The Essence of Materials for Engineers

Book excerpt: This text is designed for the introductory, one semester course in materials science or as a reference for professional engineers. It addresses what is essential for all engineers to know about the relationship between structure and properties as affected by processing in order to obtain all-important required performance. The organization of topics reflects this key interrelationship, and presents those topics in an order appropriate for students in an introductory course to build their own mental construct or hierarchy. Modern advances in polymers, ceramics, crystals, composites, semiconductors, etc. are discussed with an emphasis on applications in industry.