MATS 322 - MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIAls (3 Credits)

This course covers mechanical behavior of materials, relating laboratory test results to material structure and elements of mechanical analysis.

By the completion of this course, students are expected to be able to:
1. Predict changes in the mechanical behavior of materials due to thermo-mechanical processing based on physical models.
2. Predict the effect of defects on the mechanical properties of crystalline materials.
3. Quantitatively determine standard mechanical properties from plots of stress versus strain.
4. Assess and describe the mechanisms leading to failure when provided with an example of a material failure with an unknown cause.
5. Conduct a meaningful hardness, tensile, and impact tests, and report the results in a clear and useful manner.

MATS 584 - ADVANCED FRACTURE OF MATERIALS (4 Credits)

This course seeks to give graduate students a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms of plastic deformation towards the failure of materials. Specifically, this course focuses on elementary dislocation theory for crystalline materials so that the students acquire knowledge of the roles of dislocations in the plastic deformation of materials on the microscopic scale (e.g. the interaction of dislocations, dislocation motions, and multiplication of dislocations).  The course then focuses on the last stage of plastic deformation, fracture, of materials by understanding the fundamental mechanisms of fracture mechanics for different materials conditions, stress levels, and environment. Fracture mechanics will be used as a basis for predicting failure of materials, understanding failure mechanisms, and identifying causes of failure. 

MATS 587 - DISLOCATIONS, DEFORMATION, AND CREEP (4 Credits)

This course seeks to give graduate students an understanding of the time-dependent behavior of materials.  Specifically, the course focuses on the fundamentals of high-temperature plastic deformation, Creep, including the mechanisms, phenomena, and creep damages as applied under a wide range of stress to pure metallic metals and simple alloys. When materials are tested under cycles of stress for a long time, the failure of materials, Fatigue, will occur at the last stage of plastic deformation. This course discusses the mechanism of fatigue by quantitative evaluations of crack growth and propagation and a stress-cycle relationship. The effects of point, line, and planar defects on plastic deformation and creep behavior in solids will be discussed with emphasis on the role of dislocations and vacancies.