. This could if ever brought into production, prove revolutionary for the future of turbines.
At present, steam turbine blades, bearings, and seals are made of metal that tends to soften and elongate well before its melting point, which is one issue restricting the output of today's power plants. If these issues are resolved, it is possible to increase the temperature of anything that uses a steam turbine to convert heat into electricity.
Ames National Laboratory, and Iowa State University is said to be stronger and lighter than the most advanced high-temperature alloys now in use.," or MPES. It comprises 42 percent aluminum, 25 percent titanium, 13 percent niobium, 8 percent zirconium, 8 percent molybdenum, and 4 percent tantalum.
The research team claims that a wide range of these alloys exhibits excellent potential in metrics like strength-to-weight, fracture toughness, corrosion and radiation resistance, wear resistance, etc. However, the MPES subset this team has investigated performs exceptionally well in high-temperature conditions.
According to the researchers, this finding suggests a more significant class of MPES materials just waiting to be studied and have exciting immediate promise in energy and aerospace. They warn that moreare needed before they can reliably make large parts out of these alloys without microscopic cracks and that the feedstock contains some expensive metals that will make it hard to scale up this particular MPES for use in applications where cost is a top priority.