Material Property Chart

How to Read and Interprete an Ashby Chart

Material property charts are of two types:
 Bar charts: plots one property for all the set in the material universe. The length of each
bar shows the range of the property for each material. Logarithmic scales are employed
to bunch outliers with a certain bucket. Remember also that logarithmic scale is
different from linear scale in that the former increases by a factor of 10
 Bubble charts: If two properties are plotted a bubble chart is formed. The material
family are grouped together in an envelope. Also, a logarithm scale is again used. They
are tools used for optimizing selection.
With the bubble chart, different families occupy discrete areas of the chart.

From the bar plot above,

We could see that metals range from about 20Gpa to about 200Gpa. Polymers however ranges
from about 0.1Gpa to about 7Gpa. On average metals are about a 110Gpa in stiffness and
110
polymers about 4.05Gpa making polymers smaller by a factor of 2.06 ≈ 50.
 110
Again, Hybrids have an average of 60Gpa elastic modulus and is lower to a factor of about ≈
60
2
Elastomers on the other hand, has an average stiffness of about.

Modulus Density Chart (Granta CES Edu pack)

We see technical ceramics and Metals with high moduli greater than 10Gpa and densities that
are not less than 1.7mg/m3.
Hybrids however, has moduli greater 10Gpa and also has densities not less than 1.7.
If we zoom more closely however we will see that all CFRP – carbon fiber reinforced polymers
have moduli in the range of 100-200Gpa, while steel has about 200-300Gpa, it is heavier by a
𝟖
factor of about 𝟏.𝟒 ≈ 𝟓.
Modulus-Relative Cost Chart

Note that to normalize a variable means to convert the values of the variable within a scale of 0
and 1.
We see that carbon steel has a relative cost per volume within the range of 0.8 to 2, while CFRP
ranges between 10 to 30 Relative cost per unit volume leaving on average a factor of about
15
≈ 20 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑏𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙
1
Strength-Density Chart

Steel has a wider range 200-103Mpa with about 8tons/m3. Its rival is about 700-100Mpa but
weighs much less about 2tons/m3 leaving a factor of about 4 lighter
If we add a constraint of say strength > 10Mpa and density less than 10 tons
We can keep adjusting the constraint which eventually leaves us with the family Aluminum, and
CFRP.
Modulus-Strength

Higher modulus recorded for steel than CFRP but almost the same strength
 Fracture -Toughness Modulus

Although the steel has a wider range of fracture toughness which gives it an advantage in terms
of fracture allowing for creep, CFRP has a shorter range.
Fracture toughness for steel is between 10-200Mpa, whilst between about 7-20Mpa. However,
the strength of CFRP is comparable to steels, i.e. CFRP has strengths of about 100Gpa whilst
steel about 200GPa giving a factor of about 2
Wear Rate-

Low carbon steel, the material for which transformer tanks are made of is has a hardness rating
of between 1000- 2000Mpa
Thermal Expansion-Thermal Conduction
Strength-Max Service Temperature

We can see that both carbon steel and CFRP have approximately the same yield strength, their
maximum service temperature differs. Carbon steel presents a higher service temperature to
CFRP
Strength-Embodied Energy

The embodied energy of a material is the energy that must be committed to create 1 kg of
usable material—1 kg of steel stock, or of PET pellets, or of cement powder, for example—
measured in MJ/kg.

First hand we see that CFRP is about 4*105 MJ/m3 while carbon steel is about 2*105 MJ/m3,
making CFRP have a high embodied energy with a factor of about 2