5.1 Material ProPerty Charts
Data sheets for materials list their mechanical, thermal, electrical,
and optical properties, but they give no perspective and present no
comparisons. The way to achieve these is to plot material property
charts. Such charts display material properties in ways that allow
ease of comparison and, in conjunction with material indices,
enable optimized selection to meet specified design requirements.
This chapter introduces the charts, selection methods, and optimization techniques.
the Modulus Bar Chart and the
Modulus–Density Bubble Chart
Property charts are of two types: bar charts and bubble charts. A bar
chart is simply a plot of one property. Figure 5.1 shows an example;
it is a bar chart for Young’s modulus, E. The largest is more than 10
million times greater than the smallest (many other properties have
similarly large ranges) so it makes sense to plot them on logarithmic,
1 not linear, scales, as here. The length of each bar shows the
range of the property for each of the materials, here segregated by
family. The differences between the families now become apparent. Metals and ceramics have high moduli. Those of polymers are
smaller, by a factor of about 50, than those of metals. Those of
elastomers are some 500 times smaller still.
147
Material Property Charts and Their Uses
ChaP ter 5
1
Logarithmic means that the scale goes up in constant multiples, usually of 10. We live in a logarithmic world; our senses, for instance, all respond in that way.
Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design
Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
Data sheets for materials list their mechanical, thermal, electrical,
and optical properties, but they give no perspective and present no
comparisons. The way to achieve these is to plot material property
charts. Such charts display material properties in ways that allow
ease of comparison and, in conjunction with material indices,
enable optimized selection to meet specified design requirements.
This chapter introduces the charts, selection methods, and optimization techniques.
the Modulus Bar Chart and the
Modulus–Density Bubble Chart
Property charts are of two types: bar charts and bubble charts. A bar
chart is simply a plot of one property. Figure 5.1 shows an example;
it is a bar chart for Young’s modulus, E. The largest is more than 10
million times greater than the smallest (many other properties have
similarly large ranges) so it makes sense to plot them on logarithmic,
1 not linear, scales, as here. The length of each bar shows the
range of the property for each of the materials, here segregated by
family. The differences between the families now become apparent. Metals and ceramics have high moduli. Those of polymers are
smaller, by a factor of about 50, than those of metals. Those of
elastomers are some 500 times smaller still.
147
Material Property Charts and Their Uses
ChaP ter 5
1
Logarithmic means that the scale goes up in constant multiples, usually of 10. We live in a logarithmic world; our senses, for instance, all respond in that way.
Nanomaterials, Nanotechnologies and Design
Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.