Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101795
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,000.00
Summary
Exceptional properties by design – NiTi vision. The fundamental leaps in new technologies occur with improvements in the materials with which they are made. Until recently high performance metallic composite design had hit a 20 year blockage in nanocomposite design. The solution, a Nickel, Titanium and Niobium (NiTi-Nb) nanowire composite has been heralded as an era of new possibilities in materials design. This project aims to advance high performance metallic composite design by investigating ....Exceptional properties by design – NiTi vision. The fundamental leaps in new technologies occur with improvements in the materials with which they are made. Until recently high performance metallic composite design had hit a 20 year blockage in nanocomposite design. The solution, a Nickel, Titanium and Niobium (NiTi-Nb) nanowire composite has been heralded as an era of new possibilities in materials design. This project aims to advance high performance metallic composite design by investigating the mechanisms of exceptionally large elastic strains achieved in nanowires embedded in a phase-transforming metallic matrix (i.e. NiTi). An understanding of this high performance nanocomposite design has broad application in medicine and engineering.Read moreRead less
Elastic Strain Engineered Transforming Metal Matrix-Nanowire Composite. This project aims to develop metallic composites of superior mechanical properties based on the principle of elastic strain coupling between ultrahigh-strength nanowires and phase transforming matrix. This new composite design concept has not been explored in the literature. Using the principle of elastic strain coupling, the composite is able to exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties unmatched by any existing engineeri ....Elastic Strain Engineered Transforming Metal Matrix-Nanowire Composite. This project aims to develop metallic composites of superior mechanical properties based on the principle of elastic strain coupling between ultrahigh-strength nanowires and phase transforming matrix. This new composite design concept has not been explored in the literature. Using the principle of elastic strain coupling, the composite is able to exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties unmatched by any existing engineering materials, including high strength, low Young’s modulus and high elastic strain limit. This new concept is a breakthrough and offers a unique opportunity to overcome a long-standing challenge in nanowire composite design, commonly known as the “valley of death”.Read moreRead less
Selective laser melting of bulk metallic glasses. The application of metallic glasses is limited due to their difficulty in producing normal sized, complex components. This project will use the unique benefits of an advance manufacturing technology called Selective Laser Melting and the theories of polymer processing, to overcome the inherent difficulties in manufacturing these materials.
Bio-inspired design to overcome strength-toughness trade-off of composites. This project aims to develop nature-inspired metal composites of exceptional mechanical properties that push the known boundaries of engineering materials. The design utilises a phase transforming metal to transcribe the attributes of biopolymers in nacre to harness the exceptional intrinsic strength of interatomic bonds at atomic scale and to devise adaptive ability for load redistribution for toughness at the macroscop ....Bio-inspired design to overcome strength-toughness trade-off of composites. This project aims to develop nature-inspired metal composites of exceptional mechanical properties that push the known boundaries of engineering materials. The design utilises a phase transforming metal to transcribe the attributes of biopolymers in nacre to harness the exceptional intrinsic strength of interatomic bonds at atomic scale and to devise adaptive ability for load redistribution for toughness at the macroscopic scale. The expected outcomes are an innovative bio-inspired material design strategy that may underpin the creation of many novel high-performance structural composites of unmatched strength and toughness properties, and potential to support new applications and to value-add Australia’s materials manufacturing industry.Read moreRead less
Advancing the Australian specialty alloy processing capability. This project aims to advance Australia’s specialty alloy processing capability by developing novel processing routes to overcome current bottlenecks that prevent supply meeting demand. New knowledge will be generated on alternative means of the processing of Rene 41, a Nickel-based superalloy with limited formability through a comprehensive experimental and modelling-based research program. Rene 41 is strategically important for man ....Advancing the Australian specialty alloy processing capability. This project aims to advance Australia’s specialty alloy processing capability by developing novel processing routes to overcome current bottlenecks that prevent supply meeting demand. New knowledge will be generated on alternative means of the processing of Rene 41, a Nickel-based superalloy with limited formability through a comprehensive experimental and modelling-based research program. Rene 41 is strategically important for manufacturing next generation turbofan engines. The expected outcome is the identification of innovative processing routes to provide stronger, defect-free specialty alloys for aerospace applications, vital to Australia’s advanced manufacturing.Read moreRead less
Strain Matching Enabled Composite Design for Exceptional Mechanical Prowess. This project intends to develop phase-transforming matrix-nanolamellar composites of exceptional mechanical properties. Nanowires embedded in phase-transforming matrix composites achieve ultra-large elastic strains (around 6 per cent), thus ultra-high strengths. This project aims to build on this discovery and transcend the limitations of the nanowire composites by creating lattice-strain-matching enabled nanolamellar c ....Strain Matching Enabled Composite Design for Exceptional Mechanical Prowess. This project intends to develop phase-transforming matrix-nanolamellar composites of exceptional mechanical properties. Nanowires embedded in phase-transforming matrix composites achieve ultra-large elastic strains (around 6 per cent), thus ultra-high strengths. This project aims to build on this discovery and transcend the limitations of the nanowire composites by creating lattice-strain-matching enabled nanolamellar composites via innovative materials processing. The expected outcomes may lead to the design and creation of metallic composites of exceptional mechanical prowess and the development of close-to-application technology for fabrication of the composite materials.Read moreRead less
On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable productio ....On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. On demand three-dimensional printing of stainless steel parts. This project aims to revolutionize the security of supply of critical stainless steel parts by producing them on-site and on demand, using three dimensional metal printing. Australia’s oil and gas industry uses tonnes of stainless steel for critical processing components in production plants. Australia is also one of the few developed nations without appreciable production and processing facilities for stainless steels, so relies on specialist overseas suppliers. This is a major risk to the industry, which stores billions of dollars’ worth of replacement parts, including stainless steels, in inventory. This project should reduce reliance on overseas steel suppliers and free up hundreds of millions of dollars of capital invested in the inventory stores of replacement stainless steel parts.Read moreRead less
Novel energy-efficient electrowinning anodes. Developed nations rely extensively on metallic materials to sustain modern society. This places a significant importance on delivery of base metals, and that delivery must be as efficient and clean as possible. The first step in the delivery chain is extraction from the ore, and much of this technology is based on electrowinning (EW), where the behaviour of the anode is critical to overall process efficiency. This project will deliver advances in EW ....Novel energy-efficient electrowinning anodes. Developed nations rely extensively on metallic materials to sustain modern society. This places a significant importance on delivery of base metals, and that delivery must be as efficient and clean as possible. The first step in the delivery chain is extraction from the ore, and much of this technology is based on electrowinning (EW), where the behaviour of the anode is critical to overall process efficiency. This project will deliver advances in EW anodes which will lead to energy savings, which in turn, will result in a cleaner overall production cycle, major emission reductions and cost savings. The expected outcomes of this project are targeted at the development of new and advanced anode materials.Read moreRead less
Approaching near-ideal strength for bulk amorphous metals. This project aims to develop a novel metal materials design strategy to break the strength ceilings of nanocrystalline metals and bulk metallic glasses. This strategy is based on a novel concept of synergy between a bulk amorphous matrix and phase-transforming nanocrystallites embedded within. The nanocrystallites, via their uniform transformation lattice distortion, prevent the formation of shear bands in the amorphous matrix and enable ....Approaching near-ideal strength for bulk amorphous metals. This project aims to develop a novel metal materials design strategy to break the strength ceilings of nanocrystalline metals and bulk metallic glasses. This strategy is based on a novel concept of synergy between a bulk amorphous matrix and phase-transforming nanocrystallites embedded within. The nanocrystallites, via their uniform transformation lattice distortion, prevent the formation of shear bands in the amorphous matrix and enable collective atomic load transfer to allow the amorphous matrix to continue to load to achieve its intrinsic near-ideal strength. The amorphous matrix eliminates the grain boundary plasticity of the nanoscrystallites. This concept is novel and untested in the history of physical metallurgy.Read moreRead less