Materials at Equilibrium (SMA 5111)
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Exam Solutions; Exams; Problem Set Solutions; Problem Sets
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2003
- Department: Materials Science and Engineering
| Course Details | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
| Outcomes | ||||||
|
||||||
| Price & Terms | ||||||
|
||||||
| Technical | ||||||
|
||||||
| Specification | ||||||
|
||||||
Thermodynamics of materials: the laws, solutions, statistical mechanics and phase diagrams, with seven problem sets and past exams with solutions.
Why do materials take the forms they do at equilibrium? This class starts from the first and second laws of thermodynamics, then applies them to solutions, mixtures and electrochemical systems. A microscopic treatment connects atoms to bulk properties, and later sessions compute binary phase diagrams with Thermocalc and model real systems with Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics, plus polymer mixtures.
What You Will Achieve
- Derive thermodynamic relations using Maxwell relations
- Use the Gibbs phase rule and lever rule on solutions
- Apply statistical mechanics to link microscopic and macroscopic properties
- Compute and interpret binary phase diagrams
Program Overview
Classical Thermodynamics
Sixteen sessions establish the laws and how to use them.
- First law and second law
- Interpretation of TD potentials
- Maxwell relations
- One component Clausius-Clapeyron
Statistical Mechanics
Ten sessions go to the microscopic view.
- Statistical mechanics
- Energy and entropy: microscopic origins and models
Phase Diagrams and Modeling
The rest applies solution theory and computing.
- Binary phase diagrams and advanced solution theory
- Thermocalc
- Statistical mechanics of real systems: MC + MD
- Polymer mixtures
Course Completion
Job Outlook
These foundations serve materials science and engineering, in work on phase stability, alloys, mixtures and computational modeling.
Good for: Materials science graduate students, including those who want to practice thermodynamics with many past exams.
Keep in mind: No lecture notes are published, so you learn from the problems, past exams and the suggested texts, and you need McQuarrie for statistical mechanics. Thermocalc is separate software.
Bottom line: A large problem bank for thermodynamics of materials, with exams from several years and full solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which textbooks are suggested?
Zemansky and Dittman's Heat and Thermodynamics, which is good if you have never had thermodynamics, Callen's Thermodynamics, and McQuarrie's Statistical Mechanics.
Which exams can I practice with?
Exam 1, Exam 2 and finals from multiple years, between 2000 and 2003, with solutions. All exams in the class were closed book, with one sheet of formulas.
Were problem sets graded?
No. The syllabus says problems and solutions were distributed regularly with strong encouragement to work on them, but they were not graded.
User Reviews
Write your review
You must be logged in to post a review.
Reviews can only be posted by registered learners. Log in or create a free account, then you will return here to post.
There are no reviews yet.