ABSTRACT
In the materials selection process it helps to know in what ballpark the materials of interest for an application may be found. For example, if the materials are going to experience temperatures in excess of 500°C, should we waste our time and effort by considering polymers and polymer matrix composites? Let us narrow our field of consideration as quickly as possible. After all, we have many thousands of materials from which to choose. Our first objective is to reduce this number to a few hundred. This is sort of analogous to the block diagram approach used for detecting failures in electronic equipment. We must first isolate the block of interest. In this chapter we will attempt to establish some ballpark categories that should assist in narrowing the field of possible materials for any given application.
