Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ATLAS (Advanced Design of High Entropy Alloys Based Materials for Space Propulsion)
Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2021-12-31
Space has always stimulated excited explorers, scientists and engineers, and since the Second Post-War period space exploration has been a key technological sector, also inspiring movies that strongly impressed the cultural life of our society, such as the famous Kubrick's movie 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Since that time, and since to humans touched the Moon, space explorations and space missions have gained a more and more important role in our society. Initially, the design of space systems able to work safe and reliably has been characterized by a huge innovation rate in terms of materials, emerging technologies and scientific knowledge of the human behavior in an extreme environment. Today, due to the ever-increasing importance of communications in everyday life, the space sector is also increasingly impacting our everyday life, economy, safety and security and can be considered a pillar for maintaining a prior position in the worldwide competition. Due the increased importance of the space sector, the present space sector framework presents many more actors with respect of the past, both governmental, private companies and public-private partnerships, making competition in space more and more severe. This means that for remaining competitive new disruptive solutions are needed for deep-space missions, satellite installations and for the construction of space infrastructures. The introduction of new materials, able to improve the behavior and the strength of the present ones in the extreme conditions related to space is a key factor to this aim, especially as regards the propulsion systems: the development of next generation space exploration systems requires high temperature materials able to guarantee low density, high strength and ductility, oxidation resistance, good creep properties.
High Entropy Alloys (HEA) are an excellent candidate due to their potential high specific strength and oxidation resistance at high temperatures and have been identified as possible replacement for superalloys in propulsion systems.
HEAs are relatively new class of materials and although since 2004 more than 600 HEA journal and conference papers have been published the whole HEA world still leaves un-answered questions. Therefore, in order to exploit these advancements on HEA, further work is needed.
The main goal of ATLAS is to take over the present limitations and unsolved issues that limit the utilization of HEA through multidisciplinary materials design framework that advances the state-of-the-art of High Entropy Alloys and related materials compounds towards the emerging practical needs of the space propulsion industry.
To achieve this ambitious result the following challenges will be addressed: definition of an accurate material property
database, design of the HEA, definition of Hybrid/Compound solutions with combination of HEA materials joined to Ceramics and/or Ceramic Matric Composites (CMCs) to create lightweight and temperature resistant functional materials, manufacturing of near-net shape manufacturing and materials integration/joining with Ceramics and CMCs.
To produce the HEA materials and related compounds materials designed within the project two different additive
manufacturing processes will be used from the production of coupons and samples to the final full scale demonstration, thus paving the path for the application of HEAs for the new generation of space propulsion.
Since that time, and since to humans touched the Moon, space explorations and space missions have gained a more and more important role in our society. Initially, the design of space systems able to work safe and reliably has been characterized by a huge innovation rate in terms of materials, emerging technologies and scientific knowledge of the human behavior in an extreme environment. Today, due to the ever-increasing importance of communications in everyday life, the space sector is also increasingly impacting our everyday life, economy, safety and security and can be considered a pillar for maintaining a prior position in the worldwide competition. Due the increased importance of the space sector, the present space sector framework presents many more actors with respect of the past, both governmental, private companies and public-private partnerships, making competition in space more and more severe. This means that for remaining competitive new disruptive solutions are needed for deep-space missions, satellite installations and for the construction of space infrastructures. The introduction of new materials, able to improve the behavior and the strength of the present ones in the extreme conditions related to space is a key factor to this aim, especially as regards the propulsion systems: the development of next generation space exploration systems requires high temperature materials able to guarantee low density, high strength and ductility, oxidation resistance, good creep properties.
High Entropy Alloys (HEA) are an excellent candidate due to their potential high specific strength and oxidation resistance at high temperatures and have been identified as possible replacement for superalloys in propulsion systems.
HEAs are relatively new class of materials and although since 2004 more than 600 HEA journal and conference papers have been published the whole HEA world still leaves un-answered questions. Therefore, in order to exploit these advancements on HEA, further work is needed.
The main goal of ATLAS is to take over the present limitations and unsolved issues that limit the utilization of HEA through multidisciplinary materials design framework that advances the state-of-the-art of High Entropy Alloys and related materials compounds towards the emerging practical needs of the space propulsion industry.
To achieve this ambitious result the following challenges will be addressed: definition of an accurate material property
database, design of the HEA, definition of Hybrid/Compound solutions with combination of HEA materials joined to Ceramics and/or Ceramic Matric Composites (CMCs) to create lightweight and temperature resistant functional materials, manufacturing of near-net shape manufacturing and materials integration/joining with Ceramics and CMCs.
To produce the HEA materials and related compounds materials designed within the project two different additive
manufacturing processes will be used from the production of coupons and samples to the final full scale demonstration, thus paving the path for the application of HEAs for the new generation of space propulsion.
Initially, a preliminary evaluation has been performed to connect the industrial requirements to computational efforts based on the application of satellite thrusters. Distilled from the requirements in aspects of performance and processing, a quantitative figure-of-merit for HEA materials properties and the benchmark HEA materials have been summarized and delivered. Prototypes of the HEAs within the identified design space have been produced and preliminarily assessed experimentally. By utilizing the Materials by DesignTM approach and the existing ICME models, a preliminary optimal composition has been computationally designed. Based on the designed composition, powders will be procured and manufactured into test samples.
An assessment of the gap between demands and existing modelling capabilities has been performed, based on which advanced modelling activities and composition designs are to be performed in WP2.
Based on the technical drawings of existing thrusters provided by Dawn Aerospace, a preliminary assessment of the possible design criticalities related to the additive manufacturing processes that are expected to be used, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and Cold Spray (CS). This preliminary activity involves both the review of the final layout and also preliminary printing of not-functional prototypes to evidence possible critical points during manufacturing, thus correcting the problems in view of using the selected HEA.
An assessment of the gap between demands and existing modelling capabilities has been performed, based on which advanced modelling activities and composition designs are to be performed in WP2.
Based on the technical drawings of existing thrusters provided by Dawn Aerospace, a preliminary assessment of the possible design criticalities related to the additive manufacturing processes that are expected to be used, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) and Cold Spray (CS). This preliminary activity involves both the review of the final layout and also preliminary printing of not-functional prototypes to evidence possible critical points during manufacturing, thus correcting the problems in view of using the selected HEA.
The main goal of the ATLAS is to design “bespoke” HEAs and advanced the related concepts for specific space propulsion applications to overcome the limitations of current materials. ATLAS aims also to extend the capabilities of current computational tools for the design of materials. These ambitious results will be achieved by means of of a great jump with respect of the present state of the art, in terms of:
1. Integration of design of materials and systems, disconnected so far, by means of the development of a disruptive approach that will allow to intimately connect the processes of Design with materials and Design of materials. This approach will allow for model-based materials and process definitions to be fully incorporated spatially into system and component design and structural analysis. Manufacturability, physics behaviour, and recycling/disposal will be considered factors from the beginning of the design phase.
2.Joining the stages of the product development lifetime, at present segmented. Multidisciplinary project environments will enable greater collaboration and communication among experts and organizations at each stage, allowing for a faster, more efficient iterative product development process. A unified representation of data and knowledge with managed uncertainty will be shared throughout the supply chain to facilitate greater transparency and understanding.
3. Virtual determination of materials properties, avoiding the present empirism and the time and cost consuming present approach. Practitioners will use model-based definitions and no longer rely solely on empirical testing to determine the properties of a material. As a result, materials properties will be dynamic outputs that respond to changes in them design process. The characterization will be less expensive and require significantly less time, as the need to validate models will drive the requirements for generating materials data. Validated models will define the "design space" for materials definitions and account for uncertainty in all application spaces.
4. Certification of products mainly based on simulation and no more physical testing. The simulation will be performance-based at the system level and integral to certification, supported by physical testing only when necessary. Certification will also extend to software packages and the associated data for validating materials of application-specific components.
1. Integration of design of materials and systems, disconnected so far, by means of the development of a disruptive approach that will allow to intimately connect the processes of Design with materials and Design of materials. This approach will allow for model-based materials and process definitions to be fully incorporated spatially into system and component design and structural analysis. Manufacturability, physics behaviour, and recycling/disposal will be considered factors from the beginning of the design phase.
2.Joining the stages of the product development lifetime, at present segmented. Multidisciplinary project environments will enable greater collaboration and communication among experts and organizations at each stage, allowing for a faster, more efficient iterative product development process. A unified representation of data and knowledge with managed uncertainty will be shared throughout the supply chain to facilitate greater transparency and understanding.
3. Virtual determination of materials properties, avoiding the present empirism and the time and cost consuming present approach. Practitioners will use model-based definitions and no longer rely solely on empirical testing to determine the properties of a material. As a result, materials properties will be dynamic outputs that respond to changes in them design process. The characterization will be less expensive and require significantly less time, as the need to validate models will drive the requirements for generating materials data. Validated models will define the "design space" for materials definitions and account for uncertainty in all application spaces.
4. Certification of products mainly based on simulation and no more physical testing. The simulation will be performance-based at the system level and integral to certification, supported by physical testing only when necessary. Certification will also extend to software packages and the associated data for validating materials of application-specific components.