A materials property is an intensive, often quantitative property of a material, usually with a unit that may be used as a metric of value to compare the benefits of one material versus another to aid in materials selection.

A material property may be a constant or may be a function of one or more independent variables, such as temperature. Materials properties often vary to some degree according to the direction in the material in which they are measured; a condition referred to as anisotropy. Materials properties that relate two different physical phenomena often behave linearly or approximately so in a given operating range and may then be modeled as a constant for that range. This linearization can significantly simplify the differential constitutive equations that the property describes.

Some materials properties are used in relevant equations to determine the attributes of a system a priori. For example, if a material of a known specific heat gains or loses a known amount of heat, the temperature change of that material can be determined. Materials properties may be determined by standardized test methods. Many such test methods have been documented by their respective user communities and published through ASTM International.

Contents 1 Mechanical properties 2 Electrical properties 3 Thermal properties 4 Chemical properties 5 Magnetic properties 6 Optical properties 7 Acoustical properties 8 Radiological properties 9 Biological properties 10 Environmental properties 11 Atomic properties 12 Manufacturing properties 13 See also

[edit] Mechanical properties

• Young's modulus
• Specific modulus
• Tensile strength
• Compressive strength
• Shear strength
• Yield strength
• Ductility
• Poisson's ratio
• Specific weight

[edit] Electrical properties

• Electrical conductivity
• Permittivity
• Dielectric constant
• Dielectric strength
• Piezoelectric constants
• Seebeck coefficient

[edit] Thermal properties

• Thermal conductivity
• Thermal diffusivity
• Thermal expansion
• Seebeck coefficient
• Emissivity
• Coefficient of thermal expansion
• Specific heat
• Heat of vaporization
• Heat of fusion
• Pyrophoricity
• Flammability
• Vapor Pressure
• Phase diagram
• Binary phase diagram
• Autoignition temperature
• Inversion temperature
• Critical temperature
• Glass transition temperature
• Eutectic point
• Melting point
• Vicat softening point
• Boiling point
• Triple point
• Flash point
• Curie point

[edit] Chemical properties

• pH
• Hygroscopy
• Surface energy
• Surface tension
• Specific internal surface area
• Reactivity
• Corrosion resistance

[edit] Magnetic properties

• Permeability
• Hysteresis
• Curie Point

[edit] Optical properties

• Absorptivity
• Reflectivity
• Refractive index
• Color
• Photosensitivity
• Transmittance
• Luminosity

[edit] Acoustical properties

• Acoustical absorption
• Speed of sound

[edit] Radiological properties

• Neutron cross-section
• Specific activity

[edit] Biological properties

• Toxicity

[edit] Environmental properties

• Embodied energy
• Embodied water
• RoHS compliance

There are a variety of other properties to consider in an environmental impact assessment that effect the ecological or human environment that may be difficult to quantify (unlike most of the properties listed on this page) including pollution (extraction, transportation, manufacture), scarcity/abundance, habitat destruction, renewability, recycleability, wars fought over materials, labor exploitation, etc. These can be subjective, dependent on context, or inadequately measured.

[edit] Atomic properties

• Atomic number - applies to pure elements only
• Atomic weight - applies to individual isotopes or specific mixtures of isotopes of a given element.

[edit] Manufacturing properties

• Machining speeds and feeds
• Machinability rating
• Hardness
• Extruding temperature and pressure

[edit] See also

• Chemical property
• Physical property
• Thermodynamic properties
• Supervenience