Environmental resistance

Some material attributes are difficult to quantify, particularly those that

involve the interaction of the material within the environments in which it must
operate. Environmental resistance is conventionally characterized on a discrete
5-point scale: very good, good, average, poor, very poor. Very good means
that the material is highly resistant to the environment, very poor that it is
completely non-resistant or unstable. The categorization is designed to help
with initial screening; supporting information should always be sought if
environmental attack is a concern. Ways of doing this are described later.
Wear, like the other interactions, is a multi-body problem. None-the-less it
can, to a degree, be quantified. When solids slide (Figure 3.13) the volume of
material lost from one surface, per unit distance slid, is called the wear rate,
W.
The wear resistance of the surface is characterized by the Archard wear constant
,
KA (units: MPa1), defined by the equation
W
A KAP 3:16
where A is the area of the surface and P the normal force pressing them
together. Approximate data for KA appear in Chapter 4, but must be interpreted
as the property of the sliding couple, not of just one member of it.
3.4 Summary and conclusions
There are six important families of materials for mechanical design: metals,
ceramics, glasses, polymers, elastomers, and hybrids that combine the properties
of two or more of the others. Within a family there is certain common
ground: ceramics as a family are hard, brittle, and corrosion resistant; metals
are ductile, tough, and good thermal and electrical conductors; polymers are
light, easily shaped, and electrical insulators, and so on that is what makes
the classification useful. But in design we wish to escape from the constraints
of
family, and think, instead, of the material name as an identifier for a certain
property-profile one that will, in later chapters, be compared with an ideal
profile suggested by the design, guiding our choice. To that end, the properties
important in thermo-mechanical design were defined in this chapter. In
Chapter 4 we develop a way of displaying these properties so as to maximize
the freedom of choice.
Wear volume V
Sliding distance S
W = V/S
Sliding
velocity v
Load P
Area A
P3 P2 P1
Wear rate
Figure 3.13 Wear is the loss of material from surfaces when they slide. The wear
resistance is
measured by the Archard wear constant KA.
3.4 Summary and conclusions 43
3.5 Further reading
Definitions of material properties can be found in numerous general texts on eng
ineering
materials, among them those listed here.
Ashby, M.F. and Jones, D.R.H. (1996) Engineering Materials 1, and Introduction t
o
their Properties and Applications, 2nd edition, Pergamon Press, Oxford, U.K.
ISBN 0 7506 3081 7.
ASM Engineered Materials Handbook (2004) Testing and characterisation of polymeric
materials , ASM International, Metals Park, OH, USA. (An on-line, subscription-
based resource, detailing testing procedures for polymers.)
ASM Handbooks, Volume 8 (2004) Mechanical testing and evaluation ASM International,
Metals Park, Ohio, USA. (An on-line, subscription-based resource, detailing
testing procedures for metals and ceramics.)
ASTM Standards (1988) Vol. 08.01 and 08.02 Plastics; (1989) Vol. 04.02 Concrete;
(1990) Vols. 01.01 to 01.05 Steels; Vol. 0201 Copper alloys; Vol. 02.03 Aluminum
alloys; Vol. 02.04 Non-ferrous alloys; Vol. 02.05 Coatings; Vol. 03.01 Metals at
high and low temperatures; Vol. 04.09 Wood; Vols 09.01 and 09.02 Rubber,
American Society for Testing Materials, 1916 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
ISBN 0 8031 1581 4. (The ASTM set standards for materials testing.)
Callister, W.D. (2003) Materials Science and Engineering, an Introduction, 6th
edition, John Wiley, New York, USA. ISBN 0 471 13576 3. (A well-respected
materials text, now in its 6th edition, widely used for materials teaching in No
rth
America.)
Charles, J.A., Crane, F.A.A. and Furness, J.A.G. (1997) Selection and Use of Eng
ineering
Materials, 3rd edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK. ISBN 0 7506 3277 1.
(A materials-science approach to the selection of materials.)
Dieter, G.E. (1991) Engineering Design, a Materials and Processing Approach, 2nd
edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA. ISBN 0 07 100829 2. (A well-balanced and
respected text focussing on the place of materials and processing in technical d
esign.)
Farag, M.M. (1989) Selection of Materials and Manufacturing Processes for Engine
ering
Design, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA. ISBN 0 13 575192 6.
(A