S&T researcher to lead $7.5 million multi-institution study on heat-resistant materials

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On March 21, 2024

Shown here is an AI-generated illustration of light reflections serving as a boundary for photons, which will help stop materials from absorbing heat. The research team will consider an approach to make this concept a reality. Image generated by Wepik.com.

Shown here is an AI-generated illustration of light reflections serving as a boundary for photons, which will help stop materials from absorbing heat. The research team will consider an approach to make this concept a reality. Image generated by Wepik.com.

When a multi-institution group of researchers led by Dr. William Fahrenholtz says they are researching one of the hottest topics in academia, they mean it literally.   

The research team was recently announced as winning a U.S. Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant to develop new materials that have high strength combined with low thermal conductivity at temperatures reaching 1,800 degrees Celsius and above. The grant will provide $7.5 million over the course of five years.

“This project is focused on temperatures encountered in extreme environments such as those associated with hypersonic flight, atmospheric re-entry, rocket propulsion, concentrated solar power and nuclear power generation,” says Fahrenholz, who is a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of ceramic engineering at Missouri S&T.

Dr. William Fahrenholtz has been a member of the S&T faculty since 1999. Photo by Michael Pierce/Missouri S&T.

He says the group’s biggest challenge will be to control electron movement within the materials. Electron mobility is enhanced at extreme temperatures, which makes the materials less effective at insulating heat.  
  
Moreover, the combination of materials the researchers are developing will need to be structurally sound and able to maintain their shape at the high temperatures.   
  
The team will consider complex material compositions combined into layered structures that will stop phonons from transporting heat through materials, as well as an approach that uses light reflections as boundaries for photons and stops the materials from absorbing heat.  
  
Fahrenholtz says MURI awards address the Department of Defense’s long-term needs that may be 20 or more years down the road, and they involve topics that are too large and too complex for an individual and will require a team with complementary research expertise.   
  
This project team includes six faculty researchers. Three are experts in producing and testing high-temperature structural materials, including Fahrenholtz; Dr. David Lipke, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Missouri S&T; and Dr. Douglas Wolfe, a professor of materials science and engineering and associate vice president for research at The Pennsylvania State University.   
  
From Duke University, Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and director of the Center for Extreme Materials Research, and Dr. Arrigo Calzolari, research professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, are focusing on the team’s computational materials science components.   
  
The team’s advanced materials characterization expert is Dr. Shen Dillon, a professor of materials science and engineering at University of California, Irvine. 
  
“This is a chance to work with a great team of researchers and help train some of the best graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in our field,” Fahrenholtz says. “The involvement and visibility within DOD is also exciting.”  
  
By the project’s end, Fahrenholtz says the goal is to develop a material that has a thermal conductivity of five watts per meter per Kelvin or lower when it experiences temperatures of 1,800 degree Celsius. He said this conductivity would be similar to that of a household ceramic object at room temperature.   
  
“Our work will hopefully lead to major breakthroughs for our field,” he says. “The team will generate new fundamental knowledge of thermal conductivity in complex materials at high temperatures. We will train the next generation of researchers to work on materials for extreme environments, while also addressing a long-standing problem for DOD.”  
 
The project is scheduled to begin May 1.  
  
For more information about Missouri S&T’s materials science and engineering programs, visit mse.mst.edu.  

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On March 21, 2024.

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One thought on “S&T researcher to lead $7.5 million multi-institution study on heat-resistant materials”

  • Ed Benn says:

    As a 1963 graduate of Metallurgical Engineering, i relished the high temperature materials research described in the article I once worked on a radioisotope Generator capsule that is still going on VOYAGER 1.

    Good luck.