TABLE OF CONTENTS Accumulated human experience over several millennia in the adaptation of natural materials for useful purposes has caused the notion of materials degradation to be firmly embedded in language and culture. The familiarity of such words as fracture , wear out , burn up or rot are evidence of the close relationship between human civilization and materials degradation. An instinctive appreciation of surface engineering is present in almost all civilized peoples where the quality of surface controls much of the value of the object enclosed within. Common examples of this association of value with effective surface engineering are the emphasis given to the polishing or to the painting of mechanical equipment. A single scratch on some new article often causes depreciation in its financial value that is much greater than the cost of mechanical damage caused by the scratch.
Whereas lay persons usually give priority to the subjective significance of materials degradation and surface engineering, it is the task of technologists to evaluate the true costs of materials degradation and balance this against the costs of surface engineering necessary to prevent such materials degradation.
Before proceeding into a subject, which depends on an enormous variety of information from many diverse sources, some pertinent questions would have to be asked: What is materials degradation? How does it affect an engineering system? What is the significance of materials degradation in terms of engineering performance?
From the moment that any material is released from the point of production, it is in...
