Materials Science and Engineering: Structure, Properties, Processing, and Performance of Metals, Ceramics, Polymers, and Composites - Softcover

Ellis, Nathan P.

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798161095416

Publisher: Independently published, 2026

Synopsis

Every engineered object begins as a materials decision. A turbine blade, a bridge deck, a polymer housing, and a silicon wafer perform as they do because someone chose a composition, a structure, and a processing route.

Yet many learners meet the subject as a pile of formulas and property tables. When a real question arrives, such as why a component cracked, which alloy can replace another, or what a heat treatment actually changes, memorised values are not enough, and a supplier data sheet cannot explain the reason behind a number.

Materials Science and Engineering closes that gap. It builds understanding from fundamentals, connecting atomic bonding and microstructure to measurable engineering behaviour, then shows how processing changes both. Relationships are derived from stated assumptions, and 300 worked examples carry their numbers and units through to a checked answer.

What you can work toward

• Reading a phase diagram and predicting the microstructure it implies.
• Judging whether a flaw is large enough to be dangerous, using the tools of fracture mechanics.
• Explaining why a heat treatment hardens one alloy and softens another.
• Comparing candidate materials with specific stiffness, specific strength, property maps, and material indices.
• Defending a materials choice with a clear, quantitative argument.
• Testing your understanding with practice problems and an answer key at the end of every chapter.
• Using any chapter on its own, since each restates the background it needs.

What is inside

The sixteen chapters cover atomic bonding, crystal structure, imperfections, and diffusion; elastic and plastic behaviour, dislocations, and strengthening; fracture, fatigue, and creep; phase diagrams and the heat treatment of metals; steels, cast irons, and nonferrous alloys with their processing; ceramics and glasses; polymers; composites; electrical, thermal, magnetic, and optical properties; and corrosion, degradation, and the selection of materials for design. A glossary and appendices of property data, units, and constants support first estimates.

Property values are representative and intended for learning and preliminary estimation; certified data and governing specifications decide real designs.

Who it is for

Upper-level undergraduates taking a core materials course, self-study readers, and practising engineers who want to reason from first principles instead of from memory. A first-year university background in chemistry, physics, and calculus is assumed.

Open the book and begin replacing guesswork with reasoning you can check, from the structure of a crystal to a defensible choice of material for a real design.

Edition details

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798161095416
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 571