A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 5 ENHANCING COMPACT HEAT EXCHANGERS With $4 million from the DOE’s Integrated Research Projects program, the University of Michigan’s (U-M) department of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences is leading a project focused on improving compact heat exchangers. These condensed devices could transfer heat from a nuclear reactor to the systems that use the heat directly or convert it to electricity, and are much smaller and less expensive than traditional designs. Diffusion bonding, the process used to create these heat exchangers, involves stacking grooved plates and pressing them together, causing the grooves to form channels. This new RESEARCH TRACKS technique creates a large number of small channels, which maximize the contact between the metal and heated fluid, allowing more heat to pass through versus conventional heat exchangers. However, high temperatures weak- en the bonds between plates, limiting the heat exchangers to a lower temperature and eliminating the gains made by making them small. The new project aims to improve understanding of the bonding process to enable strong bonds at high temperatures. In addition to U-M, researchers come from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Illinois, Fort Lewis College, Idaho and Argonne National Laboratories, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and MPR Associates. umich.edu. STUDYING METEORS ON THE MOON An international team led by Curtin University, Australia, determined Collaborators held an October kickoff meeting at U-M. Sixth from right is EPRI researcher John Shingledecker, FASM. that asteroid impacts on the moon millions of years ago precisely coincide with some of the largest meteorite impacts on Earth. The study also found that major impact events on Earth were not standalone events, but were accompanied by a series of smaller impacts, shedding new light on asteroid dynamics in the inner solar system. Scientists studied microscopic glass beads up to two-billion years old that were found in lunar soil in December 2020 as part of the Chinese National Space Agency’s Chang’e-5 Lunar mission. The heat and pressure of meteorite impacts created the glass beads, so their age distribution should mimic the impacts and reveal a timeline of bombardments, say scientists. The team used a variety of microscopic analytical techniques, numerical modeling, and geological surveys to determine how and when the glass beads formed. The project included scientists from Australia, China, U.S., U.K., and Sweden. www.curtin.edu.au. Chang’e-5 glass beads. Courtesy of Beijing SHRIMP Center. The Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) at the University of California, Irvine opened its first affiliated branch at The Ohio State University. The new hub will provide members and industry with expanded research capabilities, facilities, and resources. ACRC is the largest industry-university consortia in North America dedicated to collaborative research in metal processing and manufacturing. acrc.manufacturing. uci.edu. Youngstown State University, Ohio, won a $2.3 million R&D award from the Air Force Research Laboratory to create a consortium on hybrid manufacturing. The collective includes the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining—the managing organization for America Makes—and Oak Ridge National Laboratory among others. The group will focus on advancing work to fabricate, inspect, and repair metallic machine parts, molds and dies, and defense components. ysu.edu. BRIEFS
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