Teacher

prof. Francesco ANDREATTA

Credits

6 CFU

Language

Italian

Objectives

At the end of the course, students should be able to: understand when a selected material is correctly prepared, know its application limits, be able to select a particular class of materials for a particular application or use and optimize an existing material by a quantitative and/or qualitative modification of the original components or structure.

Acquired skills

- Knowledge about surface preparation of materials.
- Knowledge about the main techniques for the investigation of the microstructure, chemical composition and mechanical properties of materials.
- Knowledge about the relation between structure and mechanical properties for different types of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers and composites).

Lectures and exercises (topics and specific content)

Metallographic preparation: selection of the specimen; cutting; mounting; grinding; polishing; etching (2 hours).
Optical and stereoscopic microscopy: structure and working principle of the optical and stereo microscope; magnification; resolution; depth of field; observation techniques (2 hours).
Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy: structure and working principle of the scanning electron microscopy; interaction between the electron beam and the sample; energy dispersive X/ray spectroscopy; structure and working principle of the transmission electron microscope; type of contrast (4 hours).
Characterization of mechanical properties: mechanical behaviour of materials; testing of mechanical properties; testing machines; measuring load, strain measurements; grips; samples for tensile tests; engineering stress-strain curve and real stress-strain curve (4 hours).
Chemical analysis: glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy; analysis of light elements; fluorescence; X-ray diffraction (2 hours).
Density and thermal analysis: methods for the measurement of the density of materials; thermal analysis (TGA, DTA, DSC, dilatometry) (2 hours).
Classification of materials: fundamental properties of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites (2 hours).
Crystallographic structures and crystalline defects: crystallographic structures in metals; crystallographic structures in ceramics; glasses; polymers; sliding systems and plastic deformation; crystalline defects (4 hours).
Microstructure and mechanical properties of materials: strengthening mechanisms (work hardening, solid solution strenghtening, grain size hardening, particle hardening), strength at low and high temperature, fatigue (8 hours).
Ferrous alloys: effect of composition, processing and structure on mechanical properties of ferrous alloy (6 hours).
Non ferrous alloys: effect of composition, processing and structure on mechanical properties of non ferrous alloys (6 hours).
Ceramics and glasses: effect of composition, processing and structure on mechanical properties of ceramics and glasses (6 hours).
Polymers: effect of composition, processing and structure on mechanical properties of polymers (6 hours).
Composites: effect of composition, processing and structure on mechanical properties of composites (6 hours).

References

- Notes of the lectures

Type of exam

Oral