Materials property chart from CES EduPack 2009. The charts provide a highly visual and engaging means to teach and learn about materials property. This chart studies shows key mechanical and environmental properties for 100 representative materials.

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Updated Eco Audit Tool, enables identification of the energy and CO2 emissions from a product at different phases in its lifecycle, supporting teaching of eco design. Now includes analysis of the energy/CO2 impact of disposal, recycling or re-use at the end of the product's life.

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CES Selector 2008 - A designer is investigating materials for a design application that uses a panel in bending The graph shows the trade-off between embodied energy and mass for this application. Such plots enable a designer to quantify and visualize, engineering, economic, and environmental properties.

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A new Eco Audit Tool enables identification of the energy emissions from a product at different phases in its lifecycle, based on the materials and processes used.

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Environmental Materials Information Technology Consortium logo - 300 dpi TIFF file (1.3Mb)

The product lifecycle - at each stage resources and energy are used and unwanted emissions and waste created. Much of this impact is due to materials and their processing. One focus for the EMIT Consortium is to analyze this impact and help to reduce it.

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An eco audit - identifying the energy emissions from a product at different phases in its lifecycle, based on the materials and processes used. The Consortium develops software to generate such information.

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Viewing materials information in the enhanced GRANTA MI version 2.0 browser-based user interface. The user is navigating a database of laboratory test data (left pane) and viewing numerical, text, and graphical data for an aluminum alloy (right panel).

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CES EduPack showing a man-made material from the Bio Materials database. The datasheet shows an image of the material in use, descriptive text, and property data.  A 'science note' has been opened - this provides in-depth information on the science behind a specific materials property.

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Plotting materials properties in CES EduPack. In this case, Young's Modulus is being plotted against Tensile Strength for the natural materials in the new Bio Materials Database. Such plots offer a simple-to-understand and highly visual representation of materials properties.

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Screenshot from the Materials for Medical Devices database showing the easy-to-use web user interface.

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The GRANTA MI software displays creep data for an aerospace alloy from the latest MMPDS-02 database. The database is an authoritative source of aerospace design data. The graph is typical of the materials property data stored and analyzed by MDMC members.

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A plot of materials prices for a panel of specified stiffness for all materials in the MaterialUniverse data module (with selected materials labelled). An updated pricing model ensures that relative price data is available and up-to-date for the entire range of engineering materials with CES Selector. The graph shows how this can be combined with materials property data to study "cost per unit of function".

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Trading off economic and technical factors in thermoplastic elastomer selection. Here, a rubber part needs to have softness and  adequate recovery after deformation. Materials failing these criteria are greyed out. Then the part must be as cheap as possible for a given strength and be as resistant as possible to tearing. The chart shows the trade-off between these factors: the cheapest option is a PVC elastomer. However, a part with twice the tear strength can be made for a 50% higher price from a TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane).

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Updated user interface showing improved display of selection charts, including material family envelopes - click for a larger image.

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GRANTA MI displays creep data for an aerospace alloy from the latest MMPDS-02 database. The database is an authoritative source of aerospace design data. The graph is typical of the materials property data stored and analyzed in GRANTA MI. Display and manipulation of such data has been improved in version 1.3.

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CES EduPack software displays a materials property chart - an engaging means of comapring materials properties and making selections. This tool has been enhanced in CES EduPack 2007 through the ability to rank materials against selection criteria (bottom left of screen) enabling more complete analysis.

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A screenshot from the newly extended Architecture Edition shows how CES EduPack links information about materials (listed in the tree view, left, with lightweight structural concrete highlighted) with property data (listed on the main screen), information materials applications (e.g., picture of the material in use), and background information on key properties (in the pop-up window).

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New textbook Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design, by Ashby, Shercliff and Cebon.

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Professor Mike Ashby, creator of the CES EduPack.

Professor Ashby's biography

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Screenshot from the Materials for Medical Devices database showing the easy-to-use web user interface.

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Materials property chart used to determine the sandwich configuration that produces the optimal performance per unit of cost for a material in bending. Granta and EconCore are collaborating to develop software that will make such analysis straightforward for engineers and materials scientists wishing to select and optimize such materials.

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CES EduPack software displaying a materials selection chart. The software allows students to study and compare diverse materials properties and to select those that best match a specific application.

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Professor Mike Ashby, creator of the CES EduPack.

Professor Ashby's biography

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GRANTA MI's browser interface, which is used by materials experts and engineers to search for and browse materials property information, displays information from MMPDS-02, the authoritative source for aerospace property data. This illustrates both the availability of the latest MMPDS data in GRANTA MI, and new "embedded media" capabilities that enable any document type (here we have a PDF document) to be stored, searched for, and displayed within the system.

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GRANTA MI's browser interface, which is used by materials experts and engineers to search for and browse materials property information, displays information about a stainless steel. This illustrates GRANTA MI's ability to store, search for, and display a mix of data types and documents — for example, text, images, and structured numerical data as part of a materials desription.

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Which materials have high strength and low cost, and are resistant to ESC failure?  Plot from Granta software shows the better candidates and flags up those with higher risk.

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GRANTA MI screenshot showing property data for an aluminum alloy, ready for export to ANSYS Workbench.

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EduPack 2006 screenshot showing the detailed description of a key materials property, fatigue strength, and the underlying science. This information has been accessed by a student browsing the materials properties of Aluminium alloys - an illustration of how fundamental materials science can be linked into practical design projects.

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Displaying families of materials (the larger colored 'bubbles') on a materials property chart helps students to visualize and understand the behavior of different classes of material.

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Professor Mike Ashby, creator of the CES EduPack.

Professor Ashby's biography

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