GOALI: Scalable Single-Step Manufacturing of High-Performance Titanium Sheet Metal Alloys by Shear-Based Deformation Processing

该奖项旨在支持与金属制造相关的新知识的研究，这将推进制造业的科学基础，并为国民经济提供具有竞争力的技术优势。该工艺旨在形成航空航天、能源系统、地面交通和生物医学领域应用所需的特种金属板材和箔材。目前，大多数金属板是通过轧制工艺生产的，尽管具有吸引人的优点，但也具有与性能、成本、基础设施和能量的控制有关的重要限制。基于剪切的变形处理方法利用基于机加工的工艺的变体，以在单个步骤中从大块铸锭中创建金属板和箔，同时采用紧凑的制造系统基础设施。由于控制变形参数的独特工艺能力，金属板将具有上级机械性能。此外，与目前的板材生产技术相比，基于机械加工的加工在成本和能源使用方面提供了重要的经济效益。该工艺将特别适用于钛、镁和铝等特种合金的板材生产，这些合金对关键工业和国防部门的高性能和/或轻量化应用很有兴趣。这种跨学科的研究需要制造业，材料工程和系统科学的参与。多学科方法还将有助于扩大代表性不足的群体在研究中的参与，并积极影响工程教育。为了建立基于机械加工的商业板材生产能力，大学-工业团队正在使用钛合金作为模型材料系统来解决三个密切相关的技术目标。首先，将使用现场高速成像分析过程变形场，并辅以力/能量分析。其次，金属板材的性能将通过定量微观结构和晶体织构分析，以及强度和可成形性测量来表征。新的基于剪切的纹理，结合细粒度的微观结构，特别感兴趣。将以工艺图的形式建立变形场、显微组织和性能之间的相关性。第三，在工艺映射、工艺缩放和系统分析（质量、成本、能源、设备设计）的基础上，将用于生产具有增强的机械性能和商业质量的板材。预期的成果是生产商业钛合金板的新工艺能力，其成本低于当前最先进工艺的1/10，未来将扩展到其他先进材料系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award supports research leading to new knowledge related to the manufacturing of metals, that will advance the science base of manufacturing and provide competitive technological benefits for the national economy. The process is directed at the formation of specialty metal sheet and foil that is needed in applications within the aerospace, energy systems, ground transportation and biomedical sectors. Currently, the majority of metal sheet is produced by rolling processes which, despite having attractive benefits, also have important limitations pertaining to control of properties, cost, infrastructure and energy. The shear-based deformation processing approach utilizes variants of machining-based processes to create metal sheet and foil in a single step from bulk ingot, while employing a compact manufacturing systems infrastructure. The metal sheet will have superior mechanical properties, because of unique process capability to control deformation parameters. Furthermore, the machining-based processing offers important economic benefits compared to current sheet-production technology in terms of cost and energy usage. The process will be particularly suited for production of sheet from specialty alloys like titanium, magnesium and aluminum, which are of interest for high-performance and/or lightweighting applications in critical industry and defense sectors. This interdisciplinary research requires participation of manufacturing, materials engineering and systems science. The multi-disciplinary approach will also contribute to broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in research, and positively impact engineering education.To establish the capability of the machining-based processing for commercial sheet production, the university-industry team is addressing three closely related technical objectives using titanium alloys as a model material system. Firstly, process deformation fields will be analyzed using in situ high-speed imaging, complemented by force/energy analysis. Secondly, sheet metal properties will be characterized through quantitative microstructure and crystallographic texture analyses; and strength and formability measurements. New shear-based textures, combined with fine-grained microstructures, are of particular interest. Correlations will be established between deformation fields, microstructure and properties in the form of a process map. Thirdly, building on the process mapping, process scaling and systems analysis (quality, cost, energy, equipment design) will be used to produce sheet with enhanced mechanical properties and commercial quality. The envisaged outcome is new process capability for producing commercial titanium alloy sheet at less than 1/10 the cost of current state-of-the-art processing, with future extension to other advanced material systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.