
414 Engineering Materials Technology
20.3 Case studies: critical properties
The following case studies of electrical conductors, floor joists and aircraft
skins illustrate the consideration of properties in terms of properties which are
critical and enable a subset of materials to be sieved out from the entire range
of engineering materials.
Electrical conductors
Domestic and industrial cables are required to have small cross-sectional areas
and as low a resistance as possible, i.e. a low resistivity and so high
conductivity. In addition they are required to be able to be processed in long,
continuous, unbroken lengths. Such a requirement argue ...