October 2024 Composites Blog
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October 3, 2024
The CSA will Fund Development of Ecofriendly Rocket Fuel and Lightweight Propellant Tanks
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) awarded $1.5m to rocket manufacturer Reaction Dynamics(RDX) for the development of composite propellant tanks and carbon-neutral rocket fuel for the Aurora orbital launch project. The goal of the project is to develop a safe and cost-effective launch vehicle. $1 million of the CSA’s funding will go towards the development of large composite propellant tanks. The lightweight tanks should improve Aurora’s launch capabilities. The 18-meter rocket is expected to make use of several carbon fiber composite tanks to store liquid oxidizer. All composite tanks are designed in-house by Reaction Dynamic's structure team. RDX already has significant expertise in the development of composite fuel vessels and this new project will build on that expertise. The remaining $500K will support the development of a high-performance biopolymer-based fuel, that is expected to significantly reduce fuel emissions. The company says the fuel is carbon-neutral, ecofriendly, and they believe it will cut emissions to a faction of what is emitted from more traditional options. RDX says its main goal is to maximize aurora’s payload capacity. The company’s capabilities center around their innovative launch technology that utilizes a novel hybrid propulsion system that is said to decrease the costs and environmental impact associated with launching space vehicles into orbit. An inaugural flight of the aurora’s suborbital vehicle is set to launch in 2025. Learn more about this topic here.
October 19, 2024
New Rigid Composite Material Has Rare Noise and Vibration Dampening Capabilities
New Rigid Composite Material Has Rare Noise and Vibration Dampening Capabilities
Researchers at ETH Zurich managed to develop a composite material that is rigid and that demonstrates impressive internal dampening capabilities, this combination of characteristics is rarely found in one material. Various different materials and mechanisms are used to mitigate noise and vibration in certain applications, examples include rubber, foam, springs, and shock absorbers. However, a rigid material that has excellent noise and vibration dampening capabilities was practically unheard of until now. Researchers at ETH Zurich managed to create the new material by layering ultra-thin rigid materials such as smartphone-grade glass, and connecting them with thin rubber-like layers that were formed by crosslinking a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mixture. Essentially, they combined thin rigid material layers with softer dampening material layers to produce a composite material that exhibited characteristics of both materials. However, to achieve the desired properties the thickness of each layer had to be within certain limit. In other words, there had to be specific ratio of rigid to dampening layers. To find the correct ratio the researchers first ran computer simulations to determine the optimal material limits. They determined that the damping layers should only make up 1 percent of the material volume, and the rigid layers should constitute at least 99 percent. The team explained that if the polymer layer is too thin the damping effect is minimized. But on the other hand, they mentioned that if the polymer layer is too thick then the material would not exhibit adequate stiffness. Learn more about this topic here.