Is there room for porosity in nuclear ceramics? And much more inside January/February ACerS Bulletin

 

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The January/February 2017 issue of the ACerS Bulletin is now available online—and it’s packed full of great content to kick off the new year.

The new issue features a cover story exploring the possibilities of nuclear ceramics—can we capitalize on porosity to broaden the materials’ nuclear applications? Jessica Krogstad, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is using studies of the synergistic effects of radiation-enhanced diffusion and thermal gradients to learn from dynamic microstructures in extreme conditions. According to Krogstad, nuclear ceramics have a lot of potential—but we need improved experimental approaches to enable ceramics within diverse nuclear applications.

The January/February Bulletin also features a warm introduction to ACerS incoming president William “Bill” Lee, along with a recap of ACerS 118^th annual meeting, during which Lee received the ceremonial ceramic gavel from outgoing president Mrityunjay Singh. As ACerS first international president, Lee will focus his efforts over the next year on raising ACerS’s global profile, supporting young people, and serving the needs of industry.

The issue also includes the first report from an exploratory project to examine possibilities of additive manufacturing of ceramic body armor. HotEnd Works of Oberlin, Ohio, collaborated with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to evaluate the feasibility of 3-D printing to manufacture ceramic body armor. Written by Tyrone Jones, Christopher Meredith, and Benjamin Becker, the article details initial ballistic tests that show that, although additional work is needed, additive manufacturing may be able to improve the agility, responsiveness, and customization of ceramic armor.

NSF Ceramics Program director Lynnette Madsen also provides an introduction to the most recent class of CAREER awardees from the Ceramics Program. Read more about the research and engagement activates that make these five junior faculty—Yiquan Wu, Claire White, Wei Lai, Candace Chan, and Geoff Brennecka—exemplary teachers-scholars. Madsen also provides a list of the more than 40 awards that the Ceramics Program provided support for in FY2016.

In addition, the latest issue also features a short report detailing a new software tool designed to ease the selection of chemicals and improve the accuracy of calculations for formulations of glasses, glass-ceramics, and ceramics. By Renato Luiz Siqueira, José Henrique Alano, Oscar Peitl, and Edgar Dutra Zanotto, the article details the team’s user-friendly software tool, called GlassPanacea. Dig into the article to see what it can do and how you can download this valuable tool for free.

We are pleased to introduce a brand new business and market view column, which features excerpts from BCC Research reports on sectors involving the ceramic and glass industry. This month’s focus features part of a report from Andrew McWilliams, project analyst for BCC Research, on sol–gel products, applications, and markets.

Plus, there’s lots more good stuff inside this—and every issue—of the ACerS Bulletin. The current issue is free to all for a short time, but remember that all the valuable content in over ninety years of past issues of the ACerS Bulletin is free only to members—so considering joining us today!