Teerthanker Mahaveer University

College of Engineering
Metarial Science (BME501) Question Bank
B.Sc(H) Physics IIIrd Year
1. What do you understand by materials science and engineering materials? Demarcate
between them with illustrations.
2. Discuss the historical and modern perspective of materials. How is the study of materials
science useful to an engineer ?
3. Classify engineering materials from various view points.
4. Describe the recent advances in materials development, technology and applications.
5. Discuss, in brief, different stages in the development of atomic model concept.
6. Describe modern concept of atom. How is the arrangement of subshells in different shells ?
7. Classify various types of bonds, and illustrate their examples.
8. Explain Van der Waals bond and its characteristics.
9. Why are some bonds known as dipole bond and some as dispersion bond?
10. Compare the characteristics of -bonds, -bonds and hybrid bonds.
11. Explain composition of a solid illustrating crystals, unit cells, atoms and electrons in it.
12. Write notes on the following:
(a) Basis (b) Primitive unit cell (c) Molecular crystal
(d) Coordination number
13. Derive the expression for relation between atomic radius and lattice constant in case of
(a) BCC (b) FCC, and (c) ST.
14. Define atomic packing factor. Obtain its expression for SC, FCC and BCC.
15. What is the importance of Miller indices ? How does it help in the study of
crystallography ?
16. Detail out the procedure to obtain Miller-Bravais index in a hexagonal crystal.
17. Sketch the following planes and directions in cubical and hexagonal unit cells or their
crystals as required. (221), (10 1 ), <100>, [234], {100}, (2020).
18. Find the Miller indices of a plane that makes an intercept of 1 on the a-axis and 2 on the
b-axis and is parallel to the c-axis. Draw it also.
19. Prove that c/a ratio for ideally closed packed HCP unit cell is 1.633. Also mention as to
why this value deviates for real crystals.
20. What do you mean by material characterization? Name the various techniques employed
for it.
21. What do you mean by X-rays diffraction ? How is Braggs diffraction different from
Laues concept of X-ray diffraction ?
22. Sketch the experimental set-up and explain the powder crystal method of crystal
determination. Discuss all related details.
23. Explain the working principle of a microscope. Draw ray diagram and show as to how a
magnified image is obtained in a metallurgical microscope.
24. What do you mean by void? Sketch and explain the tetrahedral and octahedral voids and
differentiate between them.
25. Develop the concept of ligancy is solid materials. Explain with examples, the various
coordination configuration of atoms in solids. Also explain the meaning of stable,
metastable and unstable configurations.
26. Classify imperfections as exhaustively as you can.
27. Show Burgers circuit and Burgers vector on a crystal which is having a screw dislocation.
28. Show on a diagram, the slip plane and slip direction in FCC, BCC and HCP crystals.
29. Discuss different characteristics of dislocations.
30. Enumerate different types of surface imperfections with the help of suitable diagrams.
31. Write notes on the following. (a) Twist boundary (b) Interphase boundary
(c) Stacking fault, and
(d) Volume imperfections
32. Calculate the equilibrium concentration of vacancies in cadmium at 0 K, 250 K and 800

K. The enthalpy of formation of vacancies may be taken as 0.39 eV/valency. Take other
required data from the text.
[Ans: n/N = 0, 1.1 108, 3.3 103]
33. Calculate the enthalpy of formation of vacancies in a copper crystal when the number of
vacancies doubles itself due to increase in temperature from 300 K to 400 K.
[Ans: 6.9 kJ/mol]
34. Calculate the number of Frenkel defect per unit volume of calcium fluoride (CaF2) if the
energy of defects formation is 2.7 eV at 1300 K. The molecular weight of CaF2 is 0.079
kg/mol and the specific gravity is 3.17.
35. In a copper crystal, the number of vacancies triples itself on increasing the temperature
from 27C to 52C. Calculate the enthalpy of formation of vacancies. Take value of R =
8.314 J/mol K.
36. Calculate the ratio of number of vacancies in equilibrium at 300 K in nickel to that
produced by sudden quenching from 1000 K. Take enthalpy of formation of vacancy as
168 kJ/mol.
37. Determine the ratio of energies of an edge dislocation over a screw dislocation in a
copper crystal having shear modulus = 45 GPa. Burgers vector is 2.5 , the inner and
outer radii of elastic strain field are 11 and 105 times of Burgers vector respectively.
Take Poissons ratio = 0.31.
38. Draw sketches to explain the following.
(a) The climb of a dislocation by addition of atoms.
(b) The climb of a dislocation by subtraction of atoms from an extra half plane.
(c) Gliding of a jog in an edge dislocation.
39. Why does grain boundary defect develop in materials?
40. Discuss different types of twins. Where does the defect of twin occur ?
41. Discuss the importance of phases and phase diagrams to a Material Scientist.
42. Differentiate between the following.
(a) A system and a state,
(b) Extrinsic and intrinsic properties,
(c) Degree of freedom and constraint, and (d) Phase and component.
43. How is the solid solution different from intermetallic compound ?
44. Explain interstitial and substitutional solid solutions with illustrations.
45. Describe Hume-Rotherys rules and their importance in the development of alloys.
46. How are the intermetallic compounds classified ? Compare inter-metallic compounds
with the interstitial compounds.
47. Explain Gibb's phase rule. In this light, narrate total number of variables and degrees of
freedom.
48. How do the unary, binary and ternary phase diagrams differ from each-other ?
49. Draw binary phase diagram of any two component system, and show salient points on it.
50. What do you mean by isomorphous system ? Draw a binary isomorphous phase diagram
and elaborate its features.
51. Bring-out differences between the following terms :
(a) Eutectoid and eutectic
(b) Peritectoid and peritectic,
(c) Solidus and liquidus, and
(d) Solvus and hypereutectic.
52. Draw iron-carbon equilibrium diagram and show all the salient features on it.
53. Write notes on the following.
(a) Zone refining,
(b) Utilities of phase diagrams,
(c) Ternary phase diagram, and
(d) Pseudo ternary diagram.
54. What is phase transformation ? Why is it performed on materials ? Quote some
illustrations of phase transformations stating their purposes and objectives.
55. Differentiate between the following.
(a) Homogeneous nucleation and heterogeneous nucleation,
(b) Nucleation and growth,
(c) Embryos and nuclei, and
(d) Supercooling and sublimation.

56. Define the following terms.

(i) Crystallization. (ii) Recrystallization. (iii) Decalescence point.
57. What factors influence crystallization of solids ? How does splat cooling and addition of
nucleation agents promote crystalline structure?
58. Discuss the mechanism of solidification of metals.
59. What is Arrhenius equation ? Explain the rates of nucleation, nucleation growth,
recrystallization and grain growth with the help of Arrhenius equation.
60. Explain the mechanism of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. How are both
different from each other?
61. Explain the mechanism of growth rate and transformation rate of crystals. Also discuss as
to how the grain size is controlled.
62. What necessitates recovery and recrystallization processes ? How do they influence the
properties of materials ?
63. Explain the importance of grain growth phenomenon and their preferred orientation.
64. Define recrystallization temperature; and discuss the effects of time and temperature on
recrystallization.
65. During liquid to crystal transformation in tin, the nucleation takes place when free energy
of critical nucleus is 1.5 1019 J. Undercooling required for this transformation is
110C. Calculate energy for liquid-crystal interface if the enthalpy of fusion is 420
MJ/m3 for tin.
[Ans : 0.055 J/m2]
66. The cold working multiplies the dislocation density in copper from 1010/m2 to 1014/m2.
What will be the change in free energy during recrystallization ? The magnitude of
Burgers vector is 2.5 , and the shear modulus of copper is 45 GPa.
[Ans : 1.4 106 J/m3]
67. A hard rolled aluminium is heated for 10 minutes at 140C or for 250 minutes at 365 K
to achieve 50% recrystallization. If this percentage of recrystallization is desired at
60C, estimate the time required.
[Ans : 35.5 hours]
68. A strained zinc crystal recovers one-fourth in 5 minutes at 0 C. Calculate the time it will
take to recover by same amount at 50 C. Take Q for recovery of yield point in zinc as
83.14 kJ/mole and R = 8.314 J/mol K.
[Ans : 17 days]
69. Classify different types of deformations taking place in various materials.
70. What are the differences between the following?
(a) Recoverable and permanent deformations ?
(b) Elastic and elastomeric deformations ?
(c) Time dependent and time independent deformations ?
71. What makes the rubbery behaviour of a material different from other behaviours ?
72. Explain Schdmit law of CRSS. What is the importance of knowing critical resolved shear
stress ?
73. Differentiate between the following.
(a) Continuous and discontinuous yieldings.
(b) Like and unlike dislocations.
74. What is meant by superplastic behavior of materials ? Explain with the help of true stress
true strain diagrams as to how the superplastic behaviour is different from the plastic
behaviour ?
75. Bring-out differences between the following.
(a) Anelastic and thermoelastic behaviour.
(b) Anelastic and viscoelastic behaviour.
76. Write notes on the following.
(a) Elastic aftereffect.
(b) Maxwells Viscoelastic model.
(c) Parallel spring-dashpot model.