Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
MATERIALS ENGINEERING
CONCEPTS
Materials engineers are responsible for the selection, specification, and qual-
ity control of materials to be used in a job. These materials must meet cer-
tain classes of criteria or materials properties (Ashby and Jones 1980). These
classes of criteria include
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economic factors
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mechanical properties
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nonmechanical properties
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production/construction considerations
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aesthetic properties
When engineers select the material for a specific application, they must
consider the various criteria and make compromises. Both the client and the
purpose of the facility or structure dictate, to a certain extent, the emphasis
that will be placed on the different criteria.
Civil and construction engineers must be familiar with materials used in
the construction of a wide range of structures. Materials most frequently used
include steel, aggregate, concrete, masonry, asphalt, and wood. Materials used
to a lesser extent include aluminum, glass, plastics, and fiber-reinforced com-
posites. Geotechnical engineers make a reasonable case for including soil as
the most widely used engineering material, since it provides the basic support
for all civil engineering structures. However, the properties of soils will not be
discussed in this text, because this is generally the topic of a separate course.
Recent advances in the technology of civil engineering materials have
resulted in the development of better quality, more economical, and safer
materials. These materials are commonly referred to as high-performance
materials. Because more is known about the molecular structure of materials
and because of the continuous research efforts by scientists and engineers,
new materials such as polymers, adhesives, composites, geotextiles, coat-
ings, cold-formed metals, and various synthetic products are competing
with traditional civil engineering materials. In addition, improvements have
