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57-448: Muddy most commonly means covered in mud . Muddy may also refer to: Mud In the construction industry, mud is a semi-fluid material that can be used to coat, seal, or adhere materials. The term "mud" can be used for various semi-fluid materials used in construction including slurry , mortar , plaster , stucco , and concrete . Mud, cob , adobe , clay , and many other names are historically used synonymously to mean

114-409: A meter or more downwards. This means that the burrowed mud is a productive habitat , providing food and shelter for a wide range of mud-dwellers and other animals that forage in and over the mud. Mud can pose problems for motor traffic when moisture is present, because every vehicle function that changes direction or speed relies on friction between the tires and the road surface, so

171-505: A few hundred ohms . The major advantage of these is that they can dissipate a lot of energy, and they self-reset; after the voltage across the device drops below the threshold, its resistance returns to being high. This makes them ideal for surge-protection applications; as there is control over the threshold voltage and energy tolerance, they find use in all sorts of applications. The best demonstration of their ability can be found in electrical substations , where they are employed to protect

228-514: A finer examination of the composition of ceramic artifacts and sherds to determine the source of the material and, through this, the possible manufacturing site. Key criteria are the composition of the clay and the temper used in the manufacture of the article under study: the temper is a material added to the clay during the initial production stage and is used to aid the subsequent drying process. Types of temper include shell pieces, granite fragments, and ground sherd pieces called ' grog '. Temper

285-422: A furnace, a pyroelectric crystal allowed to cool under no applied stress generally builds up a static charge of thousands of volts. Such materials are used in motion sensors , where the tiny rise in temperature from a warm body entering the room is enough to produce a measurable voltage in the crystal. In turn, pyroelectricity is seen most strongly in materials that also display the ferroelectric effect , in which

342-669: A glassy surface, making a vessel less pervious to water. Ceramic artifacts have an important role in archaeology for understanding the culture, technology, and behavior of peoples of the past. They are among the most common artifacts to be found at an archaeological site, generally in the form of small fragments of broken pottery called sherds . The processing of collected sherds can be consistent with two main types of analysis: technical and traditional. The traditional analysis involves sorting ceramic artifacts, sherds, and larger fragments into specific types based on style, composition, manufacturing, and morphology. By creating these typologies, it

399-489: A high temperature. Common examples are earthenware , porcelain , and brick . The earliest ceramics made by humans were fired clay bricks used for building house walls and other structures. Other pottery objects such as pots, vessels, vases and figurines were made from clay , either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica , hardened by sintering in fire. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through

456-491: A layer of mud on the surface of the road or tires can cause the vehicle to hydroplane . People and cars can also become stuck in mud, as in quicksand . Heavy rainfall , snowmelt , or high levels of groundwater may trigger a movement of soil or sediments , possibly causing mudslides , landslides , avalanches , or sinkholes . Mudslides in volcanic terrain (called lahars ) occur after eruptions as rain remobilizes loose ash deposits. Mudslides are also common in

513-500: A mixture of subsoil and water possibly with the addition of stones, gravel , straw , lime , and/or bitumen . This material was used a variety of ways to build walls , floors and even roofs . For thousands of years it was common in most parts of the world to build walls using mudbricks or the wattle and daub , rammed earth or cob techniques and cover the surfaces with earthen plaster. Mud can be made into mud bricks, also called adobe , by mixing mud with water, placing

570-419: A required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln which removes all the water from the clay , which induces reactions that lead to permanent changes including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing. Prior to some shaping processes, clay must be prepared. Kneading helps to ensure an even moisture content throughout

627-492: A rotation process called "throwing"), slip casting , tape casting (used for making very thin ceramic capacitors), injection molding , dry pressing, and other variations. Many ceramics experts do not consider materials with an amorphous (noncrystalline) character (i.e., glass) to be ceramics, even though glassmaking involves several steps of the ceramic process and its mechanical properties are similar to those of ceramic materials. However, heat treatments can convert glass into

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684-434: A semi-crystalline material known as glass-ceramic . Traditional ceramic raw materials include clay minerals such as kaolinite , whereas more recent materials include aluminium oxide, more commonly known as alumina . Modern ceramic materials, which are classified as advanced ceramics, include silicon carbide and tungsten carbide . Both are valued for their abrasion resistance and are therefore used in applications such as

741-423: A signal). The unit of time measured is the natural interval required for electricity to be converted into mechanical energy and back again. The piezoelectric effect is generally stronger in materials that also exhibit pyroelectricity , and all pyroelectric materials are also piezoelectric. These materials can be used to inter-convert between thermal, mechanical, or electrical energy; for instance, after synthesis in

798-418: A stable electric dipole can be oriented or reversed by applying an electrostatic field. Pyroelectricity is also a necessary consequence of ferroelectricity. This can be used to store information in ferroelectric capacitors , elements of ferroelectric RAM . The most common such materials are lead zirconate titanate and barium titanate . Aside from the uses mentioned above, their strong piezoelectric response

855-521: A well-drained flat roof may be protected with a well-prepared ( puddled ) and properly maintained dried mud coating, viable as the mud will expand when moistened and so become more water resistant. Adobe mudbricks were commonly used by the Pueblo Indians to build their homes and other necessary structures. In some countries there are entire cities made of mud brick houses. Cow dung and biomass are added to regulate indoor climate. Mud that

912-407: Is a stage in the process of refinement of the materials , since larger particles will settle from the liquid . Mud can provide a home for numerous types of animals, including varieties of worms , frogs , snails , clams , and crayfish . Other animals, such as hippopotamuses , pigs , rhinoceroses , water buffalo and elephants , bathe in mud in order to cool off and protect themselves from

969-467: Is employed. Ice templating allows the creation of macroscopic pores in a unidirectional arrangement. The applications of this oxide strengthening technique are important for solid oxide fuel cells and water filtration devices. To process a sample through ice templating, an aqueous colloidal suspension is prepared to contain the dissolved ceramic powder evenly dispersed throughout the colloid, for example Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). The solution

1026-468: Is exploited in the design of high-frequency loudspeakers , transducers for sonar , and actuators for atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopes . Temperature increases can cause grain boundaries to suddenly become insulating in some semiconducting ceramic materials, mostly mixtures of heavy metal titanates . The critical transition temperature can be adjusted over a wide range by variations in chemistry. In such materials, current will pass through

1083-520: Is generally a chocolate or cornstarch-based sludge used more for visual appeal than actual taste. However, it does not contain real mud. A mud bath is a bath of mud, commonly from areas where hot spring water can combine with volcanic ash . Mud baths have existed for thousands of years, and can be found now in high-end spas . Mud wallows are a common source of entertainment for children . Mud wallows can be any shape, size, depth and some can have water as well as mud. Usually wallows are shallow dips in

1140-400: Is mostly clay, or a mixture of clay and sand may be used for ceramics , of which one form is the common fired brick . Fired brick are more durable but consume much more energy to produce. Stabilized mud (earth, soil) is mud which has had a binder such as cement or bitumen added. Examples are mudcrete , landcrete, and soil cement . Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of

1197-480: Is not understood, but there are two major families of superconducting ceramics. Piezoelectricity , a link between electrical and mechanical response, is exhibited by a large number of ceramic materials, including the quartz used to measure time in watches and other electronics. Such devices use both properties of piezoelectrics, using electricity to produce a mechanical motion (powering the device) and then using this mechanical motion to produce electricity (generating

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1254-491: Is possible to distinguish between different cultural styles, the purpose of the ceramic, and the technological state of the people, among other conclusions. Besides, by looking at stylistic changes in ceramics over time, it is possible to separate (seriate) the ceramics into distinct diagnostic groups (assemblages). A comparison of ceramic artifacts with known dated assemblages allows for a chronological assignment of these pieces. The technical approach to ceramic analysis involves

1311-568: Is responsible for such diverse optical phenomena as night-vision and IR luminescence . Thus, there is an increasing need in the military sector for high-strength, robust materials which have the capability to transmit light ( electromagnetic waves ) in the visible (0.4 – 0.7 micrometers) and mid- infrared (1 – 5 micrometers) regions of the spectrum. These materials are needed for applications requiring transparent armor, including next-generation high-speed missiles and pods, as well as protection against improvised explosive devices (IED). In

1368-425: Is then cooled from the bottom to the top on a platform that allows for unidirectional cooling. This forces ice crystals to grow in compliance with the unidirectional cooling, and these ice crystals force the dissolved YSZ particles to the solidification front of the solid-liquid interphase boundary, resulting in pure ice crystals lined up unidirectionally alongside concentrated pockets of colloidal particles. The sample

1425-475: Is then heated and at the same the pressure is reduced enough to force the ice crystals to sublime and the YSZ pockets begin to anneal together to form macroscopically aligned ceramic microstructures. The sample is then further sintered to complete the evaporation of the residual water and the final consolidation of the ceramic microstructure. During ice-templating, a few variables can be controlled to influence

1482-472: Is typically somewhere between the minimum wavelength of visible light and the resolution limit of the naked eye. The microstructure includes most grains, secondary phases, grain boundaries, pores, micro-cracks, structural defects, and hardness micro indentions. Most bulk mechanical, optical, thermal, electrical, and magnetic properties are significantly affected by the observed microstructure. The fabrication method and process conditions are generally indicated by

1539-399: Is usually identified by microscopic examination of the tempered material. Clay identification is determined by a process of refiring the ceramic and assigning a color to it using Munsell Soil Color notation. By estimating both the clay and temper compositions and locating a region where both are known to occur, an assignment of the material source can be made. Based on the source assignment of

1596-473: Is virtually lossless. Optical waveguides are used as components in Integrated optical circuits (e.g. light-emitting diodes , LEDs) or as the transmission medium in local and long haul optical communication systems. Also of value to the emerging materials scientist is the sensitivity of materials to radiation in the thermal infrared (IR) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum . This heat-seeking ability

1653-447: The sun . Submerged mud can be home to larvae of various insects . Mud plays an important role in the marine ecosystem . The activities of burrowing animals and fish have a dramatic churning effect on muddy seabeds . This allows the exchange and cycling of oxygen , nutrients , and minerals between water and sediment . Below the surface, the burrows of some species form intricate lattice-like networks and may penetrate

1710-441: The western United States during El Niño years due to prolonged rainfall. Geophagia is the practice of eating earth or soil-like substances, also known as geophagy, and is practiced by some non-human primates and by humans in some cultures. In other human cultures it is considered an eating disorder and classed as Pica . Mississippi mud pie is a chocolate based dessert pie. Children's recipes for "mud" also exist, which

1767-886: The 1960s, scientists at General Electric (GE) discovered that under the right manufacturing conditions, some ceramics, especially aluminium oxide (alumina), could be made translucent . These translucent materials were transparent enough to be used for containing the electrical plasma generated in high- pressure sodium street lamps. During the past two decades, additional types of transparent ceramics have been developed for applications such as nose cones for heat-seeking missiles , windows for fighter aircraft , and scintillation counters for computed tomography scanners. Other ceramic materials, generally requiring greater purity in their make-up than those above, include forms of several chemical compounds, including: For convenience, ceramic products are usually divided into four main types; these are shown below with some examples: Frequently,

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1824-532: The Hall-Petch equation, hardness , toughness , dielectric constant , and the optical properties exhibited by transparent materials . Ceramography is the art and science of preparation, examination, and evaluation of ceramic microstructures. Evaluation and characterization of ceramic microstructures are often implemented on similar spatial scales to that used commonly in the emerging field of nanotechnology: from nanometers to tens of micrometers (µm). This

1881-494: The artifact, further investigations can be made into the site of manufacture. The physical properties of any ceramic substance are a direct result of its crystalline structure and chemical composition. Solid-state chemistry reveals the fundamental connection between microstructure and properties, such as localized density variations, grain size distribution, type of porosity, and second-phase content, which can all be correlated with ceramic properties such as mechanical strength σ by

1938-434: The body. Air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished by a machine called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging . Wedging can also help produce an even moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, it is shaped by a variety of techniques. After shaping it is dried and then fired. In ceramics , the making of liquid mud (called slip )

1995-513: The brightness and contrast of a digital image. Guided lightwave transmission via frequency selective waveguides involves the emerging field of fiber optics and the ability of certain glassy compositions as a transmission medium for a range of frequencies simultaneously ( multi-mode optical fiber ) with little or no interference between competing wavelengths or frequencies. This resonant mode of energy and data transmission via electromagnetic (light) wave propagation , though low powered,

2052-418: The ceramic family. Highly oriented crystalline ceramic materials are not amenable to a great range of processing. Methods for dealing with them tend to fall into one of two categories: either making the ceramic in the desired shape by reaction in situ or "forming" powders into the desired shape and then sintering to form a solid body. Ceramic forming techniques include shaping by hand (sometimes including

2109-471: The chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environments. Ceramics generally can withstand very high temperatures, ranging from 1,000 °C to 1,600 °C (1,800 °F to 3,000 °F). The crystallinity of ceramic materials varies widely. Most often, fired ceramics are either vitrified or semi-vitrified, as is the case with earthenware, stoneware , and porcelain. Varying crystallinity and electron composition in

2166-534: The class of ceramic matrix composite materials, in which ceramic fibers are embedded and with specific coatings are forming fiber bridges across any crack. This mechanism substantially increases the fracture toughness of such ceramics. Ceramic disc brakes are an example of using a ceramic matrix composite material manufactured with a specific process. Scientists are working on developing ceramic materials that can withstand significant deformation without breaking. A first such material that can deform in room temperature

2223-457: The electrical properties that show grain boundary effects. One of the most widely used of these is the varistor. These are devices that exhibit the property that resistance drops sharply at a certain threshold voltage . Once the voltage across the device reaches the threshold, there is a breakdown of the electrical structure in the vicinity of the grain boundaries, which results in its electrical resistance dropping from several megohms down to

2280-422: The ground that have been flooded and were full of dirt and those two have mixed to make a squishy mud wallow. Mud sports are sports that take place in, or heavily incorporate, mud. Examples include: Ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle , heat-resistant , and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay , at

2337-460: The group as a whole. General properties such as high melting temperature, high hardness, poor conductivity, high moduli of elasticity , chemical resistance, and low ductility are the norm, with known exceptions to each of these rules ( piezoelectric ceramics , low glass transition temperature ceramics, superconductive ceramics ). Composites such as fiberglass and carbon fiber , while containing ceramic materials, are not considered to be part of

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2394-632: The infrastructure from lightning strikes. They have rapid response, are low maintenance, and do not appreciably degrade from use, making them virtually ideal devices for this application. Semiconducting ceramics are also employed as gas sensors . When various gases are passed over a polycrystalline ceramic, its electrical resistance changes. With tuning to the possible gas mixtures, very inexpensive devices can be produced. Under some conditions, such as extremely low temperatures, some ceramics exhibit high-temperature superconductivity (in superconductivity, "high temperature" means above 30 K). The reason for this

2451-468: The ionic and covalent bonds cause most ceramic materials to be good thermal and electrical insulators (researched in ceramic engineering ). With such a large range of possible options for the composition/structure of a ceramic (nearly all of the elements, nearly all types of bonding, and all levels of crystallinity), the breadth of the subject is vast, and identifiable attributes ( hardness , toughness , electrical conductivity ) are difficult to specify for

2508-486: The material near its critical temperature, the dielectric effect remains exceptionally strong even at much higher temperatures. Titanates with critical temperatures far below room temperature have become synonymous with "ceramic" in the context of ceramic capacitors for just this reason. Optically transparent materials focus on the response of a material to incoming light waves of a range of wavelengths. Frequency selective optical filters can be utilized to alter or enhance

2565-445: The material until joule heating brings it to the transition temperature, at which point the circuit will be broken and current flow will cease. Such ceramics are used as self-controlled heating elements in, for example, the rear-window defrost circuits of automobiles. At the transition temperature, the material's dielectric response becomes theoretically infinite. While a lack of temperature control would rule out any practical use of

2622-410: The mechanical performance of materials and components. It applies the physics of stress and strain , in particular the theories of elasticity and plasticity , to the microscopic crystallographic defects found in real materials in order to predict the macroscopic mechanical failure of bodies. Fractography is widely used with fracture mechanics to understand the causes of failures and also verify

2679-412: The microstructure. The root cause of many ceramic failures is evident in the cleaved and polished microstructure. Physical properties which constitute the field of materials science and engineering include the following: Mechanical properties are important in structural and building materials as well as textile fabrics. In modern materials science , fracture mechanics is an important tool in improving

2736-536: The mixture into moulds and then allowing it to dry in open air . Straw is sometimes used as a binder within the bricks , as it makes them a composite . When the brick would otherwise break, the straw will redistribute the force throughout the brick, decreasing the chance of breakage . Such buildings must be protected from groundwater , usually by building upon a masonry, fired brick, rock or rubble foundation, and also from wind-driven rain in damp climates , usually by deep roof overhangs. In extremely dry climates

2793-718: The pore size and morphology of the microstructure. These important variables are the initial solids loading of the colloid, the cooling rate, the sintering temperature and duration, and the use of certain additives which can influence the microstructural morphology during the process. A good understanding of these parameters is essential to understanding the relationships between processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of anisotropically porous materials. Some ceramics are semiconductors . Most of these are transition metal oxides that are II-VI semiconductors, such as zinc oxide . While there are prospects of mass-producing blue LEDs from zinc oxide, ceramicists are most interested in

2850-694: The root ceram- is the Mycenaean Greek ke-ra-me-we , workers of ceramic, written in Linear B syllabic script. The word ceramic can be used as an adjective to describe a material, product, or process, or it may be used as a noun, either singular or, more commonly, as the plural noun ceramics . Ceramic material is an inorganic, metallic oxide, nitride, or carbide material. Some elements, such as carbon or silicon , may be considered ceramics. Ceramic materials are brittle, hard, strong in compression, and weak in shearing and tension. They withstand

2907-453: The theoretical failure predictions with real-life failures. Ceramic materials are usually ionic or covalent bonded materials. A material held together by either type of bond will tend to fracture before any plastic deformation takes place, which results in poor toughness in these materials. Additionally, because these materials tend to be porous, the pores and other microscopic imperfections act as stress concentrators , decreasing

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2964-460: The toughness further, and reducing the tensile strength . These combine to give catastrophic failures , as opposed to the more ductile failure modes of metals. These materials do show plastic deformation . However, because of the rigid structure of crystalline material, there are very few available slip systems for dislocations to move, and so they deform very slowly. To overcome the brittle behavior, ceramic material development has introduced

3021-565: The use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial, and building products, as well as a wide range of materials developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering, such as semiconductors . The word ceramic comes from the Ancient Greek word κεραμικός ( keramikós ), meaning "of or for pottery " (from κέραμος ( kéramos )  'potter's clay, tile, pottery'). The earliest known mention of

3078-446: The wear plates of crushing equipment in mining operations. Advanced ceramics are also used in the medical, electrical, electronics, and armor industries. Human beings appear to have been making their own ceramics for at least 26,000 years, subjecting clay and silica to intense heat to fuse and form ceramic materials. The earliest found so far were in southern central Europe and were sculpted figures, not dishes. The earliest known pottery

3135-425: Was found in 2024. If a ceramic is subjected to substantial mechanical loading, it can undergo a process called ice-templating , which allows some control of the microstructure of the ceramic product and therefore some control of the mechanical properties. Ceramic engineers use this technique to tune the mechanical properties to their desired application. Specifically, the strength is increased when this technique

3192-503: Was made by mixing animal products with clay and firing it at up to 800 °C (1,500 °F). While pottery fragments have been found up to 19,000 years old, it was not until about 10,000 years later that regular pottery became common. An early people that spread across much of Europe is named after its use of pottery: the Corded Ware culture . These early Indo-European peoples decorated their pottery by wrapping it with rope while it

3249-528: Was still wet. When the ceramics were fired, the rope burned off but left a decorative pattern of complex grooves on the surface. The invention of the wheel eventually led to the production of smoother, more even pottery using the wheel-forming (throwing) technique, like the pottery wheel . Early ceramics were porous, absorbing water easily. It became useful for more items with the discovery of glazing techniques, which involved coating pottery with silicon, bone ash, or other materials that could melt and reform into

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