Enhanced Aluminum Conductor for Overhead Electrical Transmission Application

Power transmission as a global industry, whose efficiency has suffered due to growing demands for energy, requires further material development to reduce energy losses and promote further refinement towards the creation of a sustainable energy grid. Materials used for transmitting electricity are directly limited by their electrical conductivity, and indirectly by the combination of its strength and its use in supporting the weight of the cable. Under this SBIR program, QuesTek Innovations LLC, a leader in the field of integrated computational materials engineering (ICME), proposes to design a high conductivity aluminum alloy with greater strengthening efficiency, thermal stability, and thermal softening resistance than incumbent aluminum alloys used in electrical conductor applications. This will lead to improved conductivity of existing commercial composite conductors without a loss in strength. The Phase I program will involve modeling the expected behavior of a high efficiency precipitation strengthened aluminum alloy pursuing conventional processing and manufacturing routes. QuesTek- developed models have been developed to predict targeted material properties for aluminum alloys such as electrical conductivity and strength, as well as thermodynamic information used to design prospective alloys. QuesTek will leverage its experience in computational materials design to strategically identify alloying strategies and processing methods that can provide the desired material properties, and subsequently produce material using processing methods compatible with the manufacturing of the end- product. Once made, specimens in various processing conditions, such as cast, drawn, aged, etc. will be evaluated by conductivity testing, tensile deformation, and microstructural characterization via electron microscopy. Data collected from lab-scale processing operations will inform further model development to link microstructure, strength, and conductivity as a function of thermo-mechanical processing. In Phase II, QuesTek will make a second design iteration based on the results of the Phase I to optimize the combination of composition and thermo-mechanical processing. QuesTek will partner with commercial cable manufacturers to implement the alloy design in a demonstration composite cable component and validate the expected improvement in performance by evaluating cable resistance, breaking strength, and thermal stability of a demonstration cable that would represent the final product transmission cable.