Selecting material for a part or assembly is, of course, of fundamental importance to the engineering work. Along with this, is acquiring a source for good material properties for your chosen material. Any analysis whether it be through classic methods or computerized methods requires a good-faith effort be pursued to acquire accurate material properties.
Many online sources are useful. Among them is Matweb.
Thousands of manufacturers submit their material data to this website. I use Matweb data as a good starting point for my material property research. If more specific information is needed, I will contact the manufacturers.
A significant amount of information can be had through handbooks created with our tax dollars. Among them is Mill Handbook 5, which contains information for materials commonly used in the defense and aerospace industries.
For critical applications, average material data, which is shown as a line plot, must be set aside in favor of a more conservative method which is picking the lowest value shown. Even then, your customer may require discounting the date even further. This practice is common in the upper end commercial and military applications. Regardless of your application, the general idea is traceability for your information sources, whether it be generated by the customer, a manufacturer or by a third-party.
Norman T. Neher, P.E.
Analytical Engineering Services, Inc.
Elko New Market, MN
www.aesmn.org