TLP Library
Teaching and learning packages (TLPs) are self-contained, interactive resources, each focusing on one area of Materials Science.
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- atomic-scale structure(19)
- ceramics(5)
- chemistry(5)
- corrosion(2)
- crystallinity(5)
- crystallography(7)
- diffraction(6)
- diffusion(6)
- elastic deformation(9)
- electronic properties(9)
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- experiment(11)
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- Finite Element Method(3)
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- phase transformations(9)
- polymers(9)
- Raman spectroscopy(1)
- steel(4)
- tensors(4)
- thermal properties(5)
- thermodynamics(8)
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Currently showing 25 TLPs
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Additive Manufacturing
This TLP provides an introduction to additive manufacturing methods, their advantages and limitations, and how the properties of printed objects are affected by varying printing parameters.
Analysis of Deformation Processes
This TLP builds upon the introduction to yield criteria covered in the Stress analysis and Mohr's circle TLP and introduces a range of methods commonly used to study metal forming processes.
Casting
This TLP introduces a number of important processes through which metallic items can be fabricated from molten metal. As well as detailing the practical aspects of these manufacturing processes, attention is given to the important parameters which determine the microstructure of the finished items.
Coating Mechanics
This TLP should provide some insights into the mechanics of bi-layer (coating on substrate) systems. It covers the concept of a misfit strain and the way in which equilibrium is established after its introduction, including the creation of curvature. The differences between "thin" and "thick" coating cases are explained.
Creep Deformation of Metals
Creep is a major concern, since it can cause materials to progressively deform, and possibly to fail, under applied stresses below their yield stress. This is particularly likely at elevated temperatures. In this package, the main mechanisms of creep are outlined and some analytical expressions presented that are used to represent its progression. Testing procedures are described, covering both simple uniaxial loading and more complex test geometries. It is shown how creep characteristics can be inferred from the outcome of such tests, requiring in some cases numerical (finite element) modelling of the process. Information is also presented about the design of highly creep-resistant materials.
Crystallographic Texture
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces the concept of texture in crystalline materials such as common metals and metallic alloys.
Introduction To Deformation Processes
This teaching and learning package covers the fundamentals of metal forming processes.
Dislocation Energetics
This teaching and learning package (TLP) uses an atomistic model of the misfit energy to predict dislocation width and Peierls stress.
Introduction To Dislocations
Dislocations are crucially important in determining the mechanical behaviour of materials. This teaching and learning package provides an introduction to dislocations and their motion through a crystal. A 'bubble raft' model is used to demonstrate some of the features of dislocations and other lattice defects. Some methods for observing real dislocations in materials are examined.
Introduction to Mechanical Properties of Materials
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces mechanical properties of materials, starting from a stress–strain curve and exploring both elastic behaviour (e.g., Hooke's law) and plastic behaviour (e.g., slip, creep).
Mechanical Testing of Metals
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces the basic mechanics involved in mechanical testing of metals, first outlining the meaning of deviatoric and hydrostatic stresses and strains, followed by definitions of true and nominal values and then covering the idea of constitutive laws that characterise the development of plastic deformation. The issues involved in carrying out conventional uniaxial (tensile and compressive) tests, and interpreting experimental outcomes, are then described. Finally, hardness testing is explained, followed by the development of a related technique involving indentation testing that allows full stress-strain curves to be obtained. All of the analyses are based on a continuum treatment of plastic deformation, with extensive numerical modelling, using the Finite Element Method (FEM).
Mechanics of Fibre-reinforced Composites
This teaching and learning package (TLP) gives an introduction to the nature of fibre-reinforced composite materials and their basic mechanical characteristics.
Mechanisms of Plasticity
This TLP should provide some insights into the plasticity of crystals. It covers some of the important concepts in single-crystals such as Frank-Read source, Lomer locks, climb and cross-slip, and their roles in forest hardening. In addition, grain boundary hardening in poly-crystals is also explained.
Microstructural Examination
This teaching and learning package (TLP) looks at how what we see in micrographs relates to equilibrium phase diagrams and cooling routes for alloy systems.
Phase Diagrams and Solidification
Phase diagrams are a useful tool in metallurgy and other branches of materials science. They show the mixture of phases present in thermodynamic equilibrium. This teaching and learning package looks at the theory behind phase diagrams, and ways of constructing them, before running through an experimental procedure, and presenting the results which can be obtained.
Slip in Single Crystals
This teaching and learning package explains how plastic deformation of materials occurs through the mechanism of slip. Slip involves dislocation glide on particular slip planes. The geometry of slip is explained, and electron microscopy techniques are used to show slip occurring in single crystals of cadmium.
Solid Solutions
This teaching and learning package is based on a practical used within the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. The package is aimed at first year undergraduate Materials Science students and focuses on the different types of solid solution and the thermodynamic principles involved in understanding them.
Solidification of Alloys
This teaching and learning package (TLP) is an introduction to how solute affects the solidification of metallic alloys.
Stress Analysis and Mohr's Circle
This teaching and learning package provides an introduction to the theory of metal forming. It discusses how stress and strain can be presented as tensors, and ways of identifying the principal stresses. Suitable yield criteria to treat metals and non-metals are also presented.
Structure of Bone and Implant Materials
This teaching and learning package (TLP) describes the structure of bone from the macro-scale to the micro-scale and considers its description as a biological composite. The structure of hip replacements is described and common implant materials are discussed in relation to the mechanical properties of bone.
Superelasticity and Shape Memory Alloys
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces the phenomena of superelasticity and the shape memory effect.
Ternary Phase Diagrams
This teaching and learning package (TLP) introduces basic concepts of ternary phase diagrams.
Thermal Expansion and the Bi-material Strip
This teaching and learning package (TLP) is based on lab work in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. The TLP provides an introduction to the topic of thermal expansion, and its application, together with the different stiffness of materials, in the bi-material strip. The TLP leads you through experiments to measure Youngs Modulus from the deflection of a cantilever beam, and to estimate the boiling temperature of nitrogen and the expansivity of a polycarbonate material from the curvature of a bi-material strip immersed in liquid nitrogen.
Toughening of Materials
The purpose of this Teaching and Learning Package is to provide an insight into the methods used to toughen brittle materials.
Tribology - the friction and wear of materials
Consideration of the behaviour of surfaces in contact with one another leads to the subject of tribology ? the study of the friction, lubrication and wear of materials.