Introduction to materials science

This course is an introduction to the science of materials. The ambition of the design and material module, initiated in this course, is to enable apprentices:

To choose a structural material for a given application,
To know and understand its properties,
By correlating them to the structure of the material at different scales.

Before the specialized courses devoted to the different classes of materials, this sourzs aims to give basic notions common to all materials (metals, ceramics, polymers), to understand the foundations of the approach described above.

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From the familiar object to its structure at different scales, and the physico-chemical properties that result from this structuring.

We start with everyday objects made of composite materials: a CMO (organic matrix composite), a CMC (ceramic matrix composite) and a CMM (metal matrix composite). Choice of material type according to application (weight, cost, mechanical properties). Then zoom in.
On the micrometer scale, particularly the matrix.

Grain-to-grain structure of metals and ceramics. Single vs. polycrystal.
Microstructure of polymers. Crystal vs. amorphous.



Properties derived from this structuring: mechanical properties, corrosion.

At the atomic scale. Atomic structure: long-range order in crystals, short-range order in amorphous materials.

Description of metals: ABC and AB stacks, crystal lattice, reticular planes.
Description of a ceramic-type structure: an ionic compound and a covalent compound.
Description of a polymer: chain, branches.


Why these structures? Periodic table of the elements, notions of atomistics (incomplete outer layer and chemical bonding, electronegativity). The different types of chemical bonding and the properties derived from them (electronic conductivity, thermal properties: melting point, mechanical properties: hardness). Concepts applied to:

a metal,
a ceramic
and a polymer.


The real crystal.

Alloys and solid solutions.
Point defects and dislocations. Evolution of materials: diffusion and mechanical properties.

Inorganic Chemistry and Materials

M.F. Ashby and D.R.H. Jones, Matériaux 2. Microstructures, mise en œuvre et conception, Dunod, 2008
J.P. Baïlon and J.M. Dorlot, Des Matériaux, Presses Internationales Polytechniques, 2000