Ceramics and Composite Materials

Ceramics and Composites

Long-term mechanical reliability is a key issue in their ultimate use for a specific application. Correlations between processing and service conditions/environment to failure of ceramics by fracture, fatigue or deformation are key aspects of materials applications. Ceramics cover a very wide range of materials from structural materials like concrete to technical ceramics like PZT – a piezoelectric.  Usually they are defined as solids with a mixture of metallic or semi-metallic and non-metallic elements (often, although not always, oxygen), that are quite hard, non-conducting and corrosion-resistant. Composites are often used in applications that require specific ‘conflicting’ properties such as a high strength and high toughness. The properties may be conflicting because having a high yield stress sometimes relies on trapping and tangling dislocations, but these reduce the ductility and toughness of the material. This track covers Mechanics, Characterization Techniques, and Equipment, Tribology and Wear, Environmental Effects, Reliability and Small Scale Testing, Mechanical Behavior of CMCs, Processing - Microstructure - Mechanical Properties Correlation.