Posted on 10/01/2005 6:10:57 PM PDT by strategofr
Every time an astronaut gets off the ground, he or she owes a debt to the Wright brothers, not just because the boys dared to fly, but because they were smart enough to use a newfangled aluminum alloy to lighten the load of their engine and make flight possible.
The art and science of creating new, lighter and stronger metal alloys has progressed remarkably in the intervening 100 years. But many scientists now envision a looming limit to this progress owing to a mature science that will now make only incremental gains.
Then along comes Takashi Saito, a Japanese researcher who appears to have shattered the glass ceiling on metal-alloy development limitations.
Saito, of the Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, and his colleagues have jettisoned the traditional art approach to alloy development -- the trial and error used at Kitty Hawk and everywhere since -- and turned to pure science, specifically quantum mechanics and high-powered computer computation, to create new mixtures of metal which, one outside scientist says, have spectacular properties of strength and flexibility.
In the April 17 issue of the journal Science, Saito's team writes that their titanium-based alloys exhibit "super" properties, such as ultrahigh strength and super elasticity. The new materials could prove useful for spaceflight, where precision operations are conducted in ruthless conditions.
The alloys approach "magic" upper property limits that previous methods could not attain, the scientists say.
Alloys of myriad mixings are used in various parts on satellites, deep space probes and the shuttle fleet. The new alloys could be particularly suitable for ultralightweight springs, as one example, or other "precision instruments for use in rugged environments such as in outer space," the researchers report.
To develop an alloy, researchers add one ore more so-called solute elements to a metallic solvent, such as aluminum or titanium, explains Gary Shiflet, who wrote an analysis of the new results for the journal. But there is a practically infinite number of possible atomic combinations that, in the end, result in wildly differing structural properties.
Saito's group has made "major advances in specific material properties that would be exceedingly difficult to achieve by trial and error," says Shiflet, who works in materials science and engineering at the University of Virginia.
The result, Shiflet says, is an alloy with "spectacular properties" and the promise of materials that "may have the strength to carry a load and be able to perform another distinctive capacity, such as sensing damage and perhaps even repairing themselves."
Shiflet said the discovery, and the computer work that drove it, are incentives for other researchers to concoct new metal mixtures.
Everything we have seen really neat like lexan etc I believe was pretty much discovered by accident.....
Wasn't the sugar free sweetner aspertame (sp?) a rat poison in development ?
Sorry outside my field. Maybe a Chemist here can answer. I stick to Mechanical Engineering.
An aerodynamic shape with negative lift.
Little known fact: when aircraft models are tested in wind tunnels, they are tested "upside down" so that lift forces are added to the weight of the model. The model is "pushed" down instead of up.
For another example of a shape which is pushed down in a wind, look at one of the genuine Mexican Sombreros. The real big ones with a turned-up lip around the outside. Despite the American perception that it is just a goofy-looking hat, it is an areodynamic surface which causes a wind to force the hat tighter onto the wearer's head instead of lifting it off and blowing it away.
OK....:o)
Stay safe !
Three more tequilas, and I'd believe you.
LOL. Not similar to my "experience" at all, though. I ended up at a slow crawl, surrounded by about 30 cyclists, who spat on the car (a rental), and made all sorts of rude comments, including the usual speculation about Corvettes and their male drivers (I had a Boxster reserved but they overbooked and that was what I got). They even insulted the girl I was with, who was a bit naive and actually asked them for directions.
Had I backed up, I would have flattened several of them.
yoi desho nee!!!! daijobu koto dessho nee!!!!
Hey, thanks.
See, I knew we could and were/are doing better than trial and error. It only makes sense that chemists and physicists using super computers could come up with new stuff.
This is so cool. Wonder how long it will take for some of this new stuff to show up commercially?
Ultralight cars and bikes will be really great, but think what it will mean to aviation and space - lighter planes and rockets, less fuel. And how about stronger framework for highrise buildings, or super ships like carriers twice current size or subs diving twice as deep? And what top speeds might be possible? How about stronger lighter armor plating?
Awesome possibilities.
Toyota is a gigantic company with many interests ranging from mining to space. A few years ago they certified an aero-engine (which was then never produced) and they had Scaled Composites build a proof of concept aircraft which was tested under great secrecy for about two years. They never said "boo" about it in public, but just cause it says "Toyota" don't assume it's destined for the next Camry.
A theoretical/molecular approach to alloys development is not new. I believe the lithium alloy that Airbus is using for the "forehead" or upper nose of the freight version of the A380 was developed this way. Of course lithium is not entirely new; some marks of F-15 have lithium alloy wing skins (lighter than anything that's a solid metal at ordinary temperatures). That alloy was developed traditionally.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
It will be tough, elastic and yet exceedingly hard. And from this sword will come miracles. And then will come Toyotas, and tent poles, and flatware.
For some of us bicycle (weight) technology has long since passed the point of diminishing returns. Just give me a chain lube that needs to be applied but once a year while sloughing off dirt in Seattle's rainy environment...
I quit the local (and I believe the largest nationally) bike club once I'd determined its membership, not to mention leadership, was largely comprised of such. That they preferred cycle-commuting, no problem -- so did I (for *myself*; it was easy on the pocketbook, enjoyable, faster than driving, and good for my health). But they didn't stop there...
The Revised Code of the state of Washington (RCW) permits riding two abreast on the road. IMHO a bad rule, but there it is.
But I agree: bicycle-riders and cyclists alike ought to know and obey the law. I wish the police were more aggressive at ticketing violators...
Would there be trim tabs for varying conditions?
cool stuff
please add me to your futuretech list
try a cobra 454 composite with a 7.5 degree some butt whuupin tool
This stuff will first be first used in a golf club within 4 months and all of the weekend duffers will take out second mortgages in the hopes of shaving 2 strokes from their +25 handicaps.
Welcome aboard!
Foam aluminum has been around for nearly 20 years or more. I have a sample packed away in a box somewhere. I also have a foam carbon sample that is really cool as well. The foam ceramics are the really interesting materials though. Once upon a time I used to be on top of this new advanced materials stuff. Then the Cold War ended and we are lucky to use the stuff on golf clubs and tennis rackets.
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