Unit 7

Material selection:
translation, screening,
ranking, documentation
Mike Ashby
Granta Design, Cambridge (UK)

© Granta Design and M. F. Ashby, 2020

For reproduction guidance see back page

This lecture unit is part of a set created by Mike Ashby to help introduce students to materials, processes and rational selection.

The Teaching Resources website aims to support teaching of materials-related courses in Design, Engineering and Science.
Resources come in various formats and are aimed primarily at undergraduate education.
www.grantadesign.com/education
Some of the resources are open access and students can access them. Others are only available to educators using GRANTA EduPack.
 Learning objectives for this Lecture Unit

Intended Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and
Understanding
Knowledge and understanding of the design process using Material Indices

Skills and Abilities Ability to use GRANTA EduPack to apply screening and ranking to material properties

Values and Attitudes Appreciation of design-led decision-making using GRANTA EduPack tools

Resources
▪ Text: “Materials: engineering, science, processing and design” 4th edition by M.F. Ashby, H.R. Shercliff and D.
Cebon, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 2019, Chapter 3, 5 and 7.
▪ Text: “Materials Selection in Mechanical Design”, 5th edition by M.F. Ashby, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford,
2016, Chapters 4-5

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

Outline of Lecture Unit 7

▪ Linking materials to design

▪ The selection strategy:

Translation – Screening – Ranking - Documentation

▪ The GRANTA EduPack selection toolbox

• Limit stages
• Graph stages
• Tree stages
▪ Material indices do the job

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 The design process

Market need
Material data needs
Problem statement

Data for material family

(metals, ceramics, polymers..) Concept

Data for material class

Embodiment
(Steel, Al-alloy, Ni-alloy…..)

Detail
Data for single material
(Al-2040, Al-6061, Al-7075…..)

Product specification

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Need – Concept – Embodiment

Need Concepts

Embodiments

Direct pull Levered pull Geared pull Spring-assisted pull

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 Embodiment – Detail

Embodiment Detail

How are those choices made?

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 The selection strategy: materials

Design requirements: Data:

expressed as Material attributes
Constraints and Process attributes
Objectives Documentation

Comparison engine
Able to be molded Density
Water and UV resistant ▪ Screening Price
Stiff enough ▪ Ranking Modulus
Strong enough Strength
▪ Documentation
As cheap as possible Durability
(As light as possible) Process compatibility
More…….
Final selection

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Translation is important

Translation: “express design requirements as constraints and objectives”

Design requirements

Typical Constraints What essential conditions must it meet ?

▪ Be strong enough
▪ Conduct electricity
▪ Tolerate 250˚C
▪ Be able to be cast

Typical Objectives What measure of performance is to

be maximized or minimized ?
▪ Mass
▪ Volume
▪ Eco-impact
▪ Cost

Screening: “use constraints to eliminate materials that can’t do the job”

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 Creating charts for screening

Plotting and selection tools

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Creating charts for screening

Bar chart

Property
Choose:

X-Axis Y-Axis
List of properties

▪ Density
▪ Yield strength
Bubble chart
▪ Young’s modulus
▪ etc.

Property 1

Property 2
© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 Creating advanced charts for screening

Modulus / Density
Bar chart

Choose:

X-Axis Y-Axis

List of properties Modulus / Density

Advanced

Modulus / Density
▪ Density + - / ^ ( )
▪ Yield strength Bubble chart *
▪ Young’s modulus
List of properties
▪ etc.
▪ Density
▪ Yield strength
▪ Young’s modulus
▪ etc
Yield strength / Density
© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 The chart-management tool bar

Autoscale
Zoom out Add text
Chart annotation
Zoom in Add arrow tools

Cancel
Add curves
selection
Box selection Add family envelopes
tool
Results from all enabled stages
Line selection
tool Hide failed materials

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Screening with a CHART STAGE

Bar chart

Property
Box selection tool

Line/gradient selection tool

Bubble chart
Results Ranking

Property 2
X out of 100 pass Prop 1 Prop 2 1
Material 1 2230 113
Material 2 2100 300
Material 3 1950 5.6
etc...

Property 1
© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 Screening with a LIMIT STAGE

General properties

Mechanical properties Min. Max.

Young’s modulus 100 GPa

Glasses
Yield strength 50 MPa
Ceramics
Hardness 70 Vickers
Metals
Fracture toughness 16 MPa.m 1/2
Foams

Polymers Thermal properties Min. Max.

0.1 1 10 100 Max service temp 200 C

Insulator Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) Conductor
T-conductivity 1 W/m.K

T-expansion 10 10 -6/C
Results Ranking
Specific heat 1600 J/kg.K
X out of 100 pass Prop 1 Prop 2
Material 1 2230 113
Electrical properties
Material 2 2100 300
Material 3 1950 5.6
Eco properties
etc...

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Screening with a TREE STAGE

Trees
MaterialUniverse
ProcessUniverse

MaterialUniverse
ProcessUniverse

Ceramics
Joining and glasses
Materials that Shapingcomposites
Hybrids: etc
- Die casting
can be die-cast
Metals and
Surface alloys
Treatment
Polymers and elastomers
Results
Selected records
X out of 100 pass

Material 1 Shaping – Die casting

Material 2
Material 3
etc...

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Selection on links

Select on The
material database
properties References
data-table

DATA FOR DATA FOR

▪ Metals & alloys ▪ Joining
Links
▪ Polymers Materials Processes ▪ Shaping
▪ Ceramics & data-table data-table
▪ Surface
glasses treatment
▪ Hybrids
Suppliers
data-table

Select on
links

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 What is a “material index”?

Component performance is limited by either:

▪ a single material property e.g. tensile strength, σts The
material index
▪ a material property group, e.g. modulus / density, E /  for the design

To maximize
performance:
▪ First apply all
constraints
▪ Then select
materials with the
biggest or
smallest index

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Simple one-property indices

Design requirement
Constraints
Protective visor ▪ Transparent - of optical quality
for motorcyclists ▪ Able to be molded

Objective
▪ As tough as possible –
maximize fracture toughness K1c

The material index: choose material with largest K1c

Alternative objective
▪ As cheap as possible –
minimize material cost Cm

The material index: choose material with smallest Cm

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Minimum weight design - indices
Tensile ties
 y 
 
 ρ 

Main spar
Compression
- beam
strut
 1/2 
 1/2  E 
E  
 ρ 
 ρ  
 
 

Undercarriage - bending
and compression
E = Young’s modulus
 2 / 3 
 = Density  y 
 y = Yield strength  ρ 
 

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Index for a strong, light tie-rod

Strong tie of length L and minimum mass

Function Tie-rod
F F
Area A L
Constraints ▪ Length L is specified
▪ Must not fail under load F m = mass
A = area
Equation for constraint on A: L = length
F/A < y  = density
 y= yield strength
Objective Minimize mass m:
m = AL

 ρ 
Performance
m=FL   Chose materials M =  σ y 
metric  σy   ρ 
  with largest  

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Index for a stiff, light beam
Stiff beam of length L and minimum mass
Function Beam
b
F
Square
b
section,
area
L A = b2
• Length L is specified δ
Constraints
• Must have bending stiffness > S*
m = mass
Equation for constraint on A: A = area

C E I C E A2
L = length
F  = density
S= = =
δ L 3 12 L3 S = stiffness (F/δ)
This beam: δ = FL3/CEI
Objective Minimize mass m: C = constant (here, 48)
E = Young’s modulus
m = AL
I = second moment of area
(I = b4/12 = A2/12)

1/ 2
Performance  12 L5 S*     
Chose materials M =  E1/2 

m=   1/ 2 
metric  C  E  with largest  ρ 
 
   

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Ranking, using charts

Light stiff beam: 1000

1/2 Ceramics
Index M = Eρ

Young’s modulus E, (GPa)

100 Composites
Increasing M
Rearrange:
E = ρ2 M2 Woods
10
Take logs:

Log E = 2 log  + 2 log M Metals

1 2
Polymers
Function Index Slope 0.1

Tie E/ρ 1
Foams Elastomers
Beam E1/2 /ρ 2 0.01
100 1000 10,000 100,000
Panel E1/3 /ρ 3 Density ρ (kg/m3)

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Selection using index in a bubble chart

Search
area

Results Ranked
22 pass by Index E1/2 /ρ
Material
2 1 2230
Material 2 2100
E1/2 = M Material 3 1950
ρ
etc...

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

Selection using index directly on chart axis

Index E1/2 / ρ

Results Ranked
22 pass by Index E1/2 /ρ

Material 1 2230
Material 2 2100
Material 3 1950
etc...

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Documentation: the pedigree

Documentation: “now the number of candidates is small, explore their character in

depth”
Handbooks

Specialized Suppliers’
databases data sheets

The Internet
© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020
 So what?

▪ The selection strategy:

Translate - Screen - Rank - Documentation

▪ EduPack allows Screening using

Limit – Chart – Tree stages
in any number and sequence

▪ The progression
Data Visualization Selection
(Numbers, text) (using the data)
(understanding the data)

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Lecture Unit series

These PowerPoint lecture units, as well as many other types of resources, are on the Teaching Resource Website.

Finding and Displaying Information Sustainability

Unit 1 The materials of engineering What is a sustainable development? a materials perspective
Unit 2 Material property charts: mapping materials Materials for low carbon power
Unit 3 The Elements database: properties, relationships and resources Special Topics
Material Properties Architecture and the built environment: materials for construction
Unit 4 Manipulating properties: composition, microstructure, architecture Structural sections: shape in action
Unit 5 Designing new materials: filling the materials-property space Materials in industrial design: Why do consumers buy products?
Unit 6 Materials Science and Engineering The Design database for Products
Selection Materials for Bioengineering
Unit 7 Material selection: translation, screening, ranking, documentation Advanced Teaching and Research
Unit 8 Objectives in conflict: trade off methods and penalty functions Advanced databases: a lightning tour
Unit 9 Material and shape: materials for efficient structures The Aerospace edition
Unit 10 Manufacturing processes and cost modeling The Polymer edition
Unit 11 Eco-informed material selection The Synthesizer tool: hybrids and other models
Unit 12 Eco design and the Eco Audit tool Editing and creating new databases: GRANTA Constructor
GRANTA Selector and Constructor in research

© Granta Design and Mike Ashby, 2020

 Author
Mike Ashby and Granta Design Ltd.
www.grantadesign.com

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© Granta Design and M. F. Ashby, 2020

This lecture unit is part of a set created by Mike Ashby to help introduce students to materials, processes and rational selection.

The Teaching Resources website aims to support teaching of materials-related courses in Design, Engineering and Science.
Resources come in various formats and are aimed primarily at undergraduate education.
www.grantadesign.com/education
Some of the resources are open access and students can access them. Others are only available to educators using GRANTA EduPack.