Solid material mechanical behavior

In shock-compression science the scientific interest is not so much in the study of waves themselves but in the use of the waves as a means to probe solid materials. As inertial responses to the loading, the waves contain detailed information describing the mechanical, physical, and chemical properties and processes in the unusual states encountered. Physical and chemical changes may be probed further with optical, electrical, or magnetic measurements, but the behaviors are intimately intertwined with the mechanical aspects of the waves. 

Uncoupled solutions for current and electric field give simple and explicit descriptions of the response of piezoelectric solids to shock compression, but the neglect of the influence of the electric field on mechanical behavior (i.e., the electromechanical coupling effects) is a troublesome inconsistency. A first step toward an improved solution is a weak-coupling approximation in which it is recognized that the effects of coupling may be relatively small in certain materials and it is assumed that electromechanical effects can be treated as a perturbation on the uncoupled solution. 

Plastics have the widest variety and range of mechanical properties of all materials (Figs. 1-8 and 7-1 and 7-2). They vary from basically soft to hard, rigid solids. Great many structural factors determine the nature of their mechanical behavior, such as whether a load occurs over the short term or the long... 

Viscoelasticity A combination of viscous and elastic properties in a plastic with the relative contribution of each being dependent on time, temperature, stress, and strain rate. It relates to the mechanical behavior of plastics in which there is a time and temperature dependent relationship between stress and strain. A material having this property is considered to combine the features of a perfectly elastic solid and a perfect fluid. 

Most plastic materials are used because they have desirable mechanical properties at an economical cost. For this reason, the mechanical properties may be considered the most important of all the physical and chemical properties of high polymers for most applications. Thus everyone working with such materials needs at least an elementary knowledge of their mechanical behavior and how this behavior can be modified by the numerous structural factors that can be varied in polymers. High polymers, a few of which have their chemical structure shown in Appendix I, have the widest variety and range of mechanical properties of all known materials. Polymers vary from liquids and soft rubbers to very hard and rigid solids. 

Polymers vary from liquids and soft rubbers to very hard and rigid solids. Many structural factors determine the nature of the mechanical behavior of such materials. In considering structure-property relationships, polymers may be classified into one of several regimes, shown in the volume-temperature plot (Fig. 23.1). 

An interface is the area which separates two phases from each other. If we consider the solid, liquid, and gas phase we immediately get three combinations of interfaces the solid-liquid, the solid-gas, and the liquid-gas interface. These interfaces are also called surfaces. Interface is, however, a more general term than surface. Interfaces can also separate two immiscible liquids such as water and oil. These are called liquid-liquid interfaces. Solid-solid interfaces separate two solid phases. They are important for the mechanical behavior of solid materials. Gas-gas interfaces do not exist because gases mix. 

Both E, in ideal solids, and rj, in ideal liquids, are material functions independent of the size and shape of the material they describe. This holds for isotropic and homogeneous materials, that is, materials for which a property is the same at all directions at any point. Isotropic materials are so characterized because their degree of symmetry is infinite. In contrast, anisotropic materials present a limited number of elements of symmetry, and the lower the number of these elements, the higher the number of material functions necessary to describe the response of the material to a given perturbation. Even isotropic materials need two material functions to describe in a generalized way the relationship between the perturbation and the response. In order to formulate the mechanical behavior of ideal solids and ideal liquids in terms of constitutive equations, it is necessary to establish the concepts of strain and stress. 

Materials in the macroscopic sense follow laws of continuum models in which the nanoscale phenomenon is accounted for by statistical averages. Continuum models and analysis separate materials into solids (structures) and fluids. Computational solid mechanics and structural mechanics emphasize the analysis of solid materials and its structural design. Computational fluid mechanics treats material behaviors that involve the equilibrium and motion of liquid and gases. A relative new area, called multiphysics, includes materials systems that contain interacting fluids and structures such as phase changes (solidification, melting), or interaction of control, mechanical and electromagnetic (MEMS, sensors, etc.). 

Although the emphasis here will, by necessity, be placed on more recent data, several key reviews of transport in nanocrystalline ionic materials have been presented, the details of which will be outlined first. An international workshop on interfacially controlled functional materials was conducted in 2000, the proceedings of which were published in the journal Solid State Ionics (Volume 131), focusing on the topic of atomic transport. In this issue, Maier [29] considered point defect thermodynamics and particle size, and Tuller [239] critically reviewed the available transport data for three oxides, namely cubic zirconia, ceria, and titania. Subsequently, in 2003, Heitjans and Indris [210] reviewed the diffusion and ionic conductivity data in nanoionics, and included some useful tabulations of data. A review of nanocrystalline ceria and zirconia electrolytes was recently published [240], as have extensive reviews of the mechanical behavior (hardness and plasticity) of both metals and ceramics [13, 234]. 

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