SURNAME .... STUDENT NUMBER ..

UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA DEPT OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY EGT 3222 MATERIALS SCIENCE TEST3 Date: 23 May, 2003 Closed Book Test. Answer all questions in the space provided.
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Duration 2 hours

Q1.1. What are the four possible events that will happen when a beam of photons is directed to a material? (4 marks) (i) .. (ii) (iii) .. (iv) .

Q1.2. Calculate the energy in a beam of photons that has a wavelength of 5.5 x 10-7 m given that the beam is traveling at the velocity of light 3 x 108 m/s and the Planks constant is 6.62 x 10-34 J.s. (4 marks)

Q1.3 A material has a linear absorption coefficient of 591 cm-1 for photons of a particular wavelength. Determine the thickness of the material required to absorb half of the photons. (4 marks)

Q2 A rail line is being constructed in the North of Namibia, using an alloy steel with a linear coefficient of thermal expansion of 4.5 x 10-6 K-1. Each railing is 12 m long. During winter, the temperature in the region varies from 5 C at night to 40 C during the day. 2.1 How much gap should be left between railings to compensate for thermal expansion? (5 marks) 2.2 If no gap is left, what is the maximum thermal strain that can develop in each rail? (5 marks)

SURNAME .... STUDENT NUMBER .. Q3 Tensile tests are conducted on two pieces of aluminium. One has a circular cross section, and the other has a square cross-section. If the both pieces fail under a maximum load of 10 kN, and the material has an ultimate tensile strength of 70 N/mm2, what could have been the size (diameter and thickness) of each of two test pieces? (10 marks)

Q4. The Titanic was a ship constructed out of steel. Yet, in 1912, while plying the North Atlantic ocean, it hit an iceberg and the steel hull broke into pieces. What could explain this strange disaster? (10 marks)

Q5. Describe briefly the three common indentation techniques used for hardness measurement. In your description, state the type and shape of the indentor, the range of applications and limitations for each method. (12 marks)

SURNAME .... STUDENT NUMBER .. Q6.1. State the three main factors that affect the conductivity of metallic materials. (6 marks)

Q6.2. An aluminium cable has a diameter of 2.5 mm, is 5 metres long and has conductivity of 35.36 x 106 Ohm-1.m-1. What is the resistance of the cable? (5 marks)

Q7 Explain the principle of semi-conductivity, clearly distinguishing between intrinsic semiconductors and extrinsic semiconductors. (10 marks)

Q8. Use a hysteresis plot to clearly describe the behaviour of soft magnetic materials and hard magnetic materials when subjected to a magnetic field. For each type of magnetic material, give an example of potential applications. (10 marks)

SURNAME .... STUDENT NUMBER .. Q9.1 Describe the basic electrochemical corrosion cell, showing all its important components and their functions. (9 marks)

Q9.2 Electrochemical corrosion is often regarded as a destructive process that leads to loss of millions of tons of metals every year. In what ways could the electrochemical process be put to useful applications? (6 marks)