Titanium and its military applications

Titanium is light in weight and high in strength. It became an important material for jet aircraft structures and space vehicles soon after World War II. It gained the reputation of "space metal". Because of its high corrosion resistance, non-magnetic, sound transmission, crack resistance and good machinability, titanium is also an excellent structural material for ships. It is called "marine metal"". With the development of military industry in various countries, the application field of titanium is constantly broadened. So far, titanium has been widely used in aviation, aerospace, nuclear power, ship and other military engineering fields, and has become an important strategic material, becoming the third metal after iron and aluminum". Titanium is easy to heat and easy to cool; the thermal conductivity and resistance of pure titanium are approximately equal to that of stainless steel; no magnetism; titanium is easy to bend. From these characteristics we can see that titanium has great potential in the fields of aviation, aerospace and naval vessels which have harsh or special requirements.

1. begin with expensive flights

The thrust of modern aero engine continues to improve, and have high thrust weight ratio, compressor pressure ratio increase, many components, such as compressor disk blade heat stress and greatly increased, titanium can work normally in a lot of high temperature, can reduce the weight of the engine, the engine thrust weight ratio is greatly improved. In addition, titanium also has fatigue strength, yield strength, creep strength and lower elastic modulus. Under fatigue loading, it can reduce stress and improve the compression performance and reliability of the engine greatly. At present, components made of titanium in aircraft engines include compressor discs and vanes, casing, partitions, engine hoods, oil ducts, exhaust ducts, hot air ducts, and afterburner cylinders.

At present, titanium is mainly used in the field of aerospace parts: rocket fuel with liquid nitrogen and hydrogen containing high pressure cylinder with high pressure cylinders, the engine shell, Inner Mongolia satellite skin, tail skirt, frame, strengthening plate, the main load-bearing components, high rigidity corrugated shell, connected with bolts, rocket, docking antenna, catheter, posture the rocket fuel tank sealing cover.

2. "hit the water.""

The largest amount of titanium used on ships is the hull structure, such as the shell. The most typical example is the use of titanium on a nuclear submarine. The application of titanium in ship parts are: heat exchange equipment, such as steam generator, condenser, oil and air cooler; propeller, valve, water pump body, impeller, blade; seawater pipeline, T connector, four connector; the propeller and propeller shaft; torpedo launcher assembly and ejection brake assembly ship, guns and other interference.

3. other military applications

In addition to aviation, aerospace and marine, titanium in nuclear power, conventional weapons and other military areas are gradually expanding, and received good practical results. In nuclear energy, the typical application example is the advanced nuclear power plant "integrated". The titanium in the direct current steam generator of pwr. The direct current steam generator is one of the key devices to transform heat energy into power, which has a crucial influence on the thermal efficiency and safety of the reactor. Because of its excellent corrosion resistance and high specific strength, titanium alloy has become a suitable material for some key structures of steam generator, because of its high corrosion resistance and high specific strength.

In conventional weapons, titanium alloys can also be made of light, high strength, high toughness, heat resistance and other characteristics. Such as airborne equipment and light or portable artillery, such as titanium alloy manufacturing, can greatly reduce weight, reduce actual combat load, people's physical ability to be more fully play, flexibility and rapid response ability greatly improved. According to reports, a small artillery original weight 34.5 kg, the titanium alloy is only 18.1 kilograms, almost half the weight loss.

The use of titanium in combat tanks is another new area of military use of titanium, mainly using titanium alloys as bulletproof armor panels. At present, the United States has used titanium alloy in M1 main battle tanks, M2 infantry fighting vehicles and the new light 155 mm self-propelled howitzer.