Checks and estimates for material properties. I. Ranges and simple correlations

Abstract

Material properties of solids have values which— for a given structure and bond–type (defining a ‘class’ of solid)— lie within broadly defined ranges, characteristic of the class. Beyond this, correlations exist between the values of mechanical, thermal, electrical and other properties which derive from the underlying physics of bonding and packing of atoms in the material. Some of these correlations have a simple theoretical basis and can be expressed as dimensionless groups with much narrower value ranges; they allow a physically based consistency check on property values and allow some properties to be estimated when values for others are known. Others, empirical at this stage, can be found by an appropriate search routine; they, too, can be used to estimate missing properties, and to assign a reliability range to the estimates.The results are useful whenever calculations involving material properties are undertaken. They allow the detection of errors in the values of material properties which are used as inputs to the calculations; and they permit calculations to proceed even when some data are missing by providing intelligent estimates for the missing values. This paper assembles property ranges and dimensionless correlation–groups for commonly used properties, examines their accuracy and illustrates their utility. A companion paper develops and illustrates the empirical–correlation method.