Unit information: Applied Materials Physics in 2022/23

Unit name	Applied Materials Physics
Unit code	PHYSM0045
Credit points	10
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1B (weeks 7 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Lilly Liu
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	120 credits at Level I/5 in single or joint honours physics.
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None. This is a course specially designed for Physics students where fundamentals of stress/strain, elasticity and plasticity will be covered in the first few lectures as an integrated part of the unit.
Units you may not take alongside this one	.
School/department	School of Physics
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Unit Information

This is a 4th year undergraduate Physics course. This course is named Applied Materials Physics as it intends to introduce the practical knowledge of how materials deform and fracture, aiming to pass the essence of Materials Mechanics to Physics students to solve problems encountered in common industrial structural materials.

This course will introduce the deformation and fracture behaviour in materials for structural applications, including metals, ceramics, polymers and bio-materials such as bone, teeth and fish scales. We will start from learning how materials deform elastically and plastically from simple continuum mechanics viewpoints, followed by understanding the atomic level of defects in terms of their formation, motion and contribution to plasticity. Creep, linear-elastic fracture mechanics and fatigue will be introduced and described to answer the question why practical materials tend to deform and fail at lower stress compared with their theoretical values. We will describe, in detail, how to describe this type of failure in materials by assuming idealized cracks (size and location), the commonly known toughening mechanisms and by the end of the course, you will be able to evaluate materials failure from their fracture surface and help to design materials with higher fracture toughness.

The course objectives are as follows:

• to provide the students with a thorough introduction to the importance of deformation and fracture of structural materials using historical and modern examples
• to introduce the basics of deformation of materials, both elastically and plastically
• to prepare the students with an understanding of how cracks introduce stress concentrations in different configurations and how to utilize analytical methods to characterize this type of stress, and how different mechanisms exist in various materials to resist the formation and growth of cracks
• provide the students with a basis for the use of fractography as a diagnostic tool for material and structure failures
• to provide the students with example case studies to illustrate the application of fracture mechanics to real-life materials and structures

Your learning on this unit

• A good understanding of basic elasticity and the ability to describe the stress/strain in a loaded material/structure
• A good understanding of how plasticity differs from elasticity
• A good understanding of the crystal defects and their impact on deformation
• A sound understanding of the origins and application of fracture mechanics for the design and integrity evaluation of structural materials/components
• Ability to describe the stress/strain fields ahead of different types of cracks and the formulation of fracture toughness
• Ability to describe the primary mechanisms leading to the failure in common materials such as metals, ceramics and composites
• Understand how fracture mechanics is so different from other forms of analysis used to characterize mechanical properties
• Understand why fatigue is important and the two ways of estimating fatigue life

How you will learn

• 18 lectures (1 hour per lecture)
• 2 problems classes
• Weekly office hours

How you will be assessed

• Mid-unit group presentation of a selected topic: 30%
• Final report of the same topic: 70%

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. PHYSM0045).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.