B. Course Syllabi for Materials Engineering

1. Course Name: Mat E 315 Kinetics and Phase Equilibria in Materials

2. Catalog Description: Mat E 315. Kinetics and Phase Equilibria in Materials. (3-0) Cr. 3. F. Kinetic phenomena and phase equilibria relevant to the origins and stability of microstructure in metallic, ceramic, and polymeric systems. Lecture topics include: application of thermodynamics to the understanding of stable and metastable phase equilibria; interfaces and their effects on stability; defects and diffusion; empirical rate equations for transformation kinetics; driving forces and kinetics of nucleation; diffusional and diffusionless phase transformations. Non-major graduate credit.

3. Prerequisites: Mat E 211, 212.

4. Textbook/Materials: David V. Ragone, Thermodynamics of Materials, Volume II, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1995. Other references: D.A. Porter and K.E. Easterling, Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys, 2nd Edition, Chapman & Hall, New York, 1992; J.D. Verhoeven, Fundamentals of Physical Metallurgy, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1975; P. Shewmon, Diffusion in Solids, 2nd Edition, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, Warrendale, 1989.

5. Course Learning Objectives:

• Obtain a sound understanding of the thermodynamic and kinetic factors affecting the origins and stability of microstructures.
• An ability to predict the temporal and thermal stabilities of microstructure by applying the principles of kinetics and phase equilibria.
• An ability to interpret the effects of compositional change and thermal history on the stability of microstructure and kinetics of phase transformations in material systems
• An ability to solve engineering-related problems involving kinetic phenomena and phase equilibria.

6. Topics Covered:
Phase Equilibria

• Phase rule; Gibbs free-energy diagrams and their relation to binary and ternary equilibrium diagrams; departures from equilibrium.
  Interfaces
• Thermodynamics of interfaces; interphase interfaces in solids; effects of interfacial energy on second-phase shape; effects of interfaces on phase stability; interface migration phenomena (i.e., sintering, recrystallization and grain growth).

Defects and Diffusion

• Phenomenological and atomistic treatments; interstitial and substitutional diffusion; Kirkendall effect; defects, defect reactions, and diffusion in ionic compounds; activation energies for diffusion; diffusion couples; boundary conditions for solid-gas, solid-liquid and solid-solid interfaces; applied solutions to the diffusion equation.

Empirical Transformation Kinetics

• Johnson-Mehl-Avrami equation; the Avrami exponent; competing processes.

Nucleation

• Homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation; kinetics of nucleation; effect of temperature on nucleation; solute partitioning.

Phase Transformations

• Diffusional transformations: precipitation; spinodal decomposition; precipitate growth and coarsening; transformation diagrams.
• Diffusionless transformations: crystallography; nucleation and growth.

7. Class Schedule: MWF 11:00 – 12:00, 0312 Gilman Hall

8. Professional Component: MAT E 315 contributes 3 credits towards Engineering Topics and to the professional component of this program through the discussion of case studies which include economic, sustainability and manufacturability issues.

9. Relationship of Course to Program Learning Outcomes and Program Educational Objectives: Objectives: A, E Outcomes: a, e, g, k-m, o (significant) c, d, i (moderate)

10. Prepared by: B. Gleeson, 8/10/99, rev. 5/24/00 KPC