Materials, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1 Introduction: Materials—history and character

Chapter contents

• 1.1 Materials, processes and choice 2
• 1.2 Material properties 4
• 1.3 Design-limiting properties 8
• 1.4 Summary and conclusions 9
• 1.5 Further reading 10
• 1.6 Exercises 10

Engineers make things. They make them out of materials. The materials have to support loads, to insulate or conduct heat and electricity, to accept or reject magnetic flux, to transmit or reflect light, to survive in often-hostile surroundings and to do all this without damage to the environment or costing too much.

Professor James Stuart, the first Professor of Engineering at Cambridge.

1.1 Materials, ...