This chapter explains what some of the terms used in physical metallurgy are intended to mean and how these meanings affect the manner in which the subject is treated throughout the book.

This appendix is intended as a guide for expressing weights and measures in the base, supplementary, and derived Systeme International d'Unites.

The case for using stainless steel in appliances of all types, whether they are commercial or residential, relates to it being able to provide the best value over the intended service life. This chapter describes some of the qualities in any material considered for food contact, namely chemical neutrality, biological neutrality, and cleanliness. A vast majority of stainless steel applications in commercial and residential equipment are also discussed.

This chapter describes issues related to corrosion of carbon steel weldments and remedial measures that have proven successful in specific cases. The forms of corrosion covered includes preferential heat affected zone corrosion, preferential weld metal corrosion, and galvanic corrosion. Industrial case studies demonstrating the necessity for testing each galvanic couple in the environment for which it is intended are presented. The chapter also discusses various factors associated with stress-corrosion cracking in oil refineries.

This chapter focuses on stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) of metals and their alloys. It is intended to familiarize the reader with the phenomenological and mechanistic aspects of stress corrosion. The phenomenological description of crack initiation and propagation describes well-established experimental evidence and observations of stress corrosion, while the discussions on mechanisms describe the physical process involved in crack initiation and propagation. Several parameters that are known to influence the rate of crack growth in aqueous solutions are presented, along with important fracture features.

This article reviews various analytical techniques most commonly used in plastic component failure analysis. The description of the techniques is intended to make the reader familiar with the general principles and benefits of the methodologies. The descriptions of the analytical techniques are supplemented by a series of case studies that include pertinent visual examination results and the corresponding images that aided in the characterization of the failures. The techniques covered include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, thermomechanical analysis, and dynamic mechanical analysis. The article also discusses various analytical methods used to characterize the molecular weight distribution of a polymeric material. It provides information on a wide range of mechanical tests that are available to evaluate plastics and polymers, covering the various considerations in the selection and use of test methods.

This article discusses the effect of alloying on high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels. It explains where HSLA steels fit in the continuum of commercial steels and describes the six general categories into which they are divided. It provides composition data for standard types or grades of HSLA steel along with information on available mill forms, key characteristics, and intended uses. The article explains how small amounts of alloying elements, particularly vanadium, niobium, and titanium, control not only the properties of HSLA steels, but also their manufacturability.

This chapter is intended to identify materials, processes, and designs that will lead to great advances in powder-binder forming technologies. It discusses some of the structures obtained through these advances in powder-binder technologies such as binder jetting and extrusion-based additive manufacturing, including bound-metal deposition and fused-filament fabrication: oxidation-resistant high-temperature alloys, anisotropic structures, submicrometer-scale structures, surface hard materials, and artist metallic clays. Some of the advances discussed include the developments in process involving plastics, emulsions, ceramics, and porous structures and foams. Improvements in the design processes have led to the development of functional structures, controlled porosity, and bioinspired structures.

A design modification intended to reduce dowel bolt failures in an aircraft engine proved ineffective, prompting an investigation to determine what was causing the bolts to break. As the chapter explains, failure specimens were examined under various levels of magnification and subjected to chemical analysis and low-cycle fatigue tests. Based on their findings, investigators concluded that the bolts failed due to fatigue compounded by excessive clearances and poor surface finishes. The chapter provides a number of recommendations addressing these issues and related concerns.

This chapter outlines the topics covered in the book and explains why and to whom the book was written. The book is intended for engineers, metallurgists, and failure analysts who work with materials and components that operate in high-temperature corrosive environments. It covers eight basic modes of high-temperature corrosion as well as the effect of external and residual stresses. It also provides an extensive amount of engineering data associated primarily with commercial alloys.

This chapter discusses material-related problems associated with coal-fired burners. It explains how high temperatures affect heat-absorbing surfaces in furnace combustion areas and in the convection pass of superheaters and reheaters. It describes how low-NOx combustion technology, intended to reduce NOx emissions, accelerates tube wall wastage. It also covers circumferential cracking in furnace waterwalls, thermal fatigue cracking induced by waterlances and water cannons, superheater-reheater corrosion, and erosion in fluidized-bed boilers.

The analysis of composite materials using optical microscopy is a process that can be made easy and efficient with only a few contrast methods and preparation techniques. This chapter is intended to provide information that will help an investigator select the appropriate microscopy technique for the specific analysis objectives with a given composite material. The chapter opens with a discussion of macrophotography and microscope alignment, and then goes on to describe various illumination techniques that are useful for specific analysis requirements. These techniques include bright-field illumination, dark-field illumination, polarized-light microscopy, interference and contrast microscopy, and fluorescence microscopy. The chapter also provides a discussion of sample preparation materials such as dyes, etchants, and stains for the analysis of composite materials using optical microscopy.

This chapter describes a sheet metal forming method, called hydroforming, that uses pressurized liquid and a shaped punch or die. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches, the effect of process variations, and tooling modifications intended to reduce sheet bulging. It identifies the factors that influence part quality and explains how finite-element analysis can be used to optimize hydroforming operations. It also discusses the economics of sheet hydroforming and presents several application examples.

This chapter provides information on the biennial International Wear of Materials Conference, which is the inspiration for this book. It reviews the fundamentals of tribology, tribosystems, and related terminology. The glossary at the end of this chapter is intended to familiarize readers with some of the fundamental tribology terms that will be repeated throughout this book.