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#1 2021-08-09 15:27:30

tahanson43206
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Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Materials Science

The forum appears not to already have a topic for Materials Science.

No doubt there's been plenty of discussion of materials and their proper (or improper) application in other topics.

I'd like to launch this new topic with a paraphrase from an interview I heard today.

The speaker is a professor of structural engineering from a University whose name I recognized but have already forgotten.

The interview was generally about problems with design of structures on Earth that aren't holding up as the climate changes.

Among a number of suggestions this gent offered was this one:

(again, paraphrasing) ... Iron must be outlawed for use as rebar.

The suggested alternatives are aluminum and copper which are (of course) more expensive.

The interview covered a wide range, and the question of rebar came up in the context of modern buildings that last for just a few years, compared to Roman buildings that are still standing after 2000 years. 

I'm hoping this new topic is of interest to our resident engineers and chemists.

(th)

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#2 2023-01-21 08:34:24

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Re: Materials Science

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … 0c8240d278

Meet the toughest material on Earth
Story by Gadget • 4h ago
1 Comment

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal ductile – which means highly malleable (in materials science) – and strong (resisting permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder.

The team, led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, published a study describing their record-breaking findings in Science on 2 December 2022. “When you design structural materials, you want them to be strong but also ductile and resistant to fracture,” said project co-lead Easo George, the governor’s chair for Advanced Alloy Theory and Development at ORNL and the University of Tennessee.

“Typically, it’s a compromise between these properties. But this material is both, and instead of becoming brittle at low temperatures, it gets tougher.”

CrCoNi is a subset of a class of metals called high entropy alloys (HEAs). All the alloys in use today contain a high proportion of one element with lower amounts of additional elements added, but HEAs are made of an equal mix of each constituent element. These balanced atomic recipes appear to bestow some of these materials with an extraordinarily high combination of strength and ductility when stressed, which together make up what is termed “toughness.” HEAs have been a hot area of research since they were first developed about 20 years ago, but the technology required to push the materials to their limits in extreme tests was not available until recently.

Continue reading << article continues at the site

(th)

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#3 2023-01-21 08:37:01

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Re: Materials Science

Post #2 describes a material that gets stonger with cold ....


That is a desirable attribute for space applications.

However, a material that gets stronger with heat would be ** really ** useful in many space related applications.

(th)

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#4 2023-01-21 08:46:14

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Re: Materials Science

This post is about the variety of materials used by NASA to provide the Space Shuttle with thermal protection...

Google came up with these snippets ...

Silica fibers
Most of the tiles are made of silica fibers, which are produced from high-grade sand. Silica is an excellent insulator because it transports heat slowly. When the outer portion of a tile gets hot, the heat takes a long time to work its way down through the rest of the tile to the shuttle’s skin.

Shuttle Tiles | Air & Space Magazine| Smithsonian Magazine
www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/shuttle-tiles-12580671/
www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/shuttle-tiles-12580671/

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Space Shuttle Tiles | NASA

https://www.nasa.gov/.../space-shuttle-tiles
Jul 18, 2016 · Shuttle tiles! Each shuttle has more than 21,000 lightweight tiles that are very effective at throwing off intense heat very, very quickly. You or …

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Shuttle Tiles | Air & Space Magazine| Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-spac … s-12580671
May 1, 2006 · Though both flights ultimately went smoothly, the tiles have become the shuttle’s most famous components. Each shuttle is covered by more than 24,000 of the six- by six-inch …

Author: Damond Benningfield
Space Shuttle thermal protection system - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shu … ion_system

OverviewMaterialsPurposeDetailed descriptionEarly TPS problemsColumbia accident and aftermathTile donationsSee also

The TPS covered essentially the entire orbiter surface, and consisted of seven different materials in varying locations based on amount of required heat protection:
• Reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC), used in the nose cap, the chin area between the nose cap and nose landing gear doors, the arrowhead aft of the nose landi…

Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license
Estimated Reading Time: 9 mins
NASA - Superhero Ceramics!

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/s … tel_f.html
NASA initially used Nextel in Space Shuttle development. When engineers needed materials for Shuttle tiles that could stand up to the heat of reentry, they turned to the versatile ceramic. Later, the fibers were used to fill gaps between orbiter …

The Shuttle’s Thermal Protection System (TPS) - NASA
https://www.history.nasa.gov/sts1/pages/tps.html
This work had begun during the late 1950s, and by December 1960, Lockheed had applied for a patent for a reusable insulation material made of ceramic fibers. The first use for the material …

Space Shuttle Ceramic Tiles - University of Washington

https://depts.washington.edu/matseed/mse_resources...
Every time the orbiter enters the atmosphere it loses several of these tiles, but as long as they don’t all come off in one spot the orbiter will be okay. These tiles are made of ceramic materials and must be able to withstand a temperature of …

Hey NASA, Where Are the Records for Thousands of …

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hey-nasa...
Jul 8, 2015 · When the shuttle still flew, each tile was responsible for protecting a fraction of it from the dangerous ravages of atmospheric heat. NASA, in turn, was in charge of keeping track of the tiles.

What were the space shuttle tiles made of? – ShortInformer
https://short-informer.com/what-were-th … es-made-of
Nov 3, 2019 · What kind of tiles are used in space shuttles? The tiles used were based on work carried out by the Lockheed Missiles & Space Company who had a patent disclosure which …

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https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Space-Shuttle...
The ceramic consisted of silica fibers bound together and sintered with other silica fibers, and then glaze-coated by a reaction-cured glass consisting of silica, boron oxide, and silicon …

Who made the space shuttle tiles? – WittyQuestion.com
https://witty-question.com/who-made-the … ttle-tiles

What were the space shuttle tiles made from? They are made up of what is called a porous silicon material that is very light and extremely heat resistant. There are two main types of tiles, one a …

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(th)

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#5 2023-01-21 09:32:00

SpaceNut
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From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,750

Re: Materials Science

This material science w done as a result of find what would work for the higher temperatures and duration which could not be taken with the apollo or pica products and would be reusable in thought process.

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#6 2023-01-21 10:43:52

GW Johnson
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From: McGregor, Texas USA
Registered: 2011-12-04
Posts: 5,423
Website

Re: Materials Science

In post 4 the quoted claim that silica resists heat flow is misleading,  to be charitable about it.  Stone is less heat-conductive than metal,  but it is a conductor,  not an insulator.  Period.

What made shuttle tile an insulator was not the silica fibers,  but the void spaces between them.  Each tile as made was over 90% void space by volume.  It's all in how you make it,  not what you make it with.

I made a similar but stronger low-density ceramic insulator way back in 1985.  I used a trowel-on alumino-silicate-based pipe insulation paste and an alumino-silicate based ceramic fire curtain cloth.  The paste was a water-based slurry that normally "cures" by losing the water over time,  with a bit of applied warmth.  I cured it instead in an oven at about 102 C,  causing the water to flash into steam,  and driving it out faster with the heat.  The steam wormholing-out of the paste created a lot of void spaces.  The embedded woven cloth gave it a lot more strength than what NASA made without the fiber reinforcement.  It was still vulnerable to crushing,  though.  To the touch,  it felt about like industrial-grade styrofoam. 

I used it all the way to its 3250-3300 F meltpoint,  because the shrinkage cracks upon cooldown did not affect my application as a cylindrical combustor liner.  To avoid shrinkage cracking,  you must stay under the solid phase change limit of 2250-2300 F.  That is true of all alumino-silicate materials,  not just the ones I used.  I used a water-based ceramic cement as a surface paint,  cured in that same oven,  to cover up the porosity at the surface,  so my combustor gas flow would not percolate through the insulating liner I had made.

There's no magic there.  Never was,  never will be. 

If different ceramic materials could be made into water-based pastes,  cements,  and woven cloth,  the same processing would apply,  and the same porous insulator obtained.  If the alternate materials did not risk shrinkage cracking on cooldown,  then you could operate closer to the meltpoint.  None were commercially available then.  I think that is still true now.

GW


GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

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#7 2023-01-21 10:54:16

RobertDyck
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From: Winnipeg, Canada
Registered: 2002-08-20
Posts: 7,782
Website

Re: Materials Science

What kind of materials are you talking about? I mentioned in another thread that I posted ideas on the original Mars Society forum in 1999, then created a chapter website when that forum closed. One page is about materials. However, it's basic materials that we are all familiar with. My focus was how to make them on Mars, and how to construct habitats with them. Nothing high-tech.

Mars Society Winnipeg: Materials

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#8 2023-01-21 11:25:28

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Re: Materials Science

For RobertDyck re #7

The range of posts is limited only by the request that it have something to do with materials that exist in the Real Universe, or which might exist if they are possible.

Thank you for your post, and for the reminder of your earlier work.

Because of the limitations of FluxBB software, we only have search-by-text available.  We might be able to improve our ability to find things folks have entered.  You can add tags to your posts if you think folks might look for them. It's a guessing game!  I've often found that tags I create do not match what I remember about a post.

Thanks again for your (by now many) years of contribution to the forum.

(th)

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#9 2023-01-21 11:29:16

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,760

Re: Materials Science

For GW Johnson...

Thank you for your clarification about how NASA tiles actually protected the Shuttle, as compared to what a writer thought when preparing an article.

The Space-Plane.org folks are going to be dealing with heat shield materials at some point.  Your experience would seem applicable to their project.

Their vehicle is slated to be 60 meters long.  I am offering the suggestion they design for a heat shield shell that they slip their plane into like a sock.

The plane can back out of the shield in orbit, and then put it back on for descent.

(th)

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#10 2023-01-21 13:45:00

GW Johnson
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From: McGregor, Texas USA
Registered: 2011-12-04
Posts: 5,423
Website

Re: Materials Science

By the way,  fiberglass attic insulation is an insulation for EXACTLY the same reason as low density ceramics:  the void space between the glass fibers is the insulator.  Glass itself is actually more of a thermal conductor like stone,  just not as good a conductor as metals. 

GW


GW Johnson
McGregor,  Texas

"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew,  especially one dead from a bad management decision"

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