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In the real world, companies like Statoil demand materials
that can transport energy. The automotive industry transports
people and products. To do so cost effectively, they push
conventional materials to the limit. Conflicting properties
are required, e.g. high strength and high ductility which are
difficult to achieve in a single material. Can we take a different
approach? Can we combine materials in new geometries and
devise new processes to make these architectured materials?
TAILORING MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
The idea is to combine laminated metals, foams and polymers,
to modify existing casting and heat treatment processes to
produce both hybrid materials and hybrid processes. David
Embury exemplifies:
“If you take, say five millimetres of conventional steel and coat
it with 100 microns of high chromium steel on the surface to
produce an adherent protective oxide, you could save a great
deal of money compared to a stainless steel structure.”
At 76, Embury is not only an Honorary Doctor at NTNU; he
has just been recruited as member of SFI CASA’s Scientific
Advisory Board, (SAB). Last November he gave two lectures
in Trondheim: “Do we need homogeneous or heterogeneous
microstructures?” and “Controlling the competition between
plasticity and fracture”.
RELEVANT TO INDUSTRY
He is a professor emeritus from McMaster University in Canada,
but far from curling up on a sofa he still collaborates with
researchers around the world. During his stay in Trondheim he
talked to people from Hydro, a CASA partner, about the design
of aluminium cables for transporting electricity across the
deep waters of the North Sea.
“The concept of architectured materials has a lot of relevance
for industry. There is great interest in lightweight structural
applications for different demands, including energy transport
and energy absorption, using architectural materials. Take
titanium alloys. If we could make them transform like steels
to achieve very high strengths, they would be applicable for a
number of new purposes.
The concept of hybrids is known. What we are looking at now,
are new combinations of materials and new ways of fabricating
complex geometries that is new ways of combining existing
knowledge to design new engineering solutions,” Embury says.
INFLUENCES CASA
David Embury expects SFI CASA to become more flexible and
inclusive than SFI SIMLab was:
“The Centre is still in the process of evolving, but the new
research field of ultra-high strain testing and the broadening
of perspective with glass is likely to increase the social impact.
One example is that work on glass in buildings also will be
interesting for glass in cars and other forms of transport.”
Without knowing, Embury confirms the interest Honda’s Eric
DeHoff showed at CASA’s kick-off, where he made exactly the
same point. Since then, other CASA partners have expressed
the same interest.
INTELLIGENT MATERIALS
CASA’s SAB hasn’t had its first meeting yet, but David Embury
served on SIMLab’s SAB as well. He would like to contribute to
future activities:
“CASA can clearly utilize the experience of SIMLab in
encouraging the inclusion of more partners. CASA should also
build on SIMLab’s strength in the interface between mechanics
and materials. Then all kinds of things might emerge, such
as a variety of intelligent materials. The social relevance of
the products will increase with the combination of glass and
polymers.”
“So who would you welcome as new partners?”
“I would be happy to see a big glass producer on board. A
broadening of large producers would be valuable for all,” he
says. He thinks CASA’s portfolio may change more rapidly
than SIMLab’s did, with a broader range of applications where
products can be applied.
AVOID OVERLOAD
The scientific advisor has one more piece of advice:
“CASA is going to need good postdoctoral staff and visiting
faculty. You have very good students, but will need to increase
the manpower in the system with people from all over the
world. I am concerned that you do not increase the load on
faculty. They should remain truly productive and not overloaded
as they are in many North American universities.”
with a Hybrid
Stainless steel is expensive. What if you could get the same user qualities more cheaply
by combining a stainless surface with a conventional steel substrate using a surface modification technique?
David Embury shares a peek into a new world of hybrid and architectured materials.
How to replace
Stainless Steel