Standards for Materials Databases: ASTM Committee E49

Abstract

To prevent duplication of effort and to facilitate the building of compatible databases on material property data, ASTM Committee E49 on Computerization of Material Property Data has active efforts underway to develop standards and guidelines in the areas of: (1) designation systems for engineering materials, (2) recording formats for test results and other property data, (3) formats for the exchange of data between materials databases and for data entry purposes, (4) indicators of data quality, and (5) harmonized terminology. A wide variety of draft documents in each area is moving through the standards process, and these will be described in some detail. Several aspects deserve greater discussion. First, the concept of a universal numbering system for ceramic, polymeric, and composite materials is presently being considered. This system would be developed as a cooperative effort between Committee E49 and other industry groups. Second, the proliferation of formats for test results strains attempts to keep the formats as uniform and as compatible as desired. To avoid problems, Committee E49 is developing generic guidelines and their features are discussed. Finally, materials data exchange formats being developed for commercial transactions and product definition do not cover the needs of the materials database community. Again, the ASTM Committee E49 approach is addressed.

Making materials science and engineering data more valuable research products

“…Serious efforts to address standards for materials data, particularly structural materials data, were undertaken as long as 30 years ago [35]. In 1985, ASTM International established Committee E49 on Computerization of Material Property Data to develop standard guidelines and practices for materials databases [36]. ASTM International devoted quite substantial effort over a decade and issued data standards relevant to materials through the 1990s, specifically addressing key issues such as how to describe materials, how to record data, data quality indicators, harmonization of terminology, and guidelines for building and distributing databases.…”

Novel microstructure quantification framework for databasing, visualization, and analysis of microstructure data

“…Prior efforts at the creation and maintenance of large scale materials databases, such as the efforts of ASTM Committee E-49 for the Computerization of Materials Property Data [5] and the National Materials Property Data Network [6] (which was operated commercially from the mid 1980's until 1995), were largely focused on chemical composition, average properties and effective material response. A shortcoming of these efforts, largely due to the limited computing power of the times, was that details of the materials internal structure or microstructure was not considered and captured alongside the composition and properties.…”