I-Corps: Tailored Thermal Expansion Alloys

随着技术朝着要求在各种温度下提高尺寸稳定性的设备发展，对热补偿材料和结构的需求也在增长。研究人员计划进一步开发一种技术，生产具有定制热膨胀性能的坚固和延展性合金，即使在负状态下也是如此。这是通过简单的合金加工技术如冷轧和拉丝来实现的。新发现的解释定制热膨胀现象的机制使热膨胀设计纯粹通过材料加工。 这种新的机制使研究小组不仅能够预测和控制金属的独特热膨胀性能，还能够预测和控制钙钛矿和钛酸盐等低对称性晶体陶瓷的独特热膨胀性能。目前所有的热膨胀控制方法都依赖于改变材料化学性质或制造具有复杂几何形状和材料成分的复合材料。由于高材料成本和复杂的制造过程，这限制了它们的广泛应用。通过使用简单的加工技术，如冷轧，一种16世纪的技术，该团队可以自下而上设计材料，以实现21世纪技术的巨大进步。该技术将通过对所有材料类别的热膨胀机制的新见解和推动基于应用的研究的新领域，推进其自身领域和不同领域的知识和理解。此外，仅从机械加工中获得结构材料定制热膨胀的潜在变革概念将改变科学家和工程师设计热补偿的方式。在输电线路中嵌入定制的热膨胀系数材料可以显著降低能量损失。这有可能减轻国家未来的能源危机？不断增长的能源需求。其他例子包括通过补偿不同材料组件之间的热膨胀来改善微处理器性能和稳定望远镜焦距。

As technology advances toward devices that demand increased dimensional stability across a wide variety of temperatures, the need for thermally compensated materials and structures grows. Researchers plan to further develop a technology that produces strong and ductile alloys with tailored thermal expansion properties, even in the negative regime. This is achieved using simple alloy processing techniques such as cold rolling and wire drawing. The newly discovered mechanism to explain the tailored thermal expansion phenomenon enables thermal expansion design purely through material processing. This new mechanism allows the team to predict and control the unique thermal expansion properties not only of metals, but also of low symmetry crystalline ceramics such as perovskites and titanates. All current methods for thermal expansion control rely on changing material chemistry or creating composites with complicated geometries and material components. This limits their widespread utility due to high material costs and complex manufacturing procedures. By using simple processing techniques such as cold rolling, a 16th century technology, the team can design materials from the bottom up to enable great advances in 21st century technologies.This technology will advance knowledge and understanding within its own field and across different fields by bringing new insights into thermal expansion mechanisms in all material classes and driving new areas of application-based research. Also, the potentially transformative concept of obtaining tailored thermal expansion in structural materials solely from mechanical processing will change the way scientists and engineers design for thermal compensation. Embedding tailored thermal expansion coefficient materials in power transmission lines can significantly reduce energy losses. This has the potential to mitigate future energy crises with the nation?s ever growing energy demands. Other examples include improved microprocessor performance and stable telescope focal lengths by compensating thermal expansion between dissimilar material components.