Abstract
This paper considers an important topic, and one that is often poorly understood or misinterpreted, but which is a determining factor in many aspects of the service performance of metals (and other materials). Engineering components and structures must, of necessity, provide a bridge between the macroscopic, homogeneous and generally continuum aspects of applied load and displacement, and the microscopic, heterogeneous and often non-continuum reality of material structure and behaviour. This bridge can take the form of a genuine interface between material and environment, e.g. at a surface, or can be a virtual one where the differing philosophies of design have to be merged. The interface has particular importance in circumstances where environmental influences have a key role in determining performance characteristics (e.g. creep, environmentally-assisted cracking, or corrosion), where performance is dominated by fatigue or fracture, where welding is used to join components, or where tribology plays a role. The paper focuses on the problems associated with cracking and uses case study examples drawn from engineering practice to illustrate the role of metallurgical factors in mechanical performance of materials.
Highlights
H istorically, the education of mechanical engineers has had a strong focus on continuum mechanics as a tool for analysing the behaviour of structures and materials
Analytical complexity is introduced as the applied loading or deformation field becomes more realistic; consider, for example, the increase in rigour necessitated by a move from unidirectional loading to triaxial constraint which occurs in the presence of a crack
This paper has presented a very brief overview of certain areas where the mechanical performance of metals is dominated or compromised by compositional, crystal structure or metallurgical factors, focussing on plasticity and its influences
Summary
H istorically, the education of mechanical engineers has had a strong focus on continuum mechanics as a tool for analysing the behaviour of structures and materials. Where plasticity is limited fracture will dominate and material behaviour will reflect interactions between small scale yielding, metallurgical factors (e.g. crystal structure; slip behaviour; grain and phase dimensions; inclusion type, distribution and size; heat treatment and hardness; surface condition; residual stress state).
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