MS2014: Materials Structure and Defects

Course Instructor

Assistant Professor Wu Dongshuang

Course AIMS

This is one of the core modules for MSE students. It aims to develop your ability to describe materials’ crystal structure and defects, and to understand how they affect materials’ properties and performance. This course prepares MSE students for their future courses on materials properties, processing, and characterization. The principles learnt from this course will be useful for you in designing / selecting materials in your future career.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you (as a student) would be able to:

1. Describe and understand various types of lattice structures (Bravais lattices).
2. Express crystallographic directions and planes and calculate their properties (vector length, unit cell volume, d -spacing, linear density, planar density, atomic / ionic packing factor etc.) and geometric relationship with the aid of formula.
3. Describe and explain representative metal and ceramic structures.
4. Define different types of defects in metals and ceramics.
5. Determine how crystal line defects would affect material properties based on basic principles and propose possible solutions.
   

Course Content

1. Crystallography
2. Metal structures
3. Ceramic structures
4. Crystalline defects
   

Reading and References

Main references:

• Samuel M. Allen and Edwin L. Thomas, The Structure of Materials, John Wiley, 1999
• Anthony Kelly and Kevin M. Knowles, Crytallography and Crystal Defects, 2nd Edition,John Wiley, 2012
  

Special topics:

• Christopher Hammond, Introduction to Crystallography, Revised Edition, Oxford University Press, 1992
• Derek Hull and D. J. Bacon, Introduction to Dislocations, 5th Edition, Pergamon Press,2011