High-Strength Mechanically Alloyed Magnesium Nanocomposites

The military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade have resulted in a heavier U.S. Army. Soldiers are carrying more body armor, more batteries for field equipment, and more combat gear than ever before. Ground vehicles including HMMWVs, MRAPs, and Strykers all require multiple heavy armor solutions to mitigate ballistic and IED blast threats. Even rotorcraft including the Apache and Black Hawk helicopters aren"t immune to weight increases associated with ballistic armor requirements. Our continued military superiority and operational versatility will only be possible if warfighter air and ground vehicle system mass is significantly reduced. In order to help maintain the U.S. Army"s continued superiority and versatility and enable it in the future, Luna Innovations, in partnership with the Applied Research Lab at Penn State, are developing high strength, CNT-reinforced, mechanically alloyed magnesium nanocomposites using methods that are scaleable and transitionable into production practice. A mechanical alloying approach will be used coupled with spark plasma sintering technology to develop nano-crystalline CNT-reinforced Mg metal matrix composites that offer tensile yield strengths greater than 600 MPa coupled with room temperature failure strain of 5% or greater.