Course

MATERIALS SCIENCE
Course code
MEE1002A

GOPINATH T
Assistant Professor
School of Mechanical Engineering
MIT World Peace University, Pune
Maharashtra
INDIA
[email protected]
[email protected]

25th Feb 2022

This document is designed, prepared, and made-available
purely for educational purposes; so, it is free for
circulation without any obligation for permission/request
from the author/creator/editor of the said document

Corrections and suggestions, if any, with respect to the

document for the betterment of the understanding of the
subject by the student are highly appreciated and solicited

GT
 UNIT 5

Economics of Engineering Materials

Introduction, economic considerations,
green design, environmental and societal
considerations of materials, recycling of
metals and non-metals, recycling issues,
limits of recycling, life cycle analysis and its
use in design
Introduction
 Introduction
• Economics and engineering are closely related. Economics has
been defined as the social science of earning a living
• Engineering may be defined to be physical science applied to
helping groups of men to make a better living
• Economics is the social science that describes the factors that
determine the production, distribution and consumption of goods and
services. Engineering economy is a subset of economics for
application to engineering projects
• Engineering economics poses numerous benefits because it allows
those in industry to make strategic decisions for their companies.
• These are essential for engineering economics because they
provide the foundation for engineers to make good decisions in the
business environment.
• Understanding the relation between Engineering Materials and
Economical factors is of prime importance
 Materials Science and Engineering (Recap)

• Materials science, also commonly termed materials science and

engineering, involves the discovery and design of new materials

• Material Science is the investigation of the relationship among

processing, structure, properties, and performance of materials

• Materials engineering is mainly concerned with the use of this

fundamental knowledge to design and to produce materials with
properties that will meet the requirements of society. As subjects
of study, materials science and materials engineering are
very often closely related.
Issues to address
 Issues to address

• What factors affect product cost ?

• What factors determine the overall
environmental impact of a product ?
• For which materials is recycling a viable option ?

• What is “green design” ?

• Economic considerations
• Environmental and social issues
• Recycling issues
• Life cycle analysis and its use in design
Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)
Considerations in Product Design
 Materials Revisiting

Metals Ceramics & Glasses Polymers

• good conductors of • thermally and electrically • very large molecules
electricity and heat insulating • low density, low weight
• lustrous appearance • resistant to high temperatures • maybe extremely flexible
• susceptible to corrosion and harsh environments
• strong, but deformable • hard, but brittle
 Materials Revisiting

Biomaterials Semiconductors Composites

• implanted in human body • electrical properties between • consist of more than
• compatible with body tissues conductors and insulators one material type
• electrical properties can be • designed to display a
precisely controlled combination of
properties of each
component
 Economic Considerations

• Economics of engineering a component / system

depends on three factors: component design,
material usage, and manufacturing costs
• All these three factors are inter-related i.e. one or two
might influence the choice of others
• Manufacturing of a component starts from
conception, design, material selection
• Material life starts from extraction, forming into a
component, service, and disposal
• Inspection, packing, and transportation adds onto the
increase the cost of a product
Environmental Issues
 Environmental Considerations

• Manufacturing of a product does have impact on

environment in many ways
• This is because resources required to produce a product
comes from different parts of the world
• Along with these, detrimental effects of industrialization
also spread its wings to various parts of the world
• A material used to produce a product goes through number
of stages / phases
• These include extraction of raw materials from natural
resources through production, use during the service, and
finally its disposal. It is some times known as cradle-to-
grave life cycle of a material
 Social Issues…

• Raw materials and energy are prime components for

manufacturing a product. However, they are limited in
nature; hence, materials and energy need to
conserved
• Material life cycle involves interactions and exchanges
among materials, energy and the environment
including the society
• Social issues of material usage relates to weather
distribution, and safe waste disposal
• Products are needed to be designed and manufactured
such that they are environmentally friendly, and easy to
recycle. In case of disposal into environment, products
need to be bio-degradable
Life Cycle Model
Life Cycle Model
 Materials Life Cycle

• Raw materials are first extracted from natural earthy

resources through drilling, mining, etc.
• Later-on these are subjected to purification, refining to
convert them into metals, ceramics, rubber, fuel, etc.
• These primary products are further processed to obtain
engineered materials like metallic alloy, glass, plastics,
semi-conductors, etc.
• Now the engineered materials are shaped, heat treated to
make components which are assembled into products,
devices that are ready for use by society
• During the service, products become old, out
fashioned, break down, or may not serve the
purpose efficiently. So they are discarded. This
competes the life cycle
Total Materials Cycle
 Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

• Industrial approach to assess the environmental

performance of products is termed as life cycle
analysis / assessment (LCA)
• The complex interaction between a product and the
environment is dealt within the Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) method. It is also known Ecobalance
• One important reason for undertaking an LCA study is that
there are growing concerns about a variety of
environmental issues as expressed by public opinion,
political bodies, and industry
• LCA systematically describes and assesses all flows to and
from nature, from a cradle to grave perspective
• LCA is not only product-orientated; it is also quantitative
and thus seemingly objective. Thus, it was no longer
necessary to reply on simple rules of thumb
 Materials Life Cycle
Things for materials engineers’ consideration
• component design
• materials selection
• manufacturing process
Environmental and societal impacts of production are significant
engineering design issues
Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of products involves
• extraction
• synthesis/processing
• product design/manufacture
• application
• disposal
• Recyclability and disposability issues are important in materials
science and engineering
• Ideally, a material should be at best recyclable, and at
least biodegradable or disposable
 LCA use in Design
• LCA is a technique for assessing the environmental
aspects and potential impacts associated with a
product by complaining an inventory of relevant inputs
and outputs of a product system; evaluating the potential
environmental impacts associated with those inputs and
outputs; interpreting the results of the inventory analysis
and impact assessment phases in relation to the
objectives of the study
• With respect to product design, there is a need to
understand how a product impacts on the environment
• To develop truly sustainable products, it must be
possible to assess which design solution is
environmentally preferable. LCA tools can help in
this difficult area of eco-design
 Recycling Issues
• Metals and alloys tend to get corroded up to some extent
i.e. bio-degradable. However, some of them are toxic. On the
other hand, most metals and alloys are recyclable

• Ceramics / glasses are, however, are hardly recycled. It is

because their raw materials are inexpensive, and recycling
process is time consuming and expensive

• Plastics are mostly recycled, and just disposed through

land-fills. Thermo-plastic polymers are easily recycled up on
heating to higher temperatures. On the other hand, recycling
of thermo-set plastics is much more difficult. Hence these are
usually disposed. Thus, there is a trend to use alternative
materials which are recyclable. For example: thermo-plastic
elastomers in place of traditional rubber.
 Green Design
• Reduce: redesign the product to use less material
example: PET bottles with thinner walls
• Reuse: fabricate the product of a material that can
reused
example: refillable bottles and shipping containers, grind
up old tires for use as mulch
• Recycle: reprocess the material into a new product
example: convert PET bottles to carpet fibers

• Refuse and Respect

Green Design
Questions?
Thank You