General properties

of matter
By:
Plaza, Clint Ian
Pontillo, Erica
Quimson, Ryan
Ramos,Tracy Faith jastine
Real, Aldwen
The property of materials has an extreme use in making choice of
engineering materials under specific conditions or in deciding the
line of manufacture of engineering materials from the available
local raw materials.
• The mass of a unit volume of material in its natural state is called
as bulk density. It is calculated using the following formula:
M = specimen mass (kg)
V = specimen volume in natural state
(m³)

Bulk density is less than density for

most materials, but these parameters
are nearly identical for liquids and
materials like glass and dense stone
materials. Bulk density has a big impact
on properties like strength and heat
conductivity.
The density index is the ratio of bulk density to density. It
expresses the extent to which a material’s volume is filled with
solid matter. Because there are no absolutely dense bodies in
nature, density index is always less than 1.0 for almost all
building materials.

Po = bulk density/density
=pb/p
The specific gravity, also known as the unit weight, is the weight of a
material per unit volume.

y= pg
Where,
γ = specific weight (kN/m³)
ρ = density of material (kg/m)
g = gravity (m/s²)
The specific gravity of a material’s solid particles is the ratio of weight
of given volume of solids to the weight of an equal volume of water at
temperature of 4°C.
True or absolute specific gravity is determined by
excluding both permeable and impermeable spaces
(voids) when determining the true volume of solids. The
absolute specific gravity has little practical application.

The apparent specific gravity or mass specific gravity is

calculated by taking into account both permeable and
impermeable void when calculating the true volume of
solids. It is ratio of fine-grained material mass density to
water mass density.
The degree to which pores are scattered across the
volume of a substance is known as porosity. It’s
calculated by dividing the volume of pores by the
volume of the specimen.
Porosity is a good indicator of a material’s bulk
density, heat conductivity, and durability, among
other things.

The void ratio is the volume of voids divided

by the volume of solids. When an aggregate is
poured into a container of any kind, not all of
the space within the container will be filled.
The ability of a material to
collect water vapour from the
air is known as hygroscopicity.
It is influenced by air
temperature and relative
humidity, as well as the type,
number, and size of pores, as
well as the composition of the
substance.
Water absorption refers to a material’s ability to absorb and hold
water. It is represented as a percentage of the dry material’s
weight or volume.

Where,
M1 = mass of saturated material (g)
M = dry material mass (g)
V = volume of material (mm³)
Weathering resistance refers to a material’s
capacity to withstand alternating wet and dry
conditions for an extended length of time
without significant deformation or loss of
mechanical strength.

Water permeability refers to a material’s

ability to enable water to pass through it
under pressure. Glass, steel, and bitumen
are impermeable to water.
Frost resistance refers to a material’s
capacity to withstand repeated freezing
and thawing while losing significant
mechanical strength. Under these
conditions, the water held within the
pores expands in volume by up to 9%
when frozen. As a result pore walls are
subjected to significant pressures and
may possibly fail.
The ability of a material to transfer
heat is known as heat conductivity. The
type of the material, its structure,
porosity, pore character, and the mean
temperature at which heat exchange
occurs all have an impact. Because the
air inside the pores facilitates heat
transfer, materials with big pores have
high heat conductivity. Heat
conductivity is higher in moist
materials than in drier ones. Since
materials used in the walls of heated
structures have this property, it is a
major source of worry. It will have an
impact on residential properties.
The ability of a material to withstand
the action of high temperatures
without significant deformation or
loss of strength is referred to as fire
resistance. When exposed to fire or
high temperatures for an extended
period of time, fire resistance
materials scorch, smoulder, and ignite
with difficulty, but only burn or
smoulder in the presence of flame.
The ability of a material to tolerate
continuous high temperature action
without melting or losing shape is
referred to as refractoriness.
Refractory materials can withstand
temperatures of 1580°C or higher for
extended periods of time. Low-
melting materials can survive
temperatures below 1350°C, but
high-melting materials can withstand
temperatures ranging from 1350°C –
1580°C.
As the name suggests, chemical
resistance describes a material’s
ability to withstand acids, alkalis, sea
water and gases. Natural stone
materials, such as limestone, marble,
and dolomite, are degraded by even
weak acids, wood is acid and alkali
resistant, and bitumen disintegrates
when exposed to alkali liquors.
It refers to a material’s ability to withstand atmospheric and other
factors.
Strength refers to a material’s ability to withstand stresses induced by loads,
the most typical of which are compression, tension, bending, and impact.
The relevance of researching multiple strengths is underlined by the fact that
materials like stones and concrete have strong compressive strength but
poor tensile, bending, and impact strength.
The ability of a substance to resist penetration by a harder body is referred
to as hardness. The Mohs scale is used to determine material hardness. It’s a
list of ten minerals sorted in ascending hardness order. Indentation of a steel
ball is used to determine the hardness of metals and polymers.
Elasticity refers to a material’s
capacity to regain its original shape
and dimensions when a load has been
removed. The deformation of solid
bodies is proportional to the stress
within their elasticity limits. The
modulus of elasticity is the ratio of
unit stress to unit deformation. Its
high value denotes a material with
extremely little distortion.
The term plasticity of a material is defined as its ability to change its shape under load
without cracking and to retain its shape after the removal of load.
The materials can broadly be divided into two groups, namely, plastic materials and brittle
materials. The steel, copper, hot bitumen, etc. are plastic materials. The brittle materials
fail suddenly under pressure without appreciable deformation preceding the failure. The
rock materials, ceramic materials, glass, cast-iron, concrete and some other materials are
brittle and they offer poor resistance to bending, impact and tension.
building materials are required to sustain steady loads
for long periods. Under such conditions, the material
may continue to deform until its usefulness is
seriously reduced. If the deformation continues even
when the load is constant, such additional
deformation is known as the creep.
Most of the building materials creep to a certain
extent at all temperatures. However the engineering
metals such as steel, aluminium and copper creep
very little at room temperature. The high
temperatures lead to rapid creep which is often
accompanied by microstructural changes. The
phenomenon of creep is important in polymers at
room temperature, in alloys of aluminium at 100°C
and in steels above 300°C.