What is Materials Engineering?
Summary
TLDRMaterials engineering focuses on designing and analyzing solid materials' structure, properties, and performance. It plays a crucial role in various industries, such as aerospace, automotive, and manufacturing, where materials must withstand extreme conditions or possess specific properties. The field encompasses the study of metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, with an emphasis on mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. Materials engineers also address challenges like corrosion, fracture analysis, and improving material efficiency. The curriculum includes practical applications, lab work, and a balance of math and chemistry, preparing students for a broad range of sectors.
Takeaways
- π¬ Materials engineering involves the design, processing, testing, and discovery of solid materials, focusing on their structure, properties, performance, and processing.
- π A Google search for 'materials engineering' reveals the interconnectedness of material structure, properties, performance, and processing, where changes in one aspect can affect the others.
- π Materials engineers play a crucial role in industries like aerospace, where they design materials to withstand high temperatures and friction in supersonic aircrafts.
- π In automotive engineering, materials engineers determine the right materials and structures for car safety, including the crumple zones designed to absorb energy during crashes.
- π¬ Failure analysis is a significant part of a materials engineer's job, where they examine broken parts like jet engines or computer components to understand why they failed.
- π Materials engineers study fracture, material properties, and the microstructure of objects to determine how structures fail and to improve designs.
- π§ Corrosion is a major concern for materials engineers, especially in designing pipes and marine technologies that resist destructive effects from various environments.
- 𧬠Biomaterials, used in artificial organs and tissue replacements, require materials engineers to ensure compatibility and safety with the human body.
- π Superconductors, materials with zero electrical resistance, are an area of interest for materials engineers, with applications in high-speed circuits and magnetic levitation trains.
- π Nanotechnology allows materials engineers to manipulate atomic and molecular structures to create materials with improved mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties.
- π In college, materials engineering students study the four main classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, with a focus on their mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties.
Q & A
What is materials engineering and what does it involve?
-Materials engineering is about designing, processing, testing, and discovering materials, mainly solids. It involves analyzing the structure, properties, performance, and processing of materials and objects. It also includes how changes in one aspect, like the structure of a material, can affect everything else.
How do materials engineers contribute to the aerospace industry?
-Materials engineers in the aerospace industry design materials that can withstand high temperatures and friction caused by supersonic speeds. They ensure the materials can handle the extreme conditions without failure.
What role do materials play in the safety of car crashes?
-Materials in cars are designed to crumple during a crash to absorb energy and protect the passengers. Materials engineers determine the right material and structure to ensure the car crumples in a way that saves lives.
Can you explain the importance of failure analysis in materials engineering?
-Failure analysis is crucial in materials engineering as it involves examining broken parts to determine the cause of failure. This helps in designing better materials and structures to prevent future failures.
What is the significance of understanding corrosion in materials engineering?
-Understanding corrosion is significant because it helps in designing materials that resist degradation from environmental factors. This is important for structures like pipelines, marine technologies, and vehicles where corrosion can lead to failure.
How do materials engineers work with biomaterials?
-Materials engineers work with biomaterials to construct artificial organs or replace bone and tissue. These materials need to interact well with the human body without causing harm.
What are some applications of nanotechnology in materials engineering?
-Nanotechnology in materials engineering involves manipulating atoms and molecules to form new structures with improved properties. This can lead to innovations like more efficient solar panels and stronger, unbreakable glasses.
What are the four main classes of materials studied in materials engineering?
-The four main classes of materials studied in materials engineering are metals, ceramics, polymers or plastics, and composites.
How does heat treating affect the properties of metals?
-Heat treating alters the properties of metals by changing their microstructure through heating and cooling processes. This can result in different mechanical properties such as hardness, ductility, and toughness.
What are some examples of mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties studied in materials engineering?
-Mechanical properties include hardness, ductility, and brittleness. Electrical properties refer to a material's ability to conduct electricity. Thermal properties involve how well heat can flow through an object.
How does the arrangement of atoms affect the properties of a material?
-The arrangement of atoms significantly affects a material's properties. For example, graphite and diamond, both composed of carbon, have vastly different hardness levels due to their atomic structures.
Outlines
π§ Materials Engineering Overview and Applications
This paragraph introduces materials engineering as a discipline focused on the design, processing, testing, and discovery of solid materials. It highlights the interconnected nature of a material's structure, properties, performance, and processing. The paragraph also touches on the diverse career opportunities for materials engineers, such as working with supersonic aircrafts, designing cars to crumple safely in crashes, and conducting failure analysis in labs. The importance of understanding material behavior at a microscale is emphasized, with examples like analyzing a cracked landing gear and the role of materials in corrosion resistance and biomaterials.
𧬠Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology in Engineering
This section delves into the advanced aspects of materials engineering, including nanotechnology and the manipulation of atoms and molecules to create materials with superior mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties. It discusses the potential applications of these advanced materials, such as improving solar panel efficiency, creating unbreakable glasses, and developing materials with tailored properties for various industries. The paragraph also outlines what students can expect to learn in college, covering the four main classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, with a focus on their mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties, as well as atomic structures.
π Practical Applications and Academic Exploration of Materials
The paragraph discusses practical applications of materials engineering in everyday objects, such as an ice cream scooper designed with a heat-conducting fluid and an aluminum alloy to resist corrosion. It emphasizes the importance of material selection and optimization in design. The discussion then moves to composites, which are crucial for meeting the demanding property combinations required by modern technologies, such as aircraft manufacturing. The paragraph also briefly mentions ceramics and polymers, giving basic examples and noting the vast array of materials studied within the field. Labs and mathematical aspects of the curriculum are also touched upon, including the use of microscopes, hardness testers, and the application of calculus in understanding material behavior.
π Academics and Future of Materials Engineering
The final paragraph provides an overview of the academic aspects of materials engineering, including the interplay of math, chemistry, and engineering principles in the curriculum. It acknowledges the presence of math and calculus but clarifies that they are not the primary focus, unlike in other engineering disciplines. The paragraph also touches on the distinction between material science and materials engineering, suggesting that while they may be categorized differently, both are integral to the study of materials. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to engage with the content and an anticipation of future topics.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Materials Engineering
π‘Mechanical Properties
π‘Structure
π‘Failure Analysis
π‘Corrosion
π‘Biomaterials
π‘Superconductors
π‘Nanotechnology
π‘Heat Treating
π‘Composites
π‘Stress-Strain Curve
Highlights
Materials engineering involves designing, processing, testing, and discovering materials, mainly solids, with a focus on their structure, properties, performance, and processing.
A Google search for 'materials engineering' reveals the interconnected nature of materials' structure, properties, performance, and processing.
Materials engineers play a crucial role in aerospace, designing materials to withstand high temperatures caused by friction at supersonic speeds.
In automotive engineering, materials are engineered to crumple during crashes to absorb energy and protect passengers.
Materials engineers work in failure analysis, examining broken parts like jet engines or computer components to determine the cause of failure.
The microstructure of materials can reveal the origin and propagation of fractures, as demonstrated in a failure analysis lab.
Engineers design materials to fail in predictable ways, such as aircraft landing gear that cracks along a specific path to ensure safe landing even with damage.
Corrosion is a significant field for materials engineers, who design materials for pipes, marine technologies, and other applications to resist environmental degradation.
Biomaterials, used in artificial organs and tissue replacement, require careful interaction with the human body and are a subject of study within materials engineering.
Materials engineers also work on superconductors, materials with no electrical resistance, which have applications in high-speed circuits and magnetic levitation trains.
Materials processing and manufacturing are key areas in materials engineering, focusing on improving production methods for materials like semiconductors.
Nanotechnology, the rearrangement of atoms and molecules to form materials with superior properties, is an emerging field within materials engineering.
In college, materials engineering students study the four main classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites, with a focus on mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties.
Mechanical properties, such as hardness, ductility, and brittleness, are analyzed through stress-strain curves in materials engineering education.
Heat treating of metals is a significant topic, involving the analysis of temperature versus time graphs to understand material transformations.
Composites, made of at least two different materials, are crucial for technologies requiring specific combinations of strength, stiffness, and low density.
Materials engineering curriculum includes math and calculus, particularly in understanding diffusion, stress-strain curves, and integral calculations.
Materials engineers are essential in various sectors, addressing challenges such as reducing vehicle weight, environmental pollutants, and improving fuel cell efficiency.
The distinction between material science and materials engineering is often made in academia, with the latter focusing more on application and engineering solutions.
Transcripts
materials engineering is about designing
processing testing and discovering
materials mainly solids
it's about analyzing the structure
properties performance and processing of
materials and objects in fact if you do
a Google search for materials
engineering right now you'll see this
come up and this basically says that all
four of these things are connected and
by changing one like the structure of a
material you change everything else the
less versatile is careers like what
would a materials engineer be doing or
be needed for well like I said in our
aerospace video aircrafts traveling at
supersonic speeds are subject to so much
friction from the air molecules that the
aircraft can be heated to several
hundred degrees Fahrenheit
the materials engineer might have to
figure out or design the best material
to use that could handle these
conditions materials engineers are very
important when it comes to cars did you
know cars are designed to crumple when
they are in a crash they are made to
have that accordion-like response and it
saves lives the cars crumpled to absorb
energy from the crash and they need the
right material and structure to do this
if the car was extremely tough and no
damage was done in a crash all that
energy would be transferred to the
driver the frame of the car may have
harder metals at the top compared to the
bottom because of how that will transfer
energy from a crash away from a driver
how a car will be impacted in a crash
it's kind of predictable because that's
how engineers design them and a huge
part of this is picking the right
materials with the right properties and
on that topic materials engineers deal a
lot with fracture and how components
fail so you could work in a failure
analysis lab where you have broken parts
that can range from jet engines to
computer parts and have to figure out
what went wrong and it's really about
looking at the structure and material
itself the materials engineer who wrote
this video with me
had a job in a failure analysis lab we
had to look at the landing gear of a
plane but not shown here the landing
gear had a huge crack around it which
almost broke it during landing so he had
to use a microscope and analyze the
microstructure of the landing gear this
is a micrometer scale picture but tells
us a lot at this scale you can actually
see where the
originated from and how it physically
propagated through the structure the
crack isn't shown here but you'll learn
how to analyze these in school and guess
what just like with the car landing gear
is designed to fail like this the
material and structure is designed so
that if it fails it wouldn't just snap
it would crack along a certain path so
that during landing even though there
was a crack the plane could still make
it through the runway so a materials
engineer could also design how a
structure will fail if and when it does
then based on the failure analysis
results we can design even better
landing gear and various other
structures or maybe if the computer part
failed you're not going to do circuit
analysis like an electrical engineer
would but you may be looking for a
soldering issue where there's a
connection problem and a component came
loose from the circuit board so again
you have to analyze this on a micro
scale using a microscope and determine
what happened and why they also have to
deal with corrosion which is a big field
for materials engineers and you can even
take elective classes on this in college
corrosion is destructive to metal so any
pipes that carry some fluid will be
subject to corrosion and need to be
designed properly whether it's pipes
that carry water to and from our houses
one for oil ones in our cars and so on
or various marine technologies like
submarines need to be designed not to
corrode from all the interactional
saltwater planes also need to account
for this and there's many more and
different environments these are subject
to like freshwater saltwater oil etc
cause for different types of
considerations when designing them
materials engineers need to take
preventive measures to pick the right
material to account for all this you
could work on biomaterials which is
something biomedical engineers take
classes on as well but biomaterials are
used for constructing artificial organs
or to replace bone or tissue and these
materials need to interact well with the
human body and not cause harm for
example there are hydro gels that are
needed to repair damaged heart tissues
this incorporates biology and is
something you could take an elective
class on as well or you can see in grad
school if it interests you you could
work on making superconductors which are
materials that have no resistance to
electron flow like no heat or other form
of energy is given off unlike your
electronics which get hot as you use
them
and superconductors can be used for
high-speed digital circuits particle
detectors trains that use magnetic
levitation and don't make contact with
the ground and so on they can also work
on materials processing and
manufacturing materials engineering
isn't just about analyzing properties of
materials and how to use them but also
better ways to manufacture these
materials like with the fabrication of
semiconductors that are used in our
electronics electrical engineers may do
circuit analysis with these but how
those components are made is done by
other types of engineers including
materials or you could work on the study
of carefully rearranging atoms and
molecules to form new structures that
have better mechanical electrical and
magnetic properties for a material this
is also known as nanotechnology the way
the atoms are arranged or what gives the
materials a lot of their properties it's
why some things break when we drop them
and why other things stretch when we
pull on them if we can manipulate the
arrangement of atoms then we can change
the object's properties and how it
behaves we can use this to create solar
panels that can absorb energy much
better all the way to making glasses
that won't break when being dropped but
there are so many more applications
materials engineers could make clothes
that don't smell bad after use tires
that grip the road better stronger
tennis rackets and the list goes on but
now let's see what you can expect in
college and kind of zoom in a little
more on these materials so you're going
to cover the four main classes of
materials which are metals ceramics
polymers or plastics and composites and
although you learn a lot about
everything there's a big focus on metals
now when it comes to all these materials
big things we care about that you'll
learn are the mechanical properties
electrical properties thermal properties
as well as the atomic structures
mechanical properties include hardness
ductility or an object's ability to form
when being pulled brittleness or
materials brittle if you pull on it and
it breaks without much deformation so if
you have a material and you pull it
eventually it will break if it's brittle
it will just snap glass would be an
example of this but if the materials
ductile it will actually be elongated
into four
before totally snapping and certain
types of steel would be an example of
this in school you're going to learn how
to analyze certain graphs without stress
or force over area versus deformation or
strain like how far it's been stretched
then they'll give you some curve and you
have to understand it this shows that if
you pull an object very hard
it only stretches a little so you know
this is a stiff material versus a more
flexible one which might look like this
like for a rubber band and there'd be
more to these curves you'd have to
understand like it's fracture point
ultimate strength what the slope of that
initial line means and so on that can
tell you more things like how brittle it
is and so on and every material will
have a different stress-strain curve
nothing you have to worry about now but
realize this is something that you learn
and there's more mechanical properties
but you get the idea then you'll learn
electrical properties like how well
materials conduct electricity thermal
properties would of course be how well
heat can flow throughout an object
you'll learn the atomic structures and
bonding within these materials which is
very important because sometimes those
structures allow us to determine uh
materials properties for example take
graphite versus diamond graphite is
relatively soft while diamond is
extremely hard yet both are made out of
carbon this difference in mechanical
properties comes from the way the atoms
are arranged in these materials and
there's more properties like magnetic
properties and optical properties but
this is the general idea so now like I
said you go over the four main classes
of materials and everything you just saw
you will apply to all of these but
a-bake when you go over is metal the
main metals you go into include aluminum
steel stainless steel titanium copper
and so on one important topic dealing
with metals you'll learn is heat
treating which I'm going to explain a
little so you can see it's applications
you're going to learn how to analyze a
graph that has temperature versus time
the temperature may go up to something
like 800 degrees Celsius
and down to let's say 100 and let's say
this is for something like steel which
would be solid at all of these
temperatures because again you don't
really go into liquids or gases
and the time may go from one second to
something like a hundred thousand
seconds or about twenty eight hours then
on the graph you'd be given something
like this don't even worry about what
these are right now just realize these
are the different transformations the
material can go through different
materials have different looking graphs
just like this red and green curve
actually represent two different steels
so let's say we heat up steel to about
800 degrees Celsius and start there then
we cool it to a hundred degrees Celsius
in one second so very quickly that curve
or line in this case tells us which
transformations material goes through
during cooling see how it goes through
those regions with an M this goes
through different transformations than
if we slowly cooled it to the same
temperature over the course of about a
day so what does this do well if it's
cooled very quickly like that first line
that might yield a very hard but brittle
material if you cool the material slower
it may yield a slightly softer material
but that is much tougher and doesn't
break easily it's all the same material
but we can achieve different mechanical
properties just by cooling it
differently now moving on you may do
projects or reports on basic objects but
go into depth on the material beyond
what you may know these projects can be
for anything but since we're on the
topic of metals at one school students
to the project on an ice cream scooper
seems simple but what you may not know
is that there is heat conducting fluid
within the scooper this is designed to
transfer the heat from your hand to the
metal of the scooper and this warms the
metal so that when you scoop the ice
cream it kind of melts the ice cream
making it a little easier for you to
scoop as well as making it so that the
ice cream does not stick to the metal
also you can't read the words on the box
in this image but on it it says new
aluminum alloy that helps resist
corrosion so hopefully you're seeing how
the material is used in nearly
everything down to a simple ice cream
scooper are optimized by the designers
and how corrosion is a huge field as
well now I want to skip to composites
this is something you may take an entire
class on an undergrad
composites are made up of at least two
different materials from the other three
categories these are crucial because
many technologies of today require
materials with certain properties that
cannot be met with normal metals
ceramics and polymers for example when
it comes to aircrafts we are trying to
find materials that are strong stiff and
have low densities and more which is a
tough combination of properties to
achieve often strong materials are also
dense as an example so engineer's are
trying to design and find materials that
can provide the properties we want to
achieve which is where composites can
come in so you're going to learn about
these mechanical properties look at
stress-strain curves of fiber reinforced
composites as a random example methods
of manufacturing composites and so on
now I'm really not going to cover
ceramics and polymers in any detail but
if you want to know some basic examples
ceramics might be like a china cup a
brick or a dining glass and polymers or
plastics might include a bicycle helmet
pool balls dice and so on now these are
very basic examples but in school you
cover more advanced materials that have
engineering applications like silicon
carbide that can be used to create very
hard ceramics which can be used for car
breaks all the way to bulletproof vests
also note that there are many materials
that we've all heard of but there are
way more that you probably haven't heard
of these are just a few out of hundreds
that were just in an intro textbook on
materials engineering no you don't have
to memorize all these but this is a
challenge with materials engineering
because of the sheer amount of materials
out there that all have their different
properties now just briefly when it
comes to labs the equipment you can
expect to see would be like microscopes
pencil testers hardness testers and
things like that a lab you might do is
cool a material very rapidly then do
tensile testing on it you use a machine
that pulls the object in opposite
directions which is what tensile
stresses in denotes the material is very
brittle like we saw earlier but do use
microscopes to look at the micro
structures of various materials which is
very important like I said you'll learn
what these mean and how much they can
tell you about uma care
I said that they can reveal material
properties but they can even reveal how
the object was made like with heat
treating and how fast it was cooled for
those wondering how much math you see
during college there is math and
calculus but it's not the majority of
the curriculum for example in a kinetics
class which you will take one thing
you'll learn is diffusion and how atoms
move throughout a material so you may
have a high concentration of let's say
carbon so to represent how the
concentration changes over time you
would have to use calculus because the
rate that that concentration is changing
at is not constant or remember that
stress-strain curve well the area under
it is the energy absorbed and for those
who've taken calculus you know this
involves an integral so you see there is
calculus and definitely math like
algebra and linear algebra that I didn't
mention but it's definitely not as much
cows in higher-level math as an
electrical mechanical or aerospace
engineer might see then as you can see
there's also a lot of chemistry which
you will learn within your materials
engineering classes so if you struggle
with math you should expect it in this
major and be ready for it
but you should also be able to handle it
over all materials engineering covers a
wide range of sectors and there are
still many challenges that we face and
materials engineers are doing research
to overcome these challenges whether it
be to reduce the weight of cars and
aircrafts reduce environmental
pollutants in the production and
fabrication of various materials or
finding better materials for fuel cells
to improve their efficiency aerospace
mechanical and civil engineers are just
a few examples of majors that also learn
about materials and material properties
in their curriculum as you can see
materials engineers dive much deeper and
lastly well there is a distinction that
can be made between material science and
materials engineering and how we
categorize and define them at least in
terms of undergrad at many schools it
will just be called one or the other and
you will likely be in the College of
Engineering if you go into this major if
you liked this video don't forget to
comment like and subscribe and I'll see
you all next time
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