Background

This project delivers browser-based interactive teaching tools for materials engineering students taking APSC 278 (Engineering Materials), APSC 279 (Engineering Materials Laboratory), and MECH 221 (Engineering Science). The tools help students connect the atomic properties of a material, such as bonding types and crystal structure, with its macroscopic properties, including tensile strength and elasticity.

Objective

The team has developed a web app containing five interactive modules:

1. An explorable periodic table interface where students can select different elements and visualize the likely bonding mechanisms between them.
2. An interactive unit cell visualizer that allows students to manipulate and expand crystal structures to explore atomic arrangements and crystal properties like coordination numbers.
3. An interactive defect model in which students can visualize atomic-scale defects such as vacancies and dislocations.
4. An interactive testing simulation where students can select between predefined materials, initiate a virtual test, and observe macroscopic changes like deformation.
5. A data analysis module where students can explore interactive graphs to understand how material properties and atomic structures change and evolve during a tensile test.

The team is currently developing additional modules covering:

• Crystallographic planes and directions
• Slip systems
• Dislocation fields
• Strengthening mechanisms