Shape-controlled carbon nanotube architectures for thermal management in aerospace applications
- PDF / 951,309 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 585 x 783 pts Page_size
- 74 Downloads / 136 Views
Introduction The air transportation industry continues to grow rapidly, adding consumer space travel as a new facet on the horizon.1 Despite this growth, the aerospace industry faces several challenges, such as high fuel and maintenance costs, that seriously impede its growth.1,2 Furthermore, there is a critical need for developing new lightweight materials and sensors that can provide early warning for radiation and shield the air/spacecraft from possible hazards from exposure to ionizing radiation, and reduce the amount of rocket fuel. Emerging lightweight, energy-efficient, and multifunctional nanomaterial-based composites offer solutions to overcome these challenges.1,2 Carbon-based nanomaterials, in particular, exhibit properties that are best suited for the highly demanding requirements of aerospace applications (Figure 1). For instance, singleand multiwalled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs, respectively) exhibit high thermal conductivities3–12 (κ > 1000 W/[m K]), necessary for efficiently distributing otherwise localized heat fluxes from spacecraft components such as propulsion structures, electronic boxes, radiators, and their accompanying thermal interfaces. Although carbon nanotube- (CNT-) based composites hold promise for aerospace applications, two main challenges must be addressed to make the incorporation of nanomaterials into
aerospace structures a reality: (1) notwithstanding the excellent electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of individual CNTs,6,7,10,12 bulk CNT-based composites suffer from anisotropy due to inhomogeneous CNT distributions and intertube interactions (which cause higher electrical and thermal resistance),8,13 and (2) there is still a great need for scalable nanomanufacturing methods that increase the production throughput and reduce the cost of nanomaterial-based composites.14 In this article, we provide a succinct overview of recent advances aimed at addressing these challenges, primarily through defect engineering and the development of bulk low-cost manufacturing methodologies.
Efficient CNT-based thermal management Modern air- and spacecraft thermal design and management is very challenging because of the continually increasing heat loads from expanded avionic functionality, microprocessors in electronic systems, and complex electrical architectures.2,15 In addition, military aircraft designers also need to consider heat loads from advanced weapon systems. CNTs offer excellent promise for efficient thermal management in aerospace applications because their thermal conductivity along the long axis of individual CNTs at room temperature is κ > 3000 W/(m K).
Pooja Puneet, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, USA; [email protected] Apparao M. Rao, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson Nanomaterials Center, Clemson University, USA; [email protected] Ramakrishna Podila, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, USA; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2015.229
850
MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 40 • OCTOBER 2015 • www.mrs.org/bul
Data Loading...
