解锁“材料基因组”以推进航空航天设计

上个月，悉尼大学航空航天、机械和机电工程学院的研究人员发现了一种显微镜方法，可以揭示先进钢和定制硅等晶体材料中的原子关系。

The aerospace industry is constantly striving to improve efficiency, performance, and safety while reducing carbon emissions and maintaining sustainability. In recent years, several technological advancements have expanded the capabilities of air travel both within the Earth's atmosphere as well as outside it. This includes advanced satellite technology for communications, additive manufacturing for lightweight components, electric propulsion for reduced emissions and reduced costs, supersonic flight for faster travel, and artificial intelligence and machine learning for enhanced operational efficiency.

航空航天业不断努力提高效率、性能和安全性，同时减少碳排放并保持可持续性。近年来，多项技术进步扩大了地球大气层内外航空旅行的能力。这包括用于通信的先进卫星技术、用于轻型部件的增材制造、用于减少排放和降低成本的电力推进、用于更快旅行的超音速飞行，以及用于提高运营效率的人工智能和机器学习。

Aerospace focuses on advanced materials with very specific properties. Systems usually involve different kinds of materials, ranging from ceramic thermal to carbon fiber and Titanium, which are used for myriad purposes to optimize performance.

航空航天专注于具有非常特殊性能的先进材料。系统通常涉及不同种类的材料，从陶瓷热材料到碳纤维和钛，这些材料用于多种目的以优化性能。

The research in this area aims to develop multifunctional materials, which means materials that have not only structural functions but can also offer other features like active cooling. To bring advanced aerospace concepts to life, materials must be more durable, lightweight, and cost-effective than ever before. 

该领域的研究旨在开发多功能材料，这意味着材料不仅具有结构功能，还可以提供主动冷却等其他功能。为了将先进的航空航天概念变为现实，材料必须比以往更加耐用、轻便且更具成本效益。

As the aerospace industry continues to progress, let's examine the latest groundbreaking innovations that will take it even further.

随着航空航天业的不断发展，让我们来看看最新的突破性创新，这些创新将使航空航天业更进一步。

Unveiling the ‘Materials Genome' to Advance Design

揭开“材料基因组”的面纱以推进设计

Last month, researchers from the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Engineering discovered a microscopy method for unraveling atomic relationships within crystalline materials such as advanced steels and custom silicon.

上个月，悉尼大学航空航天、机械和机电工程学院的研究人员发现了一种显微镜方法，可以揭示先进钢和定制硅等晶体材料中的原子关系。

This means that researchers can detect even minute changes in the atomic-level architecture of these materials, enhancing our understanding of the fundamental origins of their properties and behavior. This knowledge will enable the development of advanced semiconductors for electronics and lighter, stronger alloys for the aerospace sector.

这意味着研究人员可以检测到这些材料的原子级结构的微小变化，从而增强我们对其特性和行为的基本起源的理解。这些知识将有助于开发用于电子产品的先进半导体以及用于航空航天领域的更轻、更强的合金。

For this, researchers used atom probe tomography (APT), a technique that visualizes atoms in three dimensions (3D), to unpack the complexity of short-range order (SRO). SRO is a quantitative measure of the relative tendency for a material's constituent elements to deviate from a random distribution. Understanding the local atomic environments is essential for creating innovative materials.

为此，研究人员使用原子探针断层扫描 (APT)，一种在三维 (3D) 中可视化原子的技术，来解开短程有序 (SRO) 的复杂性。 SRO 是对材料组成元素偏离随机分布的相对趋势的定量测量。了解当地的原子环境对于创造创新材料至关重要。

By quantifying the non-randomness of neighborhood relationships at the atomic scale within the crystal in detail, SRO opens up “vast possibilities for materials that are custom-designed, atom-by-atom, with specific neighborhood arrangements to achieve desired properties like strength,” said the study lead, Professor Simon Ringer, who is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure) at the University of Sydney.

通过详细量化晶体内原子尺度邻域关系的非随机性，SRO 开辟了“逐个原子定制设计的材料的巨大可能性，具有特定的邻域排列，以实现所需的性能，如强度、 ”该研究的负责人、悉尼大学副校长（研究基础设施）西蒙·林格（Simon Ringer）教授说道。

Sometimes referred to as the ‘materials genome,' SRO has been a challenge to measure and quantify. This is because atomic arrangements occur at such a small scale that you can't see them with conventional microscopy techniques.

SRO 有时被称为“材料基因组”，它一直是测量和量化的挑战。这是因为原子排列的规模非常小，用传统的显微镜技术无法看到它们。

So, the team of researchers developed a new method using APT that overcomes these challenges, making it “a significant breakthrough in materials science,” said Ringer, a materials engineer at AMME. 

因此，研究人员团队使用 APT 开发了一种新方法，克服了这些挑战，使其成为“材料科学的重大突破”，AMME 的材料工程师 Ringer 说。

The study's focus has been on high-entropy alloys (HEAs), a heavily researched area due to their potential for use in situations that require high-temperature strength, including jet engines and power plants.

该研究的重点是高熵合金（HEA），这是一个受到广泛研究的领域，因为它们具有在需要高温强度的情况下使用的潜力，包括喷气发动机和发电厂。

Using advanced data science techniques and drawing on data from APT, the researchers observed and measured SRO. They were then able to compare how SRO changes in a high-entropy alloy of cobalt, chrome, and nickel under different heat treatments.

研究人员利用先进的数据科学技术并利用 APT 的数据来观察和测量 SRO。然后，他们能够比较不同热处理下钴、铬和镍高熵合金中 SRO 的变化。

According to Dr Andrew Breen, a senior postdoctoral fellow:

高级博士后研究员安德鲁·布林 (Andrew Breen) 博士表示：

“(The study has produced a) sensitivity analysis that bounds the precise range of circumstances whereby such measurements are valid and where they are not valid.”

“（该研究产生了）敏感性分析，限制了此类测量有效和无效的情况的精确范围。”

By measuring and understanding SRO, this study could also help transform approaches to materials design and show just how “small changes at the atomic level architecture can lead to giant leaps in materials performance,” said Dr. Mengwei He, a postdoc research fellow in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Engineering.

通过测量和理解 SRO，这项研究还可以帮助转变材料设计方法，并展示“原子级结构的微小变化如何导致材料性能的巨大飞跃”，该研究的博士后研究员孟伟博士说。航空航天、机械与机电工程学院。

Moreover, by providing a blueprint at the microscopic level, the study enhances a researcher's capabilities to computationally simulate, model, and then predict materials behavior. It can further act as a template for future studies in which SRO controls critical material properties. 

此外，通过提供微观层面的蓝图，该研究增强了研究人员计算模拟、建模并预测材料行为的能力。它可以进一步充当未来研究的模板，其中 SRO 控制关键材料特性。

A Revolutionary Material to Enable Hypersonic Flight

实现高超音速飞行的革命性材料

There is a lot of interest in achieving sustained flight at hypersonic speeds, but technical challenges remain. These include managing extreme heat, developing materials that can withstand stress, extreme temperatures, and oxidation without compromising performance, and creating propulsion systems that can operate efficiently at high speeds and altitudes. 

人们对实现高超音速持续飞行很感兴趣，但技术挑战仍然存在。其中包括管理极端高温，开发能够承受压力、极端温度和氧化而不影响性能的材料，以及创建能够在高速和高海拔下高效运行的推进系统。

As researchers try to find solutions to these problems, scientists from Guangzhou University School of Materials Science and Engineering reported a breakthrough in hypersonic heat shields earlier this year.

当研究人员试图找到这些问题的解决方案时，广州大学材料科学与工程学院的科学家今年早些时候报告了高超音速隔热罩的突破。

In what could be a game changer for hypersonic flight, the scientists developed a new material, porous ceramic, that provides “exceptional thermal stability” and “ultrahigh compressive strength.” 

科学家们开发了一种新材料多孔陶瓷，它可能会改变高超音速飞行的游戏规则，它提供“卓越的热稳定性”和“超高的抗压强度”。

This has been achieved using a multi-scale structure design, which the scientists say has been done for the very first time. Moreover, the quick fabrication of this high-entropy ceramics opens the door to wider exploration in the sectors of aerospace, chemical engineering, and energy production and transfer.

这是通过多尺度结构设计实现的，科学家们称这是第一次这样做。此外，这种高熵陶瓷的快速制造为航空航天、化学工程以及能源生产和转移领域更广泛的探索打开了大门。

The researchers said the ceramics were fabricated through “an ultrafast high-temperature synthesis technique

研究人员表示，这些陶瓷是通过“超快高温合成技术”制造的