Properties and Characteristics of Materials

1. Physical properties & characteristics

Physical properties of material are those which can be observed without
change of identity of material.
Physical properties of metals are density, color, size and shape, specific
gravity of material, porosity.
 Density of material
-Density is one of most fundamental physical properties of any
material. Density of material is defined as mass per unit volume. It
is defined as ratio of mass volume of material. It is denoted by “p”.
Its unit in SI system is KG/m3. Density is an important in many
calculations because most designs are limited by either size or
weight.
 Size, shape & color of material
-Dimension of any metal reflect shape and size of material, length,
width, height, depth etc. Also, it determines specific rectangular,
circular, spherical, or any other section.
 Specific gravity of material
-It is defined as ratio of density of material with respect to density
of reference material or substance. It does not have any unit.
Sometimes it is also called as relative density. For gravity
calculation water is considered as reference substance.
 Porosity of material
-When material is in melting condition, it contains some dissolved
gases with in material. When material is solidifies these gases get
evaporate and leave behind voids. Porosity of materials represents
quantity of voids in solid materials.

2. Mechanical Property of Material

Mechanical properties of material help us to measure how materials behave
under load. In order to achieve optimal system performance, mechanical properties
include density, hardness and elasticity. Mechanical properties of material reflect
relationship between its response to and deformation from an applied load or force.
Properties of materials that find out its behavior under applied forces are called
mechanical properties.
o STRENGTH
• It is the ability of a material to resist the external forces without
breaking.
• The strength of material depends on types of loading.
• Various types of strength like tensile, compressive, shear etc.
o STIFFNESS
• It is the ability of a material to resist deformation under the action of
external forces.
• Stiffness is measured by elasticity.
o ELASTICITY
• It is the ability of material to return to its original shape and size after
removal of load.
• This property is desirable for tool materials.

o PLASTICITY
• It is the ability of material to be deformed permanently without fracture
after
removal of load.
• Plastic deformation will take place only when it exceeds the elastic
limit.
o DUCTILITY
• It is the property of a material which enables it to be drawn into thin
wires under tensile force.
• it is measured by percentage elongation.
• Gold, silver, copper, aluminum, mild steel etc. are ductile materials.
o MALLEABILITY
• It is the property of material by virtue of which it can be flattened or
bent without cracking when hammered.
• Gold, silver, copper, aluminum, lead etc. are malleable materials.
• A malleable material may not be ductile. i.e. lead.
o BRITTLENESS
• A material is said to be brittle if it cannot undergo elastic or plastic
deformation but it breaks under external force.
• Glass, cast iron etc. are brittle materials.
• This property is opposite to ductility.
o HARDNESS
• It is the ability of a material to resist scratching, wear and abrasion.
• Hardness is the ability of a material to cut another material.
• This property is used in selection of cutting tool materials.
o TOUGHNESS
• It is the property of a material to resist fracture due to high impact
loads like hammer blow and to absorb certain energy.
• It is measured in terms of energy absorbed per unit volume before it
fractures.
• Materials having good toughness are cast iron, high carbon steel,
ceramics etc.
o RESILIENCE
• It is the ability of a material to absorb or store energy when it is
subjected to impact loads and shocks.
• Material releases the stored energy on removal of load.
• This property is necessary for spring materials
o CREEP
• When a part is subjected to a constant stress at high temperature for a
period of time, it will undergo a slow and permanent deformation is known as
creep.
• This property is useful for machine components subjected to high
temperatures like boilers, turbines, IC engines etc.
o FATIGUE
• A material fails at stresses below the yield point when it is subjected
to repeated cyclic loads.
• In fatigue failure the maximum stress developed in each cycle is
within elastic limit.
• Common examples of parts due to fatigue failure are shafts,
connecting rod, gears, springs etc.
o CORROSION RESIST
• Corrosion is the gradual destruction of the metal due to its exposure
to moisture, acids and other chemicals.
• Corrosion resistance is the property of the material to resist the
corrosion.

3. THERMAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF MATERIAL

-Thermal properties of engineering materials are diverse and so their
uses in different applications. Thermal properties are those properties of
material which is related to its conductivity of heat.
-Thermal properties of material refer to characteristic behaviors of
material under thermal load. Other than these properties, they do play an
important role because of their physical properties.

 THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
-Thermal conductivity can be defined as the rate at which heat is
transferred by conduction through a unit cross-section area of a
material, when a temperature gradient exits perpendicular to the area.

 THERMAL EXPANSION
-Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape,
area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature,
usually not including phase transitions.
 SPECIFIC HEAT
The specific heat is the amount of heat per unit mass
required to raise the temperature by one degree Celsius. The relationship
between heat and temperature change is usually expressed in the form
shown on the side where c is the specific heat. The relationship does not
apply if a phase change is encountered, because the heat added or
removed during a phase change does not change the temperature.
 MELTING POINT
 Melting point is temperature at which material goes from
solid to liquid state at one atmosphere. Melting point states as transition
point between solid and liquid phases. Melting point is temperature at
which pure metal or compound changes its state from solid to liquid.
Melting temperature depends on inter-atomic and intermolecular
bonds nature. Therefore higher melting temperature is show by those
materials possessing stronger bonds. Covalent, ionic, metallic and
molecular are types of solids and they decrease order of bonding strength
and melting point.

4. ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

-Electrical properties are their ability to conduct electrical current.
Various electrical properties are resistivity, Electrical conductivity,
temperature coefficient of resistance, dielectric strength and
thermoelectricity.
 ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY
-It is property of material which resists flow of electric current
through material. It is give-and-take of conductivity. Resistivity values
are reported in micro ohm centimeters units. As mentioned above
resistivity values are simple give and take of conductivity.
 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
-parameter which indicates that how easily electric current can
flow through material. Conductivity of material is give and take of
resistivity. Electrical conductivity measure of how well material
accommodates movement of an electric charge. It is ration of current
density to electric field strength.
-Electrical conductivity is very useful property since values are
affected by such things. Therefore, electrical conductivity information
can be used for measuring purity of water, checking for proper heat
treatment of metals and inspecting for heat damage in some materials.
 DIELECTRIC STRENGTH
- It is property of material which indicates ability of material to
withstand at high voltages. Usually, it is specified for insulating material
to represent their operating voltage. Which material having high
dielectric strength can withstand at high voltages.
 TEMPERATURE OF COEFFICIENT OF RESISTANCE
- Temperature coefficient of resistance of material indicates
change in resistance of material with change in temperature. Resistance
of conductor changes with change of temperature. As noted above,
electrical conductivity values are reported at 20 degree centigrade. This
is done because conductivity and resistivity of material is depending on
temperature. Thus conductivity of materials decreases as temperature
increases.

 THERMOELECTRICITY
- If link formed by joining to two metals is heated, a small voltage
of millivolt is produced. This effect is called thermoelectricity or
thermoelectric effect. This effect forms basis of operation of
thermocouples and some temperature based transducers. This can be
used to generate electricity, to measure temperature and to measure
change is temperature of objects.

5. MAGNETIC PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

Magnetic properties of material are those which determine ability
of material for particular magnetic application. The magnetic property of
a material is the atomic or subatomic response a material to an applied
magnetic field wherein the electron spin and charge create a dipole
moment and a magnetic field.
PERMEABILITY
It is property of magnetic material which indicates that how easily
magnetic flux is build up in material. It is determined by ratio of magnetic flux
density to magnetizing force producing this magnetic flux density.
HYSTERESIS
Magnetic Hysteresis is an important material by which is firstly becomes
magnetized and then de-magnetization process. Lack of retrace ability of
 magnetization curve is called hysteresis and is related to existence of magnetic
domains in material. Magnetic hysteresis is rising temperature at which given
material ceases to be ferromagnetic, or falling temperature at which it becomes
magnetic.
COERCIVE FORCE
This force defined as magnetizing force which is essential to neutralize
completely magnetism in an electromagnet after value of magnetizing force
become zero.

6. OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERISRICS

-Optical properties that define material response to incident
radiation can be described as transmission, reflection and absorption.
It deals with the response of a material against exposure to
electromagnetic radiations, especially to visible light. When light falls on
a material, several processes such as reflection, refraction, absorption,
scattering etc
 REFRACTION
When light photons are transmitted through a material, they causes
polarization of the electrons in the material and by interacting with the
polarized materials, photons lose some of their energy. As a result of this,
the speed of light is reduced and the beam of light changes direction.
 ABSORPTION
When a light beam is strike on a material surface, portion of the incident
beam that is not reflected by the material is either absorbed or transmitted
through the material. The fraction of beam that is absorbed is related to the
thickness of the materials and the manner in which the photons interact
with the material’s structure.
 REFLECTION
When a beam of photons strikes a material, some of the light is scattered
at the interface between that we media even if both are transparent.
Reflectivity, R, is a measure of fraction of incident light which is reflected at
the interface.
 SCATTERING
Here photon interacts with the electron orbiting around an atom and is
deflected without any change in photon energy. This is more vital for high
atomic number atoms and low photon energies. Ex. Blue colour in the
sunlight gets scattered more than other colors in the visible spectrum and
thus making sky look blue.