Engineering Materials

Stress Strain curve:

Stress strain curve is the plot of stress and strain of a material or metal on the graph. In this the stress is
plotted on y axis and its corresponding strain on the x axis. After plotting the stress and its
corresponding strain on the graph, we get a curve, and this curve is called stress strain curve or stress
strain diagram.The stress strain curve for different material is different. It may vary due to the
temperature and loading condition of the material.
Stress strain curve has different regions and points. These regions and points are:
(i). Proportional limit
(ii). Elastic limit
(iii). Yield point
(iv). Ultimate stress point
(v). Fracture or breaking point

Proportional Limit:
It is the region in the strain curve which obeys hookes law i.e. within elastic limit the stress is directly
proportion to the strain produced in the material.

Elastic Limit:
It is the point in the graph up to which the material returns to its original position when the load acting
on it is completely removed.
Yield Point:
Yield point in a stress strain diagram is defined as the point at which the material starts to deform
plastically.
Ultimate Stress Point:
It is the point corresponding to the maximum stress that a material can handle before failure. It is the
maximum strength point of the material that can handle the maximum load.
Fracture or Breaking Point:
It is the point in the stress strain curve at which the failure of the material takes place. The fracture or
breaking of material takes place at this point. The point e is the breaking point in the graph.

Stress Strain graph for different materials:

For a ductile material:

For a brittle material:

Superconductors:
A superconductor is a material that can conduct electricity or transport electrons from one atom to
another with no resistance. This means no heat, sound or any other form of energy would be released
from the material . Superconductivity occurs at a specific material's critical temperature (Tc). As
temperature decreases, a superconducting material's resistance gradually decreases until it reaches
critical temperature. At this point resistance drops off, often to zero. The graph for critical temperature
is given as:

Examples:
Iridium ,lead, mercury, niobium, tin, vanadium.

Properties of Superconductors:
1. Zero resistance allows large and heavy conventional cables to be replaced with small, light
superconducting cables.
2. Meissner effect (flux exclusion) allows magnetic levitation of objects.
3. Superconducting phase transition shows a sharp differentiation between conventional and
superconductive states.

Applications of Superconductors:
1. Efficient Electricity Transportation
2. Magnetic Levitation
3. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
4. Synchrotrons and Cyclotrons (Particle Colliders)
5. Fast Electronic Switches

Super Insulators:
A super insulator is a material that at low temperatures (and possible combinations of other conditions)
has a near infinite resistance.
Examples:
A thin film of titanium nitride cloase to absolute zero act as super insulator.
Applications:
Superinsulators could be used to improve all kinds of electrical and electronic circuits, sensors and
battery shields to prevent premature discharge or short circuits.
They can be uesd to make circuits that have zero energy loss in the form of heat.
Fullerenes:
The fullerenes are a third class of allotropes of carbon and are made of balls, ‘cages’ or tubes of carbon
atoms. Buckminster fullerene is one type of fullerene. Its molecules have 60 carbon atoms arranged in a
hollow sphere.
Composition:
A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or
tube.The most common and most stable fullerene is buckminsterfullerene, other fullerenes that have
been produced in macroscopic amounts have 70, 76, 84, 90, and 96 carbon atoms, and much larger
fullerenes have been found, such as those that contain 180, 190, 240, and 540 carbon atoms.

Buckminster fullerene

Properties:
 Soft and slippery
 Brittle
 Electrical insulator
 Insoluble in water
 Low melting point solid

Applications:
 Superconductivity
 Ferromagnetism
 Organic photovoltaic
 Hydrogen gas storage
 Fullerenes based sensors
 Medicine industry
 Fullerenes as molecular wires

Aerogels:
An aerogel is an open-celled, mesoporous, solid foam that is composed of a network of interconnected
nanostructures and that exhibits a porosity (non-solid volume) of no less than 50%.
Composition:
The majority of aerogel is composed of silica, but carbon, iron oxide, organic polymers, semiconductor
nanostructures, gold and copper can also form aerogel. However, within the aerogel structure, very little
is solid material, with up to 99.8% of the structure consisting of air.
Properties:

 Loe density
 Low mean free path of diffusion
 High specific surface area (for a non-powder material)
 Low thermal conductivity
 Low sound speed
 Low refractive index
 Low dielectric constant
Applications:
Used in
 Thermal insulation
 Space dust collector
 Purification of liquids and gases
 Capacitors, paints, cosmetics, chemical absorber
 Detection of short rangr nuclear radiation