MSE 508 Phase Transformations in Solids

Sem. 1. Class 3, cr. 3. (offered in alternate years). Prerequisite: senior or graduate standing in engineering or science.

MSE 508 is an elective course.

Weekly Schedule: Three 50-minute lectures.

Description of stress effects on transforming systems. Development of classical models for nucleation and growth and spinodal decomposition. Application of models to discontinuous precipitation, bainite formation, and martensitic transformations.

Relation of Course to Program Outcomes
1. an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering to problems in materials engineering.
5. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems, particularly in the context of materials selection and design.
7. an ability to exhibit effective oral and written communication skills.

Goals
Students should understand the interconnections between disparate aspects of materials science, such as thermodynamics, mass transport, kinetic delays, mechanical properties, and microstructural development.
Students should recognize the general characteristics of most (and specific characteristics of some particular) phase transformation, and how these characteristics can be controlled to design a desired microstructure.

Course Objectives
Students should be able to:
• calculate the excess energy associated with interfaces, and apply these calculations to nucleation and migration models.
• list several effects that alter the free energy of a phase, and state the consequences on phase equilibria.
• identify diffusion-limited transformations and quantify their rates.
• estimate accurately the Avrami exponent for a variety of transformations, based on the physical processes and controls involved.
• sketch free energy-composition diagrams to explain and predict transformation and diffusive behaviors.

Instructor(s)
Eric Kvam

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component:MSE 508 is a materials-specific technical elective course.

Prepared by: Elliott Slamovich                                                            Date: April 25th, 2007