Alloys-by-design: application to new superalloys for additive manufacturing
Nickel-based superalloys are a class of crucial material that power jet engines to enable efficient air travel. They are 'super' because they encounter extremely high temperatures, sometimes even over their melting point.
With the emerging additive manufacturing (3D printing) technologies, there is a tremendous potential for hot components to be designed with intricate structures to possess better cooling and aerodynamics.
High performance superalloys, however, are not printable. A recent effort from Dr Yuanbo (Tony) Tang, Professor Roger Reed and their team has tackled this long-standing challenge. They designed three generations of new superalloys with superior performance. The best-then printable superalloy IN718 with a temperature capability of 6500 Celsius is now pushed to 10000C.
Their paper 'Alloys-by-design: Application to new superalloys for additive manufacturing' published in Acta Materialia is now one of the top cited papers in the journal.
