Iitigation investigations in Materials Engineering

IITigation Investigations is a part of the course Content and Principles of Materials Science for Engineering. This course was introduced to the students of the first year of IIT jEE in Delhi University. This is a two-day module that covers all the topics related to the subject of Materials Science for Engineering. It will help the students in understanding the conceptual modeling of all the processes that are involved in the discovery and production of any material or product. In this module students have to apply all the theories and practical skills in material sciences.

Materials Investigation is not a straightforward process and it calls for a lot of carefulness on the part of the student. The primary responsibility of the student while doing the investigations is to collect as many data as possible from various resources. He has to collect the samples using different techniques and then carry out the required physical testing on them. Materials Research & Development department take the samples for analysis to check out the actual state of the samples.

During the investigations, the student tries to find out the main factor responsible for the properties of the sample material. Analysis of the collected data helps in deriving the main physical or chemical properties of the material. Materials science holds the key to understand the underlying laws involved in the behavior of matter in response to the temperature, pressure, electromagnetic radiation and other such external factors.

The physical properties of a material depend upon the nature of its constituent materials. A material can be made up of a number of constituents which may be same in their chemical makeup or may be different in their chemical makeup but may be similar in other respects. Therefore, there could be several compositions of a material which may be similar but possessing distinct properties. These properties are called components of the material and these components determine the physical and chemical behavior of the material. This is the reason why there are numerous types of materials in the real world including thermoplastics, plastics, composites, thermoset composites, thermoform composites etc. The various properties of these different materials as well as their chemical compositions are investigated by students during investigations of material science.

The students have to prepare a detailed report describing the various physical and chemical properties as well as other important facts regarding the research work they have undertaken in the selected area. These should be submitted along with their experiments to the instructor for review. The objective of an iITigation is to analyze the materials along with its properties in order to reach a conclusion about its usefulness in one’s area of expertise.

Before starting the investigation, the students should procure the required materials as well as accessories required for carrying out the investigation. The accessories can be bought from any good retailer who sells these materials. One can also buy these in accordance with their requirements. The entire set-up can be done entirely on the study room of the institute or can also be carried out in the lab.