What new materials are there?

malipa

TU Delft AE student
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I've heard of metallic and carbon mircolattice, but what is new aswel and usefull in aircraft construction?
 
So for instance, you could form wingskin with electroactive polymer and then make the core a structure of mircolattice?
 
Nanocellulose, graphene, carbon nanotubes, oleds, hafnium and zirconium diboride.
 
malipa said:
So for instance, you could form wingskin with electroactive polymer and then make the core a structure of mircolattice?

Possibly. I don't know the details for how wing morphing technology works, but flexible skins will obviously be necessary. Whether you can make the entire surface of the wing out of electroactive polymer is an interesting question, since it would need to have certain thermal, structural and RCS-friendly properties if one were to use it on an advanced fighter. For a subsonic civilian aircraft, the requirements would be less strenuous, of course.

Could you please give me some more information?

Wikipedia to the rescue:

Zirconium diboride
Nanocellulose
Graphene
Hafnium diboride
OLED
 
I think some of the self healing polymers will eventually have important stealth applications since so much time is spent smoothing and looking after the airframe skins.
 
Firebee said:
Metal foams?

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0012/Banhart-0012.html

I can't imagine they'd be used for structural components. But maybe sound muffling, heat sinks/insulation, or radar absorbent material like the wing edge wedges seen on SR-71?

Some of our drills (peck drills) have metal foam exhaust baffles.

http://www.ergaerospace.com/Material-Applications-guide.html

On the subject of materials though, something I've wondered for a long time is is it possible to calculate the theoretical highest melting point possible for a material? (At standard pressure.) You have things with relatively low melting points (say chlorine and sodium) that when combined have a much higher melting point than either parent material. So I wonder if there's something higher than carbon (yes, I know it doesn't melt at standard temps, it sublimes but you know what I mean).
 

Could this eventually have a use in rocket energetics or AIP submarines?

I try and follow energetic material science for explosives and propulsion - the pretty important getting to and then destroying the target - ever since reading a National Academy Press report on future energetic materials and a Defense Science Board report on long range strike technologies that predicted HEDM being able to reach 10X the explosive power of today's materials.
 
sferrin said:
On the subject of materials though, something I've wondered for a long time is is it possible to calculate the theoretical highest melting point possible for a material? (At standard pressure.) You have things with relatively low melting points (say chlorine and sodium) that when combined have a much higher melting point than either parent material. So I wonder if there's something higher than carbon (yes, I know it doesn't melt at standard temps, it sublimes but you know what I mean).

Tantalum carbide (TaC), hafnium carbide (HfC), and tantalum hafnium carbide (Ta4HfC5) all have melting points above the sublimation temperature of carbon at standard conditions.
 
Kryptid said:
sferrin said:
On the subject of materials though, something I've wondered for a long time is is it possible to calculate the theoretical highest melting point possible for a material? (At standard pressure.) You have things with relatively low melting points (say chlorine and sodium) that when combined have a much higher melting point than either parent material. So I wonder if there's something higher than carbon (yes, I know it doesn't melt at standard temps, it sublimes but you know what I mean).

Tantalum carbide (TaC), hafnium carbide (HfC), and tantalum hafnium carbide (Ta4HfC5) all have melting points above the sublimation temperature of carbon at standard conditions.

I did not know that. Thanks.
 
Firebee said:
Metal foams?

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0012/Banhart-0012.html

I can't imagine they'd be used for structural components. But maybe sound muffling, heat sinks/insulation, or radar absorbent material like the wing edge wedges seen on SR-71?


Have played with some of this - vey interesting stuff with definite potential for heat sinks or similar.
 
700 Terabytes in a single gram of DNA.


Smashes previous storage record by 1000 times :eek:

My prediction - In my lifetime humans will create a handheld device able to store all the knowledge of mankind AND the average person will be dumber than ever ;D
 
The term "digital dementia" already has found its way into our vocabulary
and that's actually justifiable.
Who still knows telephone numbers from memory ? Just use the memory
of your mobile. Common knowledge ? Year dates of important events ?
Just ask Google ! Finding your way just using a map ? Why, don't you have
GPS ? There was the car falling into a river, because the driver totally counted
on his navigation device. Unfortuantely behind the last curve, there wasn't a
bridge, but a ferry ... examples are galore.
 
Jemiba said:
The term "digital dementia" already has found its way into our vocabulary
and that's actually justifiable.
Who still knows telephone numbers from memory ? Just use the memory
of your mobile. Common knowledge ? Year dates of important events ?
Just ask Google ! Finding your way just using a map ? Why, don't you have
GPS ? There was the car falling into a river, because the driver totally counted
on his navigation device. Unfortuantely behind the last curve, there wasn't a
bridge, but a ferry ... examples are galore.

They've stopped teaching cursive writing in public schools in Washington State.
 
 
That is actually quite some years old. And because it is amorph and its inner structure is incontrolable it is not a favored material.
 
That anti-water material is fascinating. It will be interesting to see how well it wears. If I could make pipes out of it I would be able to save municipalities a hell of a lot of money when they have to rework their water systems due to the energy savings.
 
It's not a new material but a new surface finish. The hydrophobic properties are a result of physical characteristics not chemical. IMO it would be expensive on a large scale, difficult to keep clean, and fragile. Think of the X-21 with its zillions of tiny, boundary layer removing holes. Different thing altogether, in one way, but similar in others. In both instances you have very small features that would be a boon used on a large scale but both suffering from similar problems when scaled up.
 
Not a new material per say but help in the creation of new materials;


Some materials;

 

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