Alloys and Coatings for Space and other Extreme Applications

The demand for materials and coatings that can withstand extremely corrosive, thermal and abrasive environments is rapidly growing. Material challenges related to these types of extreme environments are common to applications such as space and aerospace applications, medical implants and metallurgical processes. The EXTREME project seeks to create a long-term, multi-faceted research and education collaboration between Norwegian (NTNU / SINTEF), German (RWTH Aachen, U. Bayreuth) and American (U. Virginia, U. Pittsburgh) organizations working in the field of development, production, characterization and modeling of alloys and coatings for extreme applications. The partnership has organized student and academic exchanges, held summer schools / workshops / symposia and produced joint doctoral lecture material. The first joint workshop/summer school was held 17-20 January 2022 in Trondheim with a focus on biomaterials. The second summer school was held in Aachen 22-26 May 2023 with a focus on high-temperature materials and recycling. In May 2024, a summer school was held in Pittsburgh with a focus on materials for aerospace applications. The last joint seminar/winter school was held in December 2024 with a focus on the role of water for materials in different environments. Exchanges of personnel between NTNU-AAchen, NTNU-UniPitt, NTNU-UniVirginia and NTNU-UniBayreuth have been carried out during the period, which has resulted in joint publications. In addition, the project has jointly produced project and recruitment videos and works as part of the project with joint research and network project applications towards the EU and NATO.

The INTPART project EXTREME has generated a long-lasting collaboration between partners in the programme. The programme has been an invaluable way of students to learn more broadly around materials science topics and for academics to stregthen their collaborations. On a numerical basis, the following outcomes have been achieved: -5 workshops with in total over 100 participants have been carried out -6 reseach stays have been funded, yielding so far 2 publications with at least 3 more under preparation >15 PhD lecture course materials have been jointly produced and shared 1 joint conference session (TMS fall meeting) has been organised In addition, three videos have been produced and published on YouTube aimed at student recruitment in Materials Science science. The partnership is currently in the process of preparing joint research and network proposals (NATO and EU MSCA)

Materials and coatings that need to withstand extreme corrosive, thermal and abrasive environments are in rapidly growing demand. Strikingly, the challenges associated with severe environments transgress a multitude of applications such as aerospace and space applications, medical implants and metallurgical processes. The EXTREME project attempts to forge a long lasting, multifaceted research and education collaboration between Norwegian (NTNU/SINTEF), German (RWTH Aachen) and American (U.Connecticut, U. Virginia, U. Pittsburgh) organisations in the area of development, production, characterisation and modelling of alloys and coatings for extreme applications. The partnership will arrange exchange of students/researchers/faculty, summer schools/workshops/symposia and a joint PhD course. Outcomes and impacts of the project include 1) graduating students with broad competence in "extreme" materials for recruitment in industry and academia, 2) transfer of materials competence between sectors such as Metallurgy, Airspace/Space and Biomedical, 3) Joint research project applications towards a broader customer base, 3) joint publications in journals, conferences and popular channels, 4) A more widespread awareness of the multidisciplinary approach required to solve material challenges for extreme applications.