Mechanics - Materials - Design
By Dr. Christopher Jenkins and Dr. Sanjeeve Khanna.
Why emphasize the linkage between Mechanics - Materials - Design?
A great divide to be bridged is that which exists between applied mechanics and materials science, particularly in their application to engineering design. In an earlier time, perhaps there was much less gap to be closed.
The onset of specialization and the rapid rise of technology, however, have created separate disciplines concerned with the deformation of solid materials. At the expense of over simplifying, mechanics has roots in physics, where materials science derives from chemistry. But in the deformation of a real body, both the macroscopic loads and geometry interact with the material microstructure - any separation is ours alone, not nature’s!
The typical undergraduate engineering curriculum follows along this schism. An introductory course in "mechanics of materials" is taught by mechanics faculty, whereas an introductory course in "property of materials" is taught by science faculty; engineering design is taught as an entirely independent subject. Mostly such courses are taught in isolation from one another, both philosophically (in different languages and points of view) and physically (in different buildings).
That the faculty are competent in their respective disciplines and teach their courses well is assumed. But the student misses out in ever seeing the intimate connection between the macroscopic and microscopic domains of the problem. Society loses out on having at its service efficient, high-performance material/structural systems.