The University of Florida and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a new generation of synthetic lubricant coatings for future air- and spacecraft.
Researchers involved in the project said they are trying to address the special needs of vessels exposed to an extraordinarily wide range of environments.
Vehicles that voyage from Earths warm and humid environment into the extreme cold vacuum of space require lubricants that can perform under a great range of conditions without fail, said Linda Schadler, professor of materials engineering at Rensselaer. We are working to create a wide variety of new multifunctional coatings that provide low friction and high resistance to wear in multiple environments.
The grant, announced by Rensselaer last week, comes from the U.S. Department of Defenses Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, a program designed to address large multidisciplinary topic areas representing exceptional opportunities for future defense applications and technology options.
Rather than fluids, the teams at Florida and Rensselaer will work to develop lubricant coatings made from combinations of thin layers of carbon nanotubes, polymers and ceramics. Researchers said they aim to use these materials to build chameleon coatings that react to changes in their environment.
Officials said the first task of the project is to create a series of materials, or nanocomposites. After that, researchers will have to develop tools to test the materials and measure their lifespan and lubricating performance. They also need to develop computer models to simulate molecular dynamics that come into play with the coatings.
By the end of the five-year period, the schools hope to have coatings for use on air- and spacecraft for applications such as transmission components, bearings in antenna-pointing systems, gyroscopes, inertia wheels and slip rings for electrical contacts.
Our overarching goal is to go from the basic understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in friction, wear and lubrication to create coatings that function on Earth and in space, said Rensselaers Thierry Blanchet, an associate professor of mechanical engineering.
The University of Florida, in Gainesville, will focus on computational work needed to understand nanotribology and wear-testing materials. Rensselaer, which is in Troy, N.Y., will concentrate on materials development, characterization and actual wear testing.
The grant was one of 31 that the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative awarded this year, paying $146 million over five years for research on topics ranging from the use of electromagnetic waves for battlefield communications to the failure of the human circulatory system due to shock.