Aluminum is The
New Steel: Scientists Made it Stronger than Ever Before
Moscow
By National University
Lighter and
faster aircraft and vehicles require lighter materials. One of the most
promising materials is aluminum, or rather, aluminum-based
composites.
Scientists from NUST MISIS scientific school “Phase
Transitions and Development of Non-Ferrous Alloys” created a new strong
Al-Ni-La composite for aircraft and automobile industry. Doping elements were
added to aluminum melt, forming special chemical compounds that further
formed strong reinforcing structure.
“Our research group, led by Professor Nikolai Belov,
has worked on the creation of aluminum-based composites for many
years. Al-Ni-La composite is one of such projects, aimed
at creation of ‘natural’ aluminum-based composite material with more
than 15% vol. of doping elements. A feature of the new
development is the high reinforcing ability of the chemical compounds
with ultrafine structure: the diameter of the reinforcing elements does
not exceed several tens of nanometers. Previously, researchers were
limited to the study of systems in which
it is obviously impossible to obtain an effective
reinforcing structure. Or they manufactured composite materials
by labor-intensive powder metallurgy methods (sintering of powders),
or liquid-phase technologies of kneading nanoparticles in the
melt”
-- Torgom Akopyan, one of the
authors, researcher at NUST MISIS Department of Metal Forming
Today, aluminum is reinforced mainly with the help
of nanopowders, but this is an extremely expensive and
time-consuming process, where the result does not always justify the means
spent. For example, with an increase in strength by only 5-20%,
such an indicator as plasticity, on the contrary, can decrease
by tens of percent or even several times. In addition, the
particles themselves are too large — from 100 nanometers to 1-2
micrometers, and their % vol. is low.
Development of NUST MISIS scientist solves the
problem of non-uniform reinforcement and low density of “powder”
composites: if melting technique is used, after Al-Ni-La
crystallization the diameter of doping particle does not exceed 30-70
nanometers. Thanks to “natural” crystallization, particles are distributed
uniformly, forming a reinforcing structure. Hence, the composite becomes
more strong and flexible than its “powder” analogues.
“Our composite already demonstrates better characteristics
than its analogues, including foreign ones. However, we are not going
to stop here, and in the future we plan to continue working
on the creation of more advanced, complex (3-, 4 — and more
phase) and cheap composites, the production cycle of which will include
the use of aluminum of technical purity and cheaper alloying
components
--Torgom
According
to scientists, the proposed material can be used primarily
in aeronautics and automobile industry, as well as for the
design of modern robotics, including copters, where reducing the weight
of the drone is critical. Due to the peculiarities of the
structure formation, the proposed material can be used for the manufacture
of complex parts via 3D printing. In addition, new developments
may be of strategic importance from an economic point
of view. At the moment, the main share of profit in the
aluminum industry in Russia
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