Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Researchers at the National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Rourkela have developed a lightweight material that can come in handy in developing durable aircraft landing gear.
Typically made of aluminium and aluminium alloys, aircraft landing gear is designed to absorb the weight of the aircraft and must endure contact with the runway.
While aluminium and aluminium alloys are lightweight in nature, their durability under such high-stress conditions remains a limitation.
To address this gap, Prof. Syed Nasimul Alam, Associate Professor, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NIT Rourkela, along with his research scholar group, including Dr. Arka Ghosh, Dr. Ashutosh Das, Dr. Pankaj Shrivastava, Nityananda Sahoo, Parth Patel, and Dr. Velaphi Msomi from the University of South Africa (UNI SA), have developed a novel nanocomposite material that can be used for aircraft landing gear.
The findings of this research have been published in the prestigious Materials Letters journal. Nanocomposites are a mixture of materials at the nanoscale level and are more than 1,00,000 times thinner than a human hair.
To achieve the desired results, the NIT Rourkela research group used carbon nanotubes for better compressive strength and load-bearing capacity.
The addition of graphite nanoplatelets further improved the nanocomposite.
To make the mixture thermally stable, the research team used hexagonal boron nitride, resulting in better strength, toughness, and performance of aluminium.
For even dispersion of particles in the aluminium matrix, high-frequency sound waves were applied.
The mixed components were then put under high-pressure compaction, followed by heating and compression in an oxygen-free environment, which resulted in a dense and strongly bonded nano-composite suitable for aerospace applications.
“The Al-based hybrid nanocomposites developed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) show a uniform dispersion of the nanofiller in the Al matrix and an excellent wear resistance due to the synergistic load-bearing mechanism.” Prof. Alam said.
With real-world potential for use in defence aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where lightweight and durability are essential, the developed nanocomposite can improve structural reliability and contribute to safer and more efficient aerospace operations.
