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10/23/2006 -
Titanium Alloys: Russian Aircraft and Aerospace Applications (2006)
by Valentin N. Moiseyev
ISBN 0-8493-3273-7. Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida. 2006. Hardcover. 206 pages. $159.95.
In Titanium Alloys: Russian Aircraft and Aerospace Applications, Valentin N. Moiseyev summarizes the findings of structure and heat experiments upon titanium ranging from the early l960s to the 21st century. The content of the book is unique due to the rarity of publishing material on the subject for western consumption. The book relates conclusions of performance studies by the author and his colleagues on chemical, temperature, and phase transformation strengths.
Russia's association with the study and use of titanium is long. In l875, D.K. Kirillov published his work about producing titanium in pure form. He was unable to convince the czarist regime to support his effort. There are now numerous scientists and engineers within research academies experimenting, testing, and applying their findings to machining, manufacturing, and military systems. Third among all metals on earth, it exists readily in nature and is abundant in Russia. However, the country is not yet exhaustively qualified in production of high-quality titanium.
Titanium is a baseline substance in aerospace applications and an essential component in military aircraft. Lightweight and chemically stable, it gains extraordinary strength when alloyed with other elements. Nearly 95% of supersonic airframes, 65% of subsonic airframes, and 4–6% of passenger jets are configured around titanium parts. Aviation companies are the core buyers of high-grade titanium. The Boeing Company's civilian airliner division will be spending $18 billion in a Russian-American titanium exchange for parts, manufacturing engineering design, and space-related design over the next three decades.
Important to the aerospace industry is an increased knowledge regarding titanium microstructures. Titanium Alloys summarizes experiments of phase transformations while slow cooling the metal. Facts, figures, graphs, and charts are given, which dissect 29 different alloys, their strength, and structure and temperature classifications. Some detail is given to eutectoid reactions—the lowest melting points possible for reaction alloys. Phase composition charts of alloys and their heat capacities are summarized. Tension endurance and creep curves are diagrammed.
The largest sector of the book, nearly 100 pages, discusses high-strength allows. Figures are given for oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon impurities and their impact on the metal's mechanical properties. Sections describing beta alloy materials science and studies are useful due to their wide range of applicability to processing options. Beta alloys are used in high constructive elements such as ducting on jets, engine, and exhaust assemblies and civil and military aircraft systems. Ballistic weapons and armored vehicles in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps requiring good elevated temperature properties use betas in baseline construction of weapons subsystems.
Titanium Alloys is a useful materials science text due to a variety of details related about microstructure investigations and the property relationships of titanium alpha and beta phases. Contents are a useful cross reference for more detailed research on developing processes for manufacturing. Application to the aerospace industry and Russian fighter jets will have to be formulated by the reader, as this section of the book is non-informational and generic in nature.
For more on Titanium Alloys: Russian Aircraft and Aerospace Applications, visit the Taylor & Francis/CRC Press web site. |
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