Michael F. Ashby

Michael Farries Ashby CBE, FRS, FREng^[1] (born 20 November 1935) is a British metallurgical engineer. He is a Royal Society Research Professor, and a Principal Investigator at the Engineering Design Centre at Cambridge University. He is known for his contributions in Materials Science in the field of material selection.^[2]

Education

He received his B.A., Natural Science (Metallurgy), Cambridge University, Cambridge, 1957 (First Class Honours); his M.A., Cambridge University, Cambridge 1959; and his Ph.D., Cambridge University, Cambridge 1961.

Work

By conducting numerous studies on the active deformation mechanisms under different temperature conditions, M.F. Ashby, developed a graphical approach for determining these mechanisms. It generalizes this approach to the broader field of material selection by developing the software CES (Cambridge Engineering Selector) in collaboration with Yves Bréchet (CNRS Silver Medal). This software is currently available with the company Granta Design.

Ashby has revolutionized the approach to the selection of materials to take into account four aspects: feature, material, geometry and processes; moreover he worked with the division in classes and subclasses. In doing so he has developed a comprehensive approach that associates to the expected mechanical functions of an object a performance index that have to be optimized. These indices allow to better take into account all the properties required of a material, such as specific stiffness (ratio between the elastic modulus and density) instead of single elastic module. His approach allows to rationally choosing the most suitable materials for each application.

In practice, this approach firstly asks to identify the performance index starting from the expected function and geometry. Then it is possible to select thresholds for certain properties in order to select the most useful materials from those present in a database that has some 80,000 materials. The division into classes allows pre-selecting representative materials and therefore working only with certain classes of materials. Finally, the selected materials are shown in 2-dimensional chart, called the Ashby diagram, in order to view those with the highest performance index. These diagrams often contain also nanostructured materials and composites. Ashby has achieved a remarkably innovative work in the areas of design as well as in that of pedagogy. His works on materials are comparable to those of Carrega and Colombié (References required)

Honours

He became a Fellow, Royal Society, 1979.^[3] He received the A. A. Griffith Medal and Prize, 1981. He became F.ENG (Fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering) in 1993. He became a CBE in 1997. He was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1993.^[4] He was awarded A. Cemal Eringen Medal in 1999.

Publications

• ASHBY, M.F. 'Materials and the Environment: Eco-informed Material Choice', First and Second Edition
• Ashby, Mike and Johnson, Kara 'Materials and Design, the Art and Science of Materials Selection in Product Design' Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 2002 ISBN 0-7506-5554-2
• ASHBY, M F. 'How to Write a Paper'
• ASHBY, M F. 'Materials Selection and Process in Mechanical Design.' Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 1999 ISBN 0-7506-4357-9
• ASHBY, M.F. and CEBON. D. 'Case studies in Materials Selection.' First Edition, Granta Design, Cambridge, 1996, Second Edition, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 1999.
• ASHBY, M.F. and GIBSON, L.J. 'Cellular Solids Structure and Properties.' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997 ISBN 0-521-49911-9
• ASHBY, M.F.and JONES, D.R.H. 'Engineering Materials 1, Second Edition.' Butterworth Heineman, Oxford, 1996.
• ASHBY, M.F. and JONES, D.R.H. 'Engineering Materials 2, Second Edition.' Butterworth Heineman, Oxford, 1998.
• ASHBY, M.F. and WATERMAN, N.A. 'The Chapman and Hale Material Selector.' Chapman and Hall, London, Volumes 1-3, 1996

References