An introduction to material properties, how to perform a tensile test, engineering and true stress and strain, poisson's ratio and hardening

Brinell and VIckers hardness, investigating toughness, the charpy impact test, creep resistance, creep curves, creep law, fatigue cracks.

Ionic, covalent, metallic & van der Waals bonds, including molecular, macromolecular & hydrogen bonding, interatomic forces & bond energies.

The Hard Sphere Model, packing in 2 & 3 dimensions, Simple cubic, BCC, FCC, HCP lattices and atomic density.

Slip & slip systems in HCP, FCC BCC lattices, point, line & area defects, edge & screw dislocations, grain boundaries & strengthening.

Types of alloying, complete & partial solid solutions, equilibrium phase diagrams, eutectic point, solid solution & precipitation hardening.

Steels, cast iron, ferrite, austenite, cementinte, pearlite, bainite, normalising, quenching, tempering, tempered martensite, eutectoid.

Crystal structure and properties of ceramics, degree of ionic character, bending tests, manufacturing ceramics, pressing and sintering.

Polymer structure, thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers, tensile & temperature dependent properties of polymers, plastic creep & failure.

Composite structure & types, critical fibre length, fibre volume fraction, isostrain/isostress, metal matrix, ceramic matrix, polymer matrix