Structure, stress & phase behavior — how a material’s internal structure governs its mechanical behavior and life.
Compare simple cubic, body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic unit cells. Inspect shared sites, change lattice spacing, and watch exaggerated thermal vibrations around equilibrium positions.
A tensile frame pulls a reduced-section coupon through a prescribed loading and unloading cycle. Relate grip motion, extensometer extension, force, elastic recovery and permanent strain.
Explore a magnified edge-dislocation cross-section. Resolved shear moves the defect across the slip plane; atoms behind it shift by a Burgers vector and leave a permanent surface step.
Ramp tension on an ideal wide plate containing a central crack. Track stress intensity, the estimated small plastic zone and the toughness criterion; crossing it ends the elastic assessment.
A servo-hydraulic fatigue fixture repeatedly opens a pre-existing central crack. Accelerated cycle count drives a Paris-law growth model; a magnified inspection strip records successive crack lengths.
Follow a prescribed cooling ramp through a synthetic binary solid-solution diagram. A crucible cross-section links solid fraction to a moving tie line and the composition of each phase.
Follow a coupon through a radiant furnace, a short austenitizing hold and a quench. A magnified microstructure inset changes as diffusion competes with martensitic transformation.
An iron anode and copper cathode share an electrolyte. Follow electrons through the external metallic path, ionic conduction in solution, and the charge balance that determines iron loss.
Inspect four separated plies, consolidate them into a symmetric balanced laminate, then apply in-plane tension. Fiber orientation changes laminate extensional stiffness and the transverse strain response.
A polymer network is held at a fixed small strain. Chain motion illustrates relaxation while a spring–dashpot inset explains the transient and equilibrium contributions to stress.