NOT designed to give you training in the laboratory. They should be viewed more as means of introducing specific tools of importance in modern materials technology work. This is why we have selected i) a specific lab on optical microscopy to show how assessment involving image processing may work out, ii) to have a tutored class on heat treatment of steel to develop your skills in assessing microstructure-property-processing relationships from micrographs and facts, iii) a specific demonstration on prediction of properties and phases of materials using the softwares JMatPro and Thermo-Calc and finally iv) an event intended to show how FE-modelling is a real tool used in process modelling, here applied on heat treatment.

Changes compared to last year

Course packs covering all parts of the course are further updated and the e-literature and a reference text book are sources for further reading. Note, most lectures are provided via via remote access using Zoom, however normally one problem solving/catch-up lecture is held on campus at end of every week. Practicals are run on campus for the course.

Organisation

The course includes a lecture series (see below), four compulsory practical classes and an assignment. The tutors involved in the course are as follows.

Examiner: Prof. Lars Nyborg, phone 7721257, e-mail: lars.nyborg@chalmers.se

Examiner: Prof. Yu Cao, phone: 7721252, e-mail: yu.cao@chalmers.se

 

Other tutors involved:

Anok Babu Nagaram                                       e-mail: anok.nagaram@chalmers.se

Fardan Jabir Hussain                                       e-mail: fardan@chalmers.se

Bharat Mehta                                                    e-mail: bharat.mehta@chalmers.se

Xiaolong Li                                                        e-mail: lixiaol@chalmers.se

 The lecture schedule may be changed. Changes will then normally be announced latest the week before.

Student administration

For questions regarding reporting of results for the course , etc, please contact: Hanije Safakar, hanije@chalmers.se.

Student representatives

  To be announced

 

The practical classes

The practical classes are compulsory and they will include:

1. Heat treatment of hypereutectoid steel: Class exercise with all participants on three fixed occasions (three events: 4+2+2 hours). Approval requires that all questions in the lab guide are answered and the document is approved by the lab tutors. The occasions for this event are included in the enclosed schedule (see next page). NOTE: in order to finish the work in time, it may be necessary to work with the questions outside the scheduled events. The events are pre-scheduled, see lecture schedule.

2. Phase constitution, heat treatment and properties of alloys for engineering applications: Small group (max 5 participants) tutored practical class where a number of specific problems are addressed by using the software JMatPro and Thermo-Calc (3 hours per group). There can be maximum 5 students per group. This event is booked by each group by contacting Bharat Mehta (bharat.mehta@chalmers.se) and Fardan Jabir Hussain (fardan@chalmers.se). The event is organised on Campus. Separate booking.

3. Optical microscopy of cast Al-alloy - the aim of the lab is to demonstrate how modern analytical optical microscopy can be applied to study and assess the microstructure of a metallic material with relevance to industrial application. Small group of (max 5 participants) will be tutored. Participant shall write her/his own short report according to instructions (see lab instruction document) that will be reviewed and finally approved. The lab is booked by each group by contacting Anok Babu Nagaram vi e-mail: nagaram@chalmers.se. The event is organised on Campus. Separate booking.

4. Simulation of materials processing - tutored class of demonstration character with small group (max 5 participants) where some basic material model aspects for use of FE-based tools for process modeling will be considered. The topic will be the heat treatment using Deform 2D/3D. The lab will be booked by contacting Fardan Jabir Hussain via e-mail: fardan@chalmers.se. The event is organised is organized on Campus. Separate booking.

Group assignment

Participating in group assignment is compulsory. You will form a group of maximum 5 participants. Each group will have its own scientific/technical topic related to the contents of the course. The topic will be among some pre-defined topics of industrial/technical relevance (separate list). The result of the group assignment should be communicated in a written report of maximum 4 pages as well as a final seminar. The group assignment will be evaluated based on the quality of the report and the quality of the seminarpresentation.

Depending on these two merits, the group members will benefit from bonus points added to their final exam results as follows:

Outstanding: 5, Excellent: 4, Very good: 3, Good: 2, Weak: 1, Unsatisfactory: 0

NOTE: the group assignment report will thus be evaluated and you will get certain bonus points depending on your result/performance, but you will not be asked to return a corrected report in this case (based on the feedback obtained) provided that the report is NOT completely unsatisfactory. In such case you will have to return a corrected report and will of course also not benefit from any bonus points!

Examination

There will be a final written exam on 27 Oct. at 14.00. Details regarding organising and allowed aids will be provided later on. 

The total score will be 50 points and the grading will on this sum as follows: Grade 5, 80% or better, Grade 4, 60% or better, Grade 3, 40% or better. Passing the exam qualifies for 6 credit units.

Participating in all four practical classes and having final reports approved for labs as outlined above qualifies for 1.5 credit units.

Having both final exam and labs approved qualifies then for 7.5 credit units for the whole course. Passing the course requires passed final exam, approved practical classes and approved group assignment.

Course literature

The lecture hand-outs (pdf-format) will be provided only for course participants. 

Via Canvas you will find downloadable documents for the practical classes mentioned and different sets of problems for the problem-solving events as well as other text documents (old exams, course summary notes, etc.). Only students being registered for the course will have access to these documents.

The e-sources behind the course are:

MAIN SOURCE

• Handbook of Mechanical Alloy Design, G.M. Totten, L. Xie, K. Funatani, CRC Press (Print ISBN: 978-0-8247-4308-6), source: CRC Press

OTHER SOURCES

• Handbook of Metallurgical Process Design, L. Xie, K. Funatani, G.E. Totten (Print ISBN: 978-0-8247-4106-8), Source: CRC
• Steel Heat Treatment – Metallurgy and Technologies, G.E. Totten (Print ISBN: 978- 0-8493-8455-4), Source: CRC
• Mechanical Properties of Engineering Materials, W. Soboyejo, (Print ISBN: 978- 8247-8900-8), Source: CRC
• Physical Metallurgy and Advanced Materials, R.E. Smallman, A.H.W. Ngan, Elsevier Ltd. (Print ISBN: 978-0-7506-6906-1), source: Science Direct
• Engineering Materials Science, M. Ohring, Elsevier Ltd (Print ISBN: 978-0-12-524995-9), source: Science Direc

 

Schedule

The schedule is preliminary and you can find it via the Course Information document (Files). The schedule may be revised pending on circumstances. The course includes lectures, exercises, practicals and project work.