Wessman Discusses $1.2M Hypersonics Grant with KGUN9

MSE department head, Patrick R. Taylor Endowed Department Leadership Chair and professor Sammy Tin and MSE assistant professor Andrew Wessman are developing new materials for 3D printing as part of a $1.2 million grant from the Office of Naval Research. The UA faculty members will create novel metallic alloys to be used in the additive manufacturing process to withstand the extreme conditions of hypersonic flight, or speeds of more than 3,500 mph.

Wessman discussed the goals of this grant and research with KGUN9. 

“Right now we are able to print materials like nickle super alloys that are good up to a temperature of about 1000 degrees Celsius at most, but for hypersonic applications we need to go hotter," Wessman said. “That’s where we need to do a lot more research, coming up with these new materials that can work at these temperatures of 15 - 1600 degrees Centigrade." 

According to KGUN, the research will be critical to the development of hypersonics — specifically the missiles Raytheon will be working on. 

“We're working a lot with Raytheon, that’s developing a lot of this technology for both their civilian applications—jet engines and things like that—but also military applications for their missile and defense systems," Wessman said.