An Innovative Engineering Materials Laboratory

为了让机械工程师在材料选择方面做出明智的选择，他们需要对材料结构、性能和加工之间的关系有扎实的了解。为了实现这一目标，本科工程材料课程进行了重组，并增加了学生进行的实验室实验。在实验室中采取的独特方法是首先从三种基本材料(金属、陶瓷和聚合物)中的每一种中选择具有代表性的材料，然后同时进行一系列实验来表征这些材料，这些实验包括微观结构形态测定、微成分性能、块体力学性能、以及加工对组织和性能的影响。通过遵循相同的材料，通过相同的实验顺序，学生将更容易掌握结构与性质相互关系的概念。其结果将是毕业生更有能力为设计应用做出智能材料选择决策。该项目提供了在微观结构尺度上检查和表征材料的设备、单轴试验机、研究随时间变化的设备，以及最先进的数据采集系统。

In order for mechanical engineers to make informed choices with respect to material selection they need a solid understanding of the relationships between material structures, properties, and processing. To accomplish this objective, an undergraduate Engineering Materials course has been restructured and student-conducted laboratory experiments have been added. The unique approach taken in the laboratory is first to select representative materials from each of the three basic classes of materials (metals, ceramics, and polymers), and then concurrently characterize these materials with a series of experiments which include microstructure morphology determination, microconstituent properties, bulk mechanical properties, and the effects of processing on structure and properties. By following the same set of materials through the same sequence of experiments, the students will more easily grasp the concepts of structure-property interrelationships. The result will be graduates who are more capable of making intelligent materials selection decisions for design applications. The project provides devices for examining and characterizing the materials on a microstructural scale, a uniaxial test machine, equipment for studying time-dependent deformation, and state-of-the-art data acquisition systems.