Engineering Metallurgy

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Course Contents
MME 302: Engineering Metallurgy (2 Units)
Introduction to metallurgy.
Ferrous metals extraction, production and properties: Steel-making processes. Brief
description of each process and their technology. Raw materials requirement and
steelmaking practices. Type of fuels and fluxes used in each process routes. The
physical chemistry of iron making in each process and their respective controls.
Thermodynamics and kinetics of steelmaking via refining of hot metal steelmaking
processes. Secondary steel making processes and manufacture of alloy steel principles.
Alloy steels. Stainless, creep and heat resisting steels. Cast irons. Metal Deformation
(Working of metal alloys). Hardening of metals (Heat treatment). Annealing of metals.
Corrosion and oxidation phenomena. Metallurgical aspect of metal joining. Non-ferrous
metals extraction, production and properties: Copper and its alloys. Aluminium and its
alloys. Magnesium and light alloy. Titanium, tungsten and hard metals. Electrical and
magnetic alloys. Polymers.

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 Chapter One
1.0 Introduction to Metallurgy

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Engineering Metallurgy
The act and study of extraction, properties, processing and engineering
applications of metals

Extraction is the bringing out of the metal from their minerals by:
a. Pyrometallurgy (application of heat e.g fire)
b. Hydrometallurgy (based on chemical reaction) and
c. Electrometallurgy (by principles of electrolysis)

Properties, includes the microstructures, mechanical, thermal, chemical (corrosion),

magnetic/electrical, surface (tribology: wear, friction, lubrication) etc.

Processing involves the methods of production or manufacture of either the semi or

finished products, and

Performance /Applications include various purpose, conditions and areas of usage

from the laboratory and field or industrials scales

Metal elements and alloys

How many metal elements do we have in the periodic table?

Figure 1.1: the Periodic Table

The metallic character diminishes moving left to right across the Periodic Table
Not less than 70 of 105 elements

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Relevance of periodic table to the Metallurgy and Engineering
[Ref:teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_mix_lesson2_activity1]
Information in the periodic table of the elements helps engineers in all disciplines,
because they use elements in all facets of materials design. Exploiting the characteristics
of the various elements helps engineers design stronger bridges, lighter airplanes, non-
corrosive buildings, as well as agriculture, food, drinking water and medical products.
Since everything known to humans is composed of these elements, everything that
engineers create uses this knowledge.

The periodic table’s arrangement also allows scientists to discern trends in element
properties, including electronegativity, ionization energy, and atomic radius.
[Ref: https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/periodictable.html]

Alloys are formed from addition of two or more metal elements or metal and non-metals
together.

Figure 1.2: Materials from elements

CLASSES OF MATERIALS
It is convenient to group materials into four main classes; they are Metals, Ceramics,
Polymers, and Composites. However, Semiconductors may be considered another
class of materials.

Metals: They are characterized by their high thermal and high electrical conductivity.
They are opaque and usually may be polished to a high luster. Commonly, but not
always, they are relatively heavy and deformable. Furthermore, they possess relatively
high strength, high stiffness, and ductility and shock resistance. They are particularly
useful for structural and load-bearing applications. Although pure metals are occasionally
used, combinations of metals called alloys are normally designed to provide improvement
in a particular desirable property or permit better combinations of properties. Metals and
alloys include, steel, aluminum, zinc, magnesium, cast iron, titanium, copper, nickel,
bronze, brass, and many others.

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Ceramics: These are compounds that contain metallic and non-metallic elements. Such
materials include bricks, glass, tableware, insulators, and abrasives. Each of these
materials is relatively hard and brittle. Indeed, hardness and brittleness are general
attributes of ceramics, along with the fact that they tend to be more resistant than either
metals or polymers to high temperatures and to severe environments. The basis for
these characteristics is found in the electronic nature of the constituent atoms. Consistent
with their natural tendencies, the metallic elements release their outermost electrons and
give them to the non-metallic atoms, which retain them. The result is that these electrons
are immobilized, so that the typical ceramic materials are a good insulator, both
electrically and thermally. Consequently, it is not surprising that ceramic materials tend to
be hard (mechanically resistant), refractive (thermally resistant) and inert (chemically
resistant). Notwithstanding the good strength and hardness of ceramics, their ductility,
formability and shock resistance are poor. As a result, ceramics are less often used for
structural or load-bearing applications than are metals. Finally, many ceramics possess a
number of unusual and desirable optical, electrical and thermal properties.

Polymers: These include rubber, thermoplastics, thermosetting materials and many

types of adhesives. They are produced by creating large molecular structures from
organic molecules, obtained from petroleum or agricultural products, in a process known
as polymerization. Polymers have low electrical and thermal conductivity, low strength,
and are not suitable for use at high temperatures. Some polymers (thermoplastics) have
excellent ductility, formability, and shock resistance while others (thermosets) have the
opposite properties. Polymers are light weight and frequently have excellent resistance to
corrosion. They are poor reflectors of light, tending to be transparent or translucent (at
least in thin sections). They are used as insulators.

Composites: are formed from two or more materials, producing properties that cannot
be obtained by any single material. Concrete, plywood, and fiberglass are typical,
although crude, examples of composites materials. With composite, we can produce
lightweight, strong, ductile, high-temperature resistant materials that are otherwise
unobtainable, or produce hard, yet, shock-resistant cutting tools that would otherwise
shatter. Metal-matrix composites and ceramic-matrix composites are good examples of
composite materials

Structure of materials
Bases of exist (macro, micro, nano) etc.

STRUCTURE-PROPERTY-PROCESSING RELATIONSHIP

Figure 1.3: structure-property-processing performance dependent relationship

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The properties of engineering materials are dependent to a large extent on their
structures. However, the structure is determined by the atoms that made it up and the
arrangement of these atoms. The physical properties depend both on the structure and
processing of the material. These properties are generally influenced by the presence of
defects in the atomic arrangement as well as the processing techniques the materials
have been used to manufacture them. The structures influence the final behaviour of the
product.

Processing Techniques: Materials processing produces the desired shape of a

component from the initial material. For instance, metals, can be processed by pouring
liquid metal into mould (casting), joining of individual pieces of metal (welding, brazing,
bending, adhesive bonding), forming the solid metal into useful shape at high pressures
(forging, drawing, extrusion, rolling, bending), compacting tiny metal (powder metallurgy),
or removing excess materials (machining). Often a material is heated at some
temperature below its melting point to effect a desired change in structure. The type of
processing employed at least depends on the properties and the structure of the
material.