Materials for space

Radiation damage to materials in space applications poses a serious threat to the safety, durability and reusability of the structural components. The detailed study of structural ceramics degradation under radiation and establishment of degradation mechanisms will provide a solid foundation for future design and optimization of sustainable ceramic based materials for space applications.

The supervision will be jointly carried out by  Dr. Yinglu Tang, Dr. Santiago Garcia Espallargas and Dr.Rinze Benedictus from Aerospace Engineering of TU Delft. The PhD will explore the following three work packages:

WP 1: Synthesis of phase pure ceramic materials

It is often accepted that due to the high melting point of ceramics, the synthesis of materials such as ZrB2 and ZrC requires sintering agents, which can facilitate sintering due to their low melting points yet can also lead to oxidation problem at higher temperatures. The research objective is to synthesize single-phase high temperature ceramic material through defect engineering.

WP 2: Radiation damage characterization of UHTC

When materials are exposed to space radiation, such as electrons and protons, defects and overall material degradation leading to functional failure can occur. The material property degradation shall be characterized in terms of spectral emissivity, mechanical strength and thermal conductivity etc. A link between defect chemistry and resultant material property degradation is to be explored.

WP 3: Modelling of the interaction of high energy radiation and space materials

The PhD candidate will collaborate with another PhD candidate working on degradation modelling. Ultimately, the objective is to integrate experimental work with a trained model for the design of space materials under different mission conditions.