Material selection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Material selection is a step in the process of designing any physical object. In the context of product
design, the main goal of material selection is to minimize cost while meeting product performance goals.
[1]
Systematic selection of the best material for a given application begins with properties and costs of
candidate materials. For example, a thermal blanket must have poor thermal conductivity in order to
minimize heat transfer for a given temperature difference.
Systematic selection for applications requiring multiple criteria is more complex. For example, a rod
which should be stiff and light requires a material with high Young's modulus and low density. If the rod
will be pulled in tension, the specific modulus, or modulus divided by density , will determine the
best material. But because a plate's bending stiffness scales as its thickness cubed, the best material for a
stiff and light plate is determined by the cube root of stiffness divided by density . For a stiff
beam in bending the material index is .
Contents
1 Ashby plots
2 Cost issues
3 Example
4 References
5 External links
Ashby plots
An Ashby plot, named for Michael Ashby of
Cambridge University, is a scatter plot which
displays two or more properties of many
materials or classes of materials.
[2]
An Ashby
plot useful for the example of the stiff, light
part discussed above would have Young's
modulus on one axis and density on the other
axis, with one data point on the graph for each
candidate material. On such a plot, it is easy to
find not only the material with the highest
stiffness, or that with the lowest density, but
that with the best ratio . Using a log scale
on both axes facilitates selection of the
material with the best plate stiffness .
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Ashby plot of density and Young's modulus.

Plot using Ashby's own CES Selector software.
The first Ashby plot on the right shows density
and Young's modulus, without a log scale.
Metals are represented by blue squares,
ceramics by green, and polymers by red. It was generated by the Material Grapher.
[3]
The second plot shows the same materials
attributes for a database of approx 100
materials. Materials families (polymers, foams,
metals, etc.) are identified by the larger colored
bubbles. The image is created using Prof Mike
Ashby's own CES Selector software and data
from Granta Design.
[4]
Cost issues
Cost of materials plays a very significant role
in their selection. The most straightforward
way to weight cost against properties is to
develop a monetary metric for properties of
parts. For example, life cycle assessment can
show that the net present value of reducing the
weight of a car by 1 kg averages around $5, so material substitution which reduces the weight of a car
can cost up to $5 per kilogram of weight reduction more than the original material. However, the
geography- and time-dependence of energy, maintenance and other operating costs, and variation in
discount rates and usage patterns (distance driven per year in this example) between individuals, means
that there is no single correct number for this. For commercial aircraft, this number is closer to $450/kg,
and for spacecraft, launch costs around $20,000/kg dominate selection decisions.
[5]
Thus as energy prices have increased and technology has improved, automobiles have substituted
increasing amounts of light weight magnesium and aluminium alloys for steel, aircraft are substituting
carbon fiber reinforced plastic and titanium alloys for aluminium, and satellites have long been made out
of exotic composite materials.
Of course, cost per kg is not the only important factor in material selection. An important concept is 'cost
per unit of function'. For example, if the key design objective was the stiffness of a plate of the material,
as described in the introductory paragraph above, then the designer would need a material with the
optimal combination of density, Young's modulus, and price. Optimizing complex combinations of
technical and price properties is a hard process to achieve manually, so rational material selection
software is an important tool.
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Example
A common method for choosing an appropriate material is an Ashby chart. By plotting a performance
index for a specific case of loading on the Ashby chart, a material with maximum performance can be
selected. The performance index takes into consideration the dimensional constraints, material
constraints, and free variable constraints of a specific application. The following example will show the
how to come up with the performance index and how to plot and interpret the Ashby chart.
This example will take into consideration a beam that will undergo two different loads with the goal of
minimizing weight. The first load is a beam in tension. Figure 1 illustrates this loading.

Figure 1 - Beam under Tensile stress loading to minimize weight.
The parameters for the beam can be organized into categories. These categories are material variables,
which include density, modulus, and yield stress, free variables which are variables that can change
during the loading cycle, for example applied force. The final category is design variables which usually
are a limit of how thick the beam can be, how much it can deflect, or any other limiting factor for the
specific application. For this loading cycle, the stress in the beam is measured as =P/A, where P is the
load and A is the cross sectional area. The weight is measure as w=AL, where is the density, and L is
the length. By looking at the equation, we see that for a fixed length of L, the material variables are
and . There is one free variable, A, and a variable that needs to be minimized, w.
In order to find the performance index, an equation for w in terms of fixed and material variables needs
to be found. This means that the variable A has to somehow be replaced. By rearranging the axial stress
equation, A can be represented as A=P/. Substituting this into the weight equation,w= P/ L, gives an
equation for weight that has only fixed and material variables.
The next step is to separate the material variables from all other variables and constants. The equation
becomes w=(/)LP. Since the goal is to minimize weight, the material variables have to be minimized.
This means that (/) has to be minimized, or the inverse equation, (/) has to be maximized. We call
the equation that needs to be maximized our performance index. P_cr=(/). It is important to note that
the performance index is always an equation that needs to be maximized, so inverting an equation that
needs to be minimized is necessary.
The performance index can then be plotted on the Ashby chart by converting the equation to a log scale.
This is done by taking the log of both sides, and plotting it similar to a line with P_cr being the y-axis
intercept. This means that the higher the intercept, the higher the performance of the material. By
moving the line up the Ashby chart, the performance index gets higher. Each materials the line passes
through, has the performance index listed on the y-axis. So, moving to the top of the chart while still
touching a region of material is where the highest performance will be.
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The next loading cycle will have a different performance index with a different equation. For example, if
you also want to maximize this beam for bending, using the max tensile stress equation of bending =(-
My)/I, where M is the bending moment, y is the distance from the neutral axis, and I is the moment of
inertia. This is shown in Figure 2. Using the weight equation above and solving for the free variables,
you arrive at w=((6MbL^2 ))*(/), where L is the length and b is the height of the beam. This turns
the material performance index into P_CR=/

Figure 2 - beam under bending stress. Trying to minimize weight
By plotting the two performance indices on the same Ashby chart, the maximum performance index of
both loading types together will be at the intercept of the two lines. This is shown in figure 3
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Figure 3 - Ashby chart with performance indices plotted for maximum result
[2]
As seen from figure 3 the two lines intercept near the top of the graph at engineering ceramics. This will
give a performance index of 120 for tensile loading and 15 for bending. When taking into consideration
the cost of the engineering ceramics, especially because the intercept is around the diamond area, this
would not be the optimal case. A better case with lower performance index but more cost effective
solutions is around the Engineering Composites near CRFP.
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References
^ George E. Dieter (1997). "Overview of the Materials Selection Process", ASM Handbook Volume 20:
Materials Selection and Design.
1.
^
a

b
Ashby, Michael (1999). Materials Selection in Mechanical Design (3rd edition ed.). Burlington,
Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 0-7506-4357-9.
2.
^ "Material Grapher" (http://orbis.kent.edu/matdl/matml/select.php). Materials Digital Library Pathway
MatDL.org.
3.
^ "Granta Design" (http://www.grantadesign.com). Granta Design. 4.
^ Ashby, Michael F. (2005). Materials Selection in Mechanical Design. USA: Elsevier Ltd. p. 251.
ISBN 978-0-7506-6168-3.
5.
External links
Cambridge University - Profile of Prof. Michael Ashby (http://www-
edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/mfa2.html)

Cambridge Engineering Selector software - embodies Ashby charts and his performance indices
as part of its selection functionality - from Granta Design - chaired by Prof. M. Ashby
(http://www.grantadesign.com/products/ces/)

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Categories: Materials science Product development Design
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