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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
We want structural materials to be as strong as possible, as light as possible and as stiff as possible. For all practical applications they must be tough or resilient. We might also want them to be of use at high temperatures, to have hard surfaces, to be resistant to corrosion and to be cheap and easy to fabricate.
With all orthodox structural metals strength and stiffness are roughly in proportion to the density of the material. There is therefore not a great deal of difference between them on the basis of specific strength and specific stiffness. This is illustrated in Table I.
There are a number of ceramic substances such as silicon carbide, aluminium oxide, beryllium oxide, boron and carbon which have very high elastic modulus values coupled with low densities and high melting points.