Lecture

Metals and Alloys: Microstructures and Transformations

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In course

MSE-234: Mechanical behaviour of materials

Ce cours est une introduction au comportement mécanique, à l'élaboration, à la structure et au cycle de vie des grandes classes de matériaux de structure (métaux, polymères, céramiques et composites) ...

Description

This lecture delves into the properties of metals and alloys, focusing on the microstructures and transformations they undergo. Starting with the reduction of iron oxides using carbon, it explores the Ellingham diagram, TTT diagrams, and continuous cooling transformation diagrams. The lecture covers the production of microstructures through various heat treatments, such as quenching, and the interpretation of iron-carbon phase diagrams. It also discusses the energy and carbon footprints of materials, the extraction of copper, and the forming processes of aluminum. Emphasis is placed on the microsegregation phenomenon, the maturation linked to capillarity, and the types of precipitates that can form in alloys.

Instructors (3)

Andreas Mortensen

Andreas Mortensen is currently Professor and Director of the Institute of Materials at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), where he heads the Laboratory for Mechanical Metallurgy. He joined the faculty of EPFL 1997 after ten years, from 1986 to 1996, as a member of the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the successive titles of ALCOA Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor. His research is focussed on the processing, microstructural development and mechanical behavior of advanced metallic materials with particular focus on metal matrix composites and metal foams, on infiltration processing and capillarity, and on damage and fracture in metallic materials. He is author or co-author of two monographs, around one hundred and eighty scientific or technical publications and twelve patents. Born in San Francisco in 1957, of dual (Danish and US) nationality, Andreas Mortensen graduated in 1980 from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris with a Diplôme dIngénieur Civil, and earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT in 1986. Besides his academic employment, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Nippon Steel during part of 1986, and was invited professor at the Ecole des Mines in Paris during the academic year 1995 to 1996. He is a member of the editorial committee of International Materials Reviews and has co-edited four books. He is a Fellow of ASM, a recipient of the Howe Medal and the Grossman Award of the American Society of Metals, was awarded the Péchiney Prize by the French Academy of Sciences and the Res Metallica Chair from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, received three EPFL teaching awards, is one of ISIs Highly Cited authors for Materials Science since 2002 and was awarded an ERC advanced grant in 2012.

David Hernandez Escobar

Expertise Physical metallurgy, ceramics, micro-mechanical testing Education Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering | 2016 – 2021 Michigan State University B.S. Materials Engineering | 2012 – 2016 Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Julie Nathalie S Gheysen

Professionals experiences PhD student 2018–2022 Université Catholique de Louvain Teaching & PhD Courses Materials MSE-171 Introduction course of material science applied to usual building materials, especially concrete and metals. Description of their fabrication, mechanical and thermal properties and use in construction. Mechanical behaviour of materials MSE-234 This course provides an introduction to the mechanical behaviour, the processing, the structure and life-cycle o

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Chemical engineering

Materials science: Alloys

Chemistry

Organic chemistry: Organometallic chemistry

Related concepts (32)

Metal

A metal (from Ancient Greek μέταλλον métallon 'mine, quarry, metal') is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typically ductile (can be drawn into wires) and malleable (they can be hammered into thin sheets). These properties are the result of the metallic bond between the atoms or molecules of the metal. A metal may be a chemical element such as iron; an alloy such as stainless steel; or a molecular compound such as polymeric sulfur nitride.

Heavy metals

Heavy metals are generally defined as metals with relatively high densities, atomic weights, or atomic numbers. The criteria used, and whether metalloids are included, vary depending on the author and context. In metallurgy, for example, a heavy metal may be defined on the basis of density, whereas in physics the distinguishing criterion might be atomic number, while a chemist would likely be more concerned with chemical behaviour. More specific definitions have been published, none of which have been widely accepted.

Coinage metals

The coinage metals comprise, at a minimum, those metallic chemical elements which have historically been used as components in alloys used to mint coins. The term is not perfectly defined, however, since a number of metals have been used to make "demonstration coins" which have never been used to make monetized coins for any nation-state, but could be. Some of these elements would make excellent coins in theory (for example, zirconium), but their status as coin metals is not clear.

Post-transition metal

The metallic elements in the periodic table located between the transition metals to their left and the chemically weak nonmetallic metalloids to their right have received many names in the literature, such as post-transition metals, poor metals, other metals, p-block metals and chemically weak metals. The most common name, post-transition metals, is generally used in this article. Physically, these metals are soft (or brittle), have poor mechanical strength, and usually have melting points lower than those of the transition metals.

Copper extraction

Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper ores consists of a series of physical, chemical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, local environmental regulations, and other factors. The Old Copper Complex in North America has been radiometrically dated to 9500 BP—i.e., about 7480 BCE—making it one of the oldest known examples of copper extraction in the world.

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