SBIR-STTR Award

Materials for future technologies must be strong, tough and light. A generic improvement is offered by metal-void composites HIPed from nanoscale powders, with gas-pressurized void content of 10-30%. Strength to weight ratios and strengths are well above those for conventional materials. High temperature structural stability, resistance to dislocation, grain boundary and crack propagation, and exceptional damping properties, demonstrated by computer modeling in this Phase I project, combine to indicate great potential for usage in aerospace and automobile industries.

Phase I investigated the fabrication of materials with a high content of microscopic gas-filled voids, while reducing density, increasing strength and toughness and vibrational damping in most metals, ceramics and polymers. These composites can achieve incremental strengths, maintained without degradation to high temperatures and fracture toughness. Acoustic vibrations are strongly attenuated. Phase II will develop reliable methods of producing laboratory-scale specimens of void-metal composites and will categorize their strength, toughness and damping properties. Computer modeling will be used to facilitate the fabrication process and to calculate the loss factor for acoustic and electromagnetic radiation, with an emphasis on space vibrations and on marine and aerospace stealth utility.