Materials - Michael F Ashby

Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design, Second Edition, was developed to guide material selection and understanding for a wide spectrum of engineering courses. The approach is systematic, leading from design requirements to a prescription for optimized material choice. This book presents the properties of materials, their origins, and the way they enter engineering design. The book begins by introducing some of the design-limiting properties: physical properties, mechanical properties, and functional properties. It then turns to the materials themselves, covering the families, the classes, and the members. It identifies six broad families of materials for design: metals, ceramics, glasses, polymers, elastomers, and hybrids that combine the properties of two or more of the others.

The book presents a design-led strategy for selecting materials and processes. It explains material properties such as yield and plasticity, and presents elastic solutions for common modes of loading. The remaining chapters cover topics such as the causes and prevention of material failure; cyclic loading; fail-safe design; and the processing of materials.