Architectural Technologies 1 Properties of Materials 3 Materials and Sustainability Materials can be described in terms of their properties, such as strength and stiffness.
Materials break when stressed in different ways depending on their basic nature.
The break occurs at a point of stress concentration , usually a defect in the material. As the stress is increased the material begins to act in a plastic manner until eventual failure. The break is characterised by considerable distortion of the material. This is a major factor in the deterioration of many materials. There are several ways of measuring porosity.