Alloying, heat treating, and work hardening are widely used to control material properties, and though they take different approaches, they all focus on imperfections of one type or other. This chapter provides readers with essential background on these material imperfections and their relevance in design and manufacturing. It begins with a review of compositional impurities, the physical arrangement of atoms in solid solution, and the factors that determine maximum solubility. It then describes different types of structural imperfections, including point, line, and planar defects, and how they respond to applied stresses and strains. The chapter makes extensive use of graphics to illustrate crystal lattice structures and related concepts such as vacancies and interstitial sites, ion migration, volume expansion, antisite defects, edge and screw dislocations, slip planes, twinning planes, and dislocation passage through precipitates. It also points out important structure-property correlations.

This chapter discusses the role of failure analysis in cases involving product liability, property damage, and personal injury litigation. It also explains how material science and technology shed light on criminal activities such as smuggling, counterfeiting, theft, and the willful destruction of property.

This chapter provides a detailed analysis of the cyclic stress-strain behavior of materials under uniaxial stress and strain cycling. It first considers the case of a stable material under constant-amplitude strain cycling then broadens the discussion to materials that harden or soften with continued strain reversals. It compares and contrasts the response patterns of such materials, explaining how the movement of dispersed particles and dislocations influences their behavior. It then examines the behavior of materials under uniaxial strain reversals of varying amplitude and explains how to construct double-amplitude stress-strain curves that account for complex straining histories. For special cases, those involving complex materials such as gray cast iron or highly complex straining patterns, the chapter presents other methods of analysis, including the rainflow cycle counting method, mechanical modeling based on displacement-limited elements, Wetzel’s method, and deformation modeling. It also explains the difference between force cycling and stress cycling and presents alternate techniques for predicting whether a material will become harder or softer in response to strain cycling.

Beryllium is the 44th most abundant element on Earth, with an estimated concentration of six parts per million in the Earth’s crust. It is found in various forms in more than 100 minerals, two of which, beryl and bertrandite, account for most of the beryllium produced throughout the world. This chapter describes where and how beryllium is obtained and provides facts, figures, and insights on global supply and demand.

Optoelectronic components can be readily classified as active light-emitting components (such as semiconductor lasers and light emitting diodes), electrically active but non-emitting components, and inactive components. This chapter focuses on the first category, and particularly on semiconductor lasers. The discussion begins with the basics of semiconductor lasers and the material science behind some causes of device failure. It then covers some of the common failure mechanisms, highlighting the need to identify failures as wearout or maverick failures. The chapter also covers the capabilities of many key optoelectronic failure analysis tools. The final section describes the common steps that should be followed so as to assure product reliability of optoelectronic components.

This chapter provides insights into the work of a stainless steel pioneer, Harry Brearley. It explains how Brearley's early life and experience led him to become a self-trained chemist and metallurgist.

This chapter focuses on creep-rupture failure, or more precisely, the time required for such a failure to occur at a given stress and temperature. It begins with a review of creep-rupture phenomena and the various ways creep-rupture data are presented and analyzed. It then examines a large collection of creep-rupture data corresponding to different alloy designations and heat treatments, identifying key relationships, similarities, and differences. It also presents a test method developed by the authors in which twelve materials are tested over a range of temperature, stress, and time in order to determine multiheat constants that are then used to fit multiheat data from other materials and thus estimate rupture times.

Casting is the most economical processing route for producing titanium parts, and unlike most metals, the properties of cast titanium are on par with those of wrought. This chapter covers titanium melting and casting practices -- including vacuum arc remelting, consumable electrode arc melting, electron beam hearth melting, rammed graphite mold casting, sand casting, investment casting, hot isostatic pressing, weld repair, and heat treatment -- along with related equipment, process challenges, and achievable properties and microstructures. It also explains how titanium parts are produced from powders and how the different methods compare with each other and with conventional production techniques. The methods covered include powder injection molding, spray forming, additive manufacturing, blended elemental processing, and rapid solidification.

Combustion turbines consist of a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. As commonly configured, the compressor and turbine mount on a single shaft that connects directly to a generator. This chapter reviews the materials of construction, damage mechanisms, and life-assessment techniques for nozzles and buckets. It also presents key information from a detailed review of the literature and the results of a survey on combustion-turbine material problems.

This appendix provides supplemental information on the metallurgical aspects of atomic structure, the use of dislocation theory, heat treatment processes and procedures, important engineering materials and strengthening mechanisms, and the nature of elastic, plastic, and creep strain components. It also provides information on mechanical property and fatigue testing, the use of hysteresis energy to analyze fatigue, a procedure for inverting equations to solve for dependent variables, and a method for dealing with the statistical nature of failure.