Building Materials in the Light of Physics of Matter

Journal article, 2002

This paper outlines an approach for joining physics of matter with the knowledge in building materials when teaching students in civil engineering. Students at most universities are schooled in physics and then building materials in separate courses, but nobody teaches them how to join both fields of science in a fruitful understanding. The described method of evaluating material properties and performances facilitates the understanding and judgment of how and what can be done to change and improve materials. The method is here related to iron and steel with special aim to understand the properties of “amorphous steel”, but can easily be used to understand for instance high performance concrete, wood or other materials. The conclusions concerning material properties of amorphous steel using these models become quite natural to end up with and the approaches can also be used for other materials to improve understanding of their performance. The physics of matter presented in this way makes the students in civil engineering to understand material performance, because this is their language analyzing materials and not directly that of physicians. It can be also used for improved communication with engineers from other branches. Knowledge transfer between different professions becomes more and more important and the basis for everything is physics of matter.