An interactive reference for engineering materials: property data for 27 alloys, polymers, composites and ceramics, with the stress-strain behaviour, phase transformations and selection charts behind the numbers.
Built by Ayman Khayat · LinkedIn
Materials data is usually met as a table of numbers with no indication of where they come from or how they behave. A yield strength of 415 MPa for AISI 1045 says nothing about why that steel yields with a sharp drop while 6061-T6 does not, what tempering at 540 °C does to it, or whether it is the right pick when stiffness per unit weight is what matters.
This tool puts the number next to the behaviour. Select a material and the same data drives its data sheet, its stress-strain curve, its position on an Ashby chart, and a simulated tensile test.
Material data sheet. Yield and ultimate strength, elastic modulus, elongation, hardness, density and fatigue strength for each material, switchable between SI and imperial units.
Stress-strain curves. Each material is drawn with the curve shape its class actually shows: a sharp yield point for low-carbon steel, continuous yielding for aluminium and austenitic stainless, brittle fracture for cast iron and ceramics, and the drawing plateau for polymers. The 0.2% offset construction can be overlaid to show where yield strength is defined.
Simulated tensile test. A specimen is pulled in 3D while the curve traces out alongside it, so elastic extension, necking and fracture line up with the region of the curve producing them.
Ashby selection charts. Any property plotted against any other across all 27 materials, which is how the strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight trade-offs become visible rather than asserted.
Fe–Fe₃C phase diagram. The steel corner of the iron-carbon diagram from 0 to 2.2 wt% C, with the lever rule applied at a chosen composition and temperature to give the phase fractions.
Heat treatment response. Tempering curves for AISI 4140 and 4340 showing how strength, hardness and ductility trade off against tempering temperature.
Hardness conversion. Converts between HV, HB, HRC and HRB using the ASTM E140 equivalence table for non-austenitic steels, and returns nothing where a scale is outside its valid range rather than extrapolating.
Unit converter and formulas. Stress, modulus, density, force, moment and second moment of area, with the section formulas that use them.
Common mistakes. A set of errors that recur in materials coursework, each with the wrong reasoning and the correct one. The 0.2% offset being read as 0.2 strain instead of 0.002 is the first of them. There is also a quiz mode over the same material set.
| Class | Materials |
|---|---|
| Carbon and alloy steels | ASTM A36, AISI 1020, 1045, 4140, 4340 |
| Stainless steels | AISI 304, 316, 17-4 PH |
| Aluminium alloys | 2024-T3, 6061-T6, 7075-T6 |
| Titanium | Ti-6Al-4V, CP titanium Grade 2 |
| Cast irons | Gray cast iron, ductile iron 65-45-12 |
| Polymers | HDPE, Nylon 6/6, polycarbonate, acetal (POM-H), PEEK |
| Composites | CFRP unidirectional and quasi-isotropic, GFRP unidirectional, aramid/epoxy |
| Ceramics | Alumina 99.5%, silicon nitride, zirconia 3Y-TZP |
The property values are typical handbook figures for each material in the stated condition, intended for comparison and for learning how these materials behave relative to one another. Where a figure is a specification minimum rather than a typical value, the data sheet says so, as with ASTM A36.
These numbers are not a design allowable. Real properties depend on section size, orientation, processing route, heat treatment and supplier. Anything load-bearing needs values from the actual material certificate or the governing standard.
Two models are explicitly simplified and labelled as such in the source:
- The Fe–Fe₃C boundaries are drawn as straight lines. Real boundaries are slightly curved, which is close enough for lever-rule practice and wrong for quantitative work.
- The tempering curves follow the usual handbook trend and are anchored to the data sheet entries. They are illustrative rather than measured.
The stress-strain curves are generated from each material's tabulated properties to show the correct shape and the correct yield, ultimate and fracture points. They are not digitised test data.
React 18, TypeScript and Vite. three.js for the tensile specimen. The charts are drawn as SVG with no charting library. There is no backend and no analytics; everything runs in the browser.
npm install
npm run devThen open the URL Vite prints. To produce a production build:
npm run build # type-checks, then builds into dist/
npm run typecheck # type-check on its own| Path | Role |
|---|---|
src/data/materials.ts |
The 27-material dataset and its type definitions |
src/data/heat.ts |
Tempering response for 4140 and 4340 |
src/data/traps.ts |
Common mistakes, each with the wrong and right reasoning |
src/lib/curve.ts |
Builds the stress-strain curve for a material from its properties |
src/lib/hardness.ts |
ASTM E140 hardness equivalence table and interpolation |
src/lib/phase.ts |
Fe–Fe₃C boundaries, phase identification and the lever rule |
src/lib/units.ts |
SI and imperial conversion for every quantity used |
src/lib/props.ts |
Property definitions shared by the data sheet and the charts |
src/components/ |
Data sheet, Ashby chart, phase diagram, tensile rig, quiz and the rest of the interface |
- Room temperature only. No creep, no elevated-temperature knockdown, no cryogenic data.
- Fatigue is a single endurance or reference stress per material, not an S-N curve, and carries no surface finish, size or stress-concentration factors.
- Composite properties are quoted along the stated fibre orientation. There is no laminate analysis.
- The phase diagram covers the steel corner only, to 2.2 wt% C.
- Anisotropy, residual stress and weld heat-affected zones are out of scope.
- Cite a specific standard or handbook edition per property, the way process-traveler labels every figure with a source and a confidence level.
- S-N curves with Marin-style modifying factors, so fatigue can be worked rather than looked up.
- A MATLAB or Python export of the dataset for use in analysis scripts.
Ayman Khayat, Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Nicosia. LinkedIn
Built with AI-assisted development using Claude Code. The material set, the property values, the simplifications and their stated limits are my engineering decisions.
MIT.