METALLURGICAL &

MATERIALS ENGINEERING

LAWS AND EQUATIONS

BRAGGS LAW

Bragg's law gives the angles for coherent

scattering from a crystal lattice. When X-rays are
incident on an atom, they make the electronic
cloud move. The movement of these charges reradiates waves with the same frequency ; this
phenomenon is known as Rayleigh scattering (or
elastic scattering). These re-emitted wave fields
interfere with each other either constructively or
destructively (overlapping waves either add
together to produce stronger peaks or subtract
from each other to some degree), producing a
diffraction pattern.

GIBBS FREE ENERGY

Where G is the Gibbs free

energy, H is the enthalpy, T is
absolute temperature and S is
entropy.
This
important
equation is used to determine if
a particular phase is stable as
well as determining whether or
not a chemical reaction will
occur.

VANT HOFF EQUATION

Where K is the equilibrium

constant, T is temperature, H is
the enthalpy of the reaction and
R is the gas constant. It provides
the materials engineer a means
to determine how the equilibrium
constant for a reaction or process
will vary with temperature.

ARRHENIUS EQUATION

The Arrhenius equation describes

the temperature (T) dependence of
the rate constant, k, for an
activated
process
that
must
overcome an activation energy
barrier, Q. A is the pre-exponential
factor and R is the gas constant.
This
equation
is
used
to
characterize the kinetics of many
metallurgical
and
materials
engineering processes.

FICKS FIRST LAW

Where J is the flux of an atomic species, D is

the diffusion coefficient, C is the concentration
of the species and x is the distance. Fick's First
Law is used to study the movement of atoms
(i.e. diffusion) within a material. Diffusion is
very important in many material processes.
Diffusion is also the controlling step in a large
number of solid state transformations.
Metallurgists and materials engineering try to
control these transformation reactions in order
to produce various structures, giving rise to
desirable properties.

HALL PETCH EQUATION

This equation indicates that the

strength of a metal is equal to the
frictional stress plus a factor (k)
times the inverse of the square root
of the grain size (D). Reducing the
grain size will cause the material to
become stronger. Grain size
reduction is also a means to increase
the toughness of a metal.

FOURIERS HEAT CONDUCTION

EQUATION

Fourier's heat conduction equation is a partial

differential equation that describes the change in
temperature (T) as a function of time (t) and position
(x). The material properties of heat capacity (C p),
density (rho) and thermal conductivity (k) also play a
role. Solutions to this equation provides the materials
engineer a means to predict the temperature variation
in a solid body. This equation is one of several used in
understanding transport phenomena in materials
systems. The transport of heat, mass and momentum
need to be understood and control in order to produce
high quality materials for use by people.

PROCESS CAPABILITY
EQUATION

During the manufacturing of products, it is

often necessary to determine the process
capability (Cpk) of specific operations. In this
equation USL is the upper specification
limit, LSL is the lower specification limit, xbar is the average and s is the standard
deviation of the measurements made.
Manufacturing is an important means to not
only make product, but it will also increase
the wealth of people. This process
capability equation is often used in
statistical process control of production
operations.

ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
EQUATION

The electrical conductivity in a material is

related to the number of negatively and
positively
charged
species
(nnand
n p,
respectively), the charges on these species
(qnand qp) as well as the mobility of each
species (nand p). Understanding how to
create materials that have appropriate
electrical
conductivity
has
allowed
for
production of a large number of modern
electronic items that we use on a daily basis.