Blog posts

 My name is Mohamed Nefatni. I'm a senior in Mechanical Engineering, expecting to graduate in December 2007. I was born in Tunisia (North Africa) and came to the U.S 4 years ago. I'm a transfer student from Montgomery College. I'm actually planning to apply for graduate school and my research interests are Electronic packaging and Reliability.

The 28th Risø International Symposium on Materials Science addresses the whole range from fundamental understanding to industrial applications. Topics include:

• surface functionalising
• chemical and physical surface characterisation
• mechanical characterisation of interfaces
• micromechanical modelling
• fibre/matrix debonding
• sizings effects on composite processing
• interface aspects and their integration into manufacturing
• fibre bridging in composites
• fracture resistance of composite
• tensile and compressive strength of composite
• macroscale modelling
• hole and notch sensitivity

More information, including invited key-note speakers, see web site here.

I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. My research field is the reliability of electronics and packaging. These topics have a big relationship with the manfacturing process of the electronics.

Corrosion can be defined as the degradation of a material when it comes in contact with the environment. The dissolving of a material by a corrosive liquid is called chemical corrosion. The material continues to dissolve until either it is consumed or the liquid is saturated. A simple example is salt dissolving in water. The removing of metal atoms from a solid material as the result of an electric circuit is called electrochemical corrosion. In this form of corrosion, metal atoms lose electrons and become ions thus forming a byproduct. Electrochemical corrosion occurs most frequently in aqueous mediums, in which ions are present in water or moist air. In this process, an electric circuit is created and the system is called an electrochemical cell. Corrosion of a steel pipe or a steel automobile panel, creating holes in the steel and rust as the byproduct, are examples of this reaction.

Homework: Ceramics

Return back to Materials of Engineering Laboratory (node/1061)

The primary drawback of using ceramic materials in structural applications is their inherent brittleness which results from strong bonding coupled with electrical balancing restrictions due to the metallic plus non-metallic nature of ceramic compounds. The Modulus of Rupture (MOR) test is the standard for determining the mechanical properties of ceramics (Flexural Strength and Flexural Modulus).

Quiz: Metallography Specimen Preparation and Examination

Return back to Materials of Engineering Laboratory (node/1061)

Proper preparation of metallographic specimens to determine microstructure and content requires that a rigid step-by-step process be followed. In sequence, the steps include sectioning, mounting, course grinding, fine grinding, polishing, etching, and microscopic examination. Specimens must be kept clean and preparation procedure carefully followed in order to reveal accurate microstructures. Each student will prepare and examine a brass, steel or aluminium sample for metallographic examination. Additionally, a brass, steel or aluminum sample with different composition, a eutectoid steel sample and a eutectoid Pb-Sn sample will be examined under the metallographic microscope. Photographs will be taken of the samples and the ASTM grain size number determined for each of the specimens if applicable.