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Materials Selection Process

Figure 1 Interrelationship among design, materials, and

processing

Figure 2 Schematic of the design process with design tools on

the left and materials and process selection on the right. At the
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concept stage of design, the emphasis is on breadth; in the

later stages, it is on precision: FEM (finite element modeling);
DFM (design for manufacturing); DFA (design for assembly).

The Process of Materials Selection

A materials selection problem usually involves one of two

situations:
Selection of the materials and the processes for a new
product or design
The evaluation of alternative materials or manufacturing
routes for an existing product or design. Such a redesign
effort usually is taken to reduce cost, increase reliability, or
improve performance. It generally is not possible to realize
the full potential of substituting one material for another
without fully considering its manufacturing characteristics.
In other words, simple substitution of a new material
without changing the design rarely provides optimum
utilization of the material.

Materials Selection for a New Design

1 Define the functions that the design must perform and

translate these into required materials properties (such
as strength and corrosion resistance), and business
factors (such as the cost and availability of the
material).
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2 Define the manufacturing requirements in terms of such

parameters as:
a. The number of parts required
b. The size and complexity of the part
c. Its required tolerance and surface finish
d. General quality level, and
e. Overall fabricability of the material.
3 Compared the needed properties and parameters with a
large materials property database to select a few
materials that look promising for the application.
4 Investigate the candidate materials in more detail,
particularly in terms of trade-offs in product performance,
cost, fabricability, and availability. Material property
tests and other testing often are done at this stage.
5 Develop design data and a design specification.

Performance Characteristics of Materials

The performance or functional characteristics of a material are

expressed chiefly by physical, mechanical, thermal, electrical,
magnetic, and optical properties. Material properties are the
link between the basic structure and composition of the
material and the service performance of the part (Fig. 3). The
goal of materials science is to learn how to control the various
levels of structure of a material (electronic structure, defect
structure, microstructure, macrostructure) so as to predict and
improve the properties of a material.
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Figure 3 The role played by material properties in the selection

of materials
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Case Study:
1. MATERIALS SELECTION IN SEAWATER SYSTEMS
a. Corrosion consideration
Corrosion of carbon steel in seawater is controlled by the
availability of oxygen to the metal surface. Thus, under static
conditions, carbon steel corrodes at between 0.1 and 0.2
mm/yr, reflecting the oxygen level and temperature
variations in different locations.

b. Effect of Velocity
As velocity causes a mass flow of oxygen to the surface,
corrosion is very dependent on flow rate and can increase by
a factor of 100 in moving from static (zero velocity) to high
velocity (40 m/s) conditions.

c. Effect of Temperature
Oxygen solubility tends to fall with rise in temperature but
the higher temperature reaction rate (oxidation) tends to
increase.
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2. Bicycle Materials
As always the major overall bicycle requirements are speed,
safety, comfort, and endurance. The bicycle weight is the key to
speed, but the lightweight need must be balanced by the other
factors (safety, comfort, and endurance). The following table
gives a brief outline of the application requirements.

Discuss the materials selection criteria?

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3. How did the Titanic sink?

(a) (b)
Fig. 5 (a) the sinking Titanic (illustration), (b) Iceberg

When the Titanic collided with the iceberg, the hull steel and
the wrought iron rivets failed because of brittle fracture. A type
of catastrophic failure in structural materials, brittle fracture
occurs without prior plastic deformation and at extremely high
speeds. The causes of brittle fracture include low
temperature, high impact loading, and high sulphur
content. On the night of the Titanic disaster, each of these
three factors was present: The water temperature was below
freezing, the Titanic was travelling at a high speed on impact
with the iceberg, and the hull steel contained high levels of
sulphur.

Materials selection charts

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When selecting materials for products, we first consider their

mechanical properties
strength, toughness, ductility, hardness, and elasticity

Processing-Structure-Properties-Performance
It is now popular to subdivide the content of the disciphne of
materials science and engineering into four major themes:
processing, structure, properties, and performance.
Structureproperties
properties as hardness, mechanical strength, ductility or
malleability, reflectivity. to understand the nature of materials
properties at the level needed to alter them controllably and
predictably requires a deep knowledge of structure. Despite our
long involvement with materials, this understanding of atomic
and crystal structures has emerged only in this century.