Activity 1 -
1. Choose a material for ALL of the applications below and explain your choice. In explaining your choice, relate the properties the application requires to the mechanical properties of your selected material. You can select a different material for each application:
- Car Bumper Bar of a family car;
- Floor of the passenger cabin of a commercial jet plane;
- Window latches for a house near the sea;
- A fuel tank for a car that uses hydrogen as fuel;
- The crushing surface of a jaw crusher which is used to grind ore.
Activity 2 - Individual Research Activity
- Explain how iron ore is refined to make steel
- Explain how titanium ore is refined to make a useable titanium alloy
- Describe what metallic glasses or amorphous metals are, how they are formed, and where they can be used.
- Explain what maraging steels are how they are used in engineering applications
- Explain what are shape memory alloys are how they are used in engineering applications
- Discover what is meant by "superplasticity" and explain how it can be used to advantage
For each of the research topics, ensure as a minimum that the following is covered:
Iron Ore:
- Describe the process of making pig iron from iron ore and consider: the ore size; equipment; raw materials and chemical reactions which need to occur to make the pig iron;
- Describe the process of refining pig iron to make steel and make some simple comments regarding the different techniques which can be used (eg open hearth, electric arc, bessemer processes)
Refining of Titanium:
- Describe one of the processes used to extract titanium metal from rutile or ilmenite;
- Describe one class of titanium alloy, including standard composition, heat treatment and mechanical properties as a result of specific heat treatments;
- Give some examples of where titanium and its alloys are used and state why they are used in these applications.
Metallic Glasses/Amorphous Metals
- Describe briefly what is meant by a metallic glass;
- List some examples of the metals and alloys which can be used to form metallic glasses;
- Choose one method of fabrication and describe in detail how a metallic glass is formed using that method and what the crystal structure of the resulting metallic glass is like;
- Provide some examples of where metallic glasses are used and explain why they are used for these specific applications.
Maraging Steels:
- Explain what is meant by a maraging steel;
- Give some example compositions for this alloy class ;
- Explain briefly the heat treatments which these steels undergo and the microscopic changes which occur during or because of each heat treatment;
- Provide some examples of where these alloys are used and state why they are used for these applications.
Shape Memory Alloys:
- Give some alloy classes and their detailed compositions as examples of shape memory alloys;
- Explain what is meant by "shape memory" in terms of temperature, deformation and crystal structure;
- Demonstrate the relevance of this phenomenon to engineering applications and give some specific examples. Explain why shape memory alloys are used in these situations.
Superplasticity:
- A simple definition of superplasticity in terms of mechanical properties;
- Some comments about the type of grain/crystal structure of superplastic materials;
- The environmental conditions under which superplasticity may take place;
- Some engineering examples of where superplastic materials are used. The more the specific the example, the better