Thanks to experiments on the Tiangong space station, Chinese scientists have created a heat-resistant alloy suitable for high-performance aircraft engines.
A three-year experiment on China’s Tiangong space station has yielded groundbreaking results that could improve the performance of rockets and hypersonic vehicles. Specifically, scientists used the data to create a new material: a niobium-silicon alloy, Interesting Engineering reported on January 7. The new research was published in the journal Acta Physica Sinica.
With its ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, niobium-silicon is ideal for high-performance aircraft engines. The blades of turbofan engines made from this alloy can withstand temperatures in excess of 1,700 degrees Celsius.
Niobium is a rare metal, used primarily in high-strength steels. Niobium-silicon alloys are also extremely difficult to produce. To date, the alloy faces two major challenges in mass production: slow crystal growth and brittleness.
The process of forming strong crystals usually takes a long time – about 100 hours at temperatures close to 1,600 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, the resulting material is very brittle at room temperature, making it unsuitable for use in engines.
A research team led by Professor Wei Bingbo of Northwestern Polytechnical University, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has overcome these challenges. They have developed a rapid cooling method that allows the production of high-quality niobium-silicon crystals at a speed of nearly 9 cm per second, significantly reducing the production time compared to traditional methods.
The team also added a small amount of hafnium to the alloy, which increased its room temperature strength by more than three times. This improvement solved the brittleness problem, making the alloy suitable for engine manufacturing.
The microgravity environment on the space station changes the behavior of materials compared to Earth. Processes like crystal growth and solidification occur very differently in this environment. Scientists have observed some unique phenomena while conducting microgravity experiments.
For example, during the rapid solidification of a niobium-silicon alloy, a unique porous, shrinkable structure forms in microgravity – unlike anything typically found on Earth. These studies led to the development of a new niobium-silicon alloy that scientists have called a “gift from heaven.”
