April 14 – 19, 2024
Giardini Naxos, Messina
Sicily, Italy
About This Conference
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTC) are a family of compounds that display a unique set of properties, including melting temperatures above 3250o K, good chemical stability and strength at high temperatures which make them suited to operate in extreme environments. UHTC materials are typically considered to be the carbides, nitrides, carbonitrides and borides of the transition metals, but the Group IV compounds (Ti, Zr, Hf) plus TaC are generally the main focus of research due to the superior melting temperatures and stable high-melting temperature oxides that form in situ. The combination of properties makes these materials potential candidates for a variety of high-temperature structural applications, including engines, high-speed vehicles, race car brakes, plasma arc electrodes, advanced nuclear fuels, fusion first walls and diverters, cutting tools, furnace elements and high temperature shielding and even solar absorbers of concentrating solar power systems.
The development of structural materials for use in oxidizing and rapid heating environments at temperatures above 1900oK is therefore of great engineering importance. For the past two decades world-wide researchers have built on a resurgence in exploration of UHTCs and have expanded the scope of engineering and design using these novel materials. Topics such as incorporating UHTC-based ceramic matrices in fibrous composites (UHTCMCs); exploring new compositional space to investigate unique high entropy carbides and borides, and expanding the field of ultra-refractory composites, complex carbides, carbonitrides and borides have all led to unique developments. The purpose of this meeting is to thus bring together interested parties from academia, government and industry in a single forum that allows the bench researchers to interact with designers and engineers to discuss state-of-the-art research and development efforts, what the results mean in a broader context and how to move the technology forward toward near-term and longer–term use.
Outline
Interest in high temperature ceramic phases has been growing in recent years, with significant ongoing research programs in many countries across the world. This has occurred because the conditions in which materials are required to operate are becoming ever more challenging as operating temperatures and pressures are increasing in all areas of manufacture, energy generation, transport and environmental clean-up. Often extreme temperatures are combined with severe chemical environments, high mechanical loads and exposure to high energy and, in the nuclear industry, to ionizing radiation. The production and processing of next-generation materials capable of operating in these conditions is non-trivial, especially at the scale required in many of these applications. In some cases, totally new compositions, processing and joining strategies have to be developed. The need for long-term reliability in many components means that defects introduced during processing will need to be kept to an absolute minimum or defect-tolerant systems developed, e.g. via fiber reinforcement, multilayering or particular architectures. Modelling techniques that link different length and time scales to define the materials chemistry, microstructure and processing strategy are key to speeding up the development of these next-generation materials. Further, they will not function in isolation but as part of a system. It is the behaviour of the latter that is crucial, so that interactions between different materials, the joining processes, the behaviour of the different parts under extreme conditions and how they can be made to work together, must be understood.
This conference seeks to bring together the entire community – manufacturing, processing and oxidation bench scientists, designers, engineers and users of these materials – under one roof to present and discuss emerging and state of the art UHTC and UHTCMC processing, evaluation, and implementation techniques.
This is the sixth of a regular series of meetings held every two to three years. The vision for this workshop is to have 5 main topic areas:
- Processing (including all processing steps, synthesis of new compounds, additive manufacturing, scale-up issues and novel approaches);
- Environmental response (including thermo-dynamic considerations, oxidation behavior);
- Characterization (including microstructure, thermo-mechanical properties, subscale testing);
- Modelling (at all levels, from atomistic to processing and property related); and
- Applications (including high-speed flight, propulsion, and energy related).
As with the previous conferences, the bulk of the work is likely to be focused on processing and characterization studies, but it is important to encourage cross-fertilization with modelers and application-driven activities ongoing within the testing and design communities, as well as bringing in the “bigger picture” systems-level engineers and managers to introduce them to the capabilities of the materials and share with the researchers their needs.
Conference Organization
Conference Chairs
Dr. Diletta Sciti
CNR-ISSMC (former ISTEC) – Italy
Tel: +39-546-699-748
Dr. Laura Silvestroni
CNR-ISSMC (former ISTEC) – Italy
Tel: +39-546-699-723
Dr. Fréderic Monteverde
CNR-ISSMC (former ISTEC) – Italy
Tel: +39-546-699-758
Conference Co-Chairs
Prof. Gregory Thompson
University of Alabama
Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
USA
Prof. Raffaele Savino
University of Naples Federico II
Department of Industrial Engineering
Italy
Prof. Jon Binner
Birmingham University
UK
Dr. Eric Wuchina
Naval Surface Warfare Center
USA
Organizing Committee
Dr. Lavina Backman
US Naval Research Laboratory
USA
Dr. Daniel Butts
MACH-20, LLC
USA
Dr. Carmen Carney
Air Force Research Laboratory
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate
USA
Dr. Michael Cinibulk
Air Force Research Lab
USA
Dr. Bai Cui
Mechanical and Materials Engineering
University of Nebraska Lincoln
USA
Prof. William Fahrenholtz|
Missouri University of Science & Technology
USA
Dr. Mario de Stefano Fumo
CIRA
Italy
Dr. Luca Zoli
CNR-ISSMC (former ISTEC) – Italy
Italy
Abstracts Submission
Coming Soon
Open Ceramics Special Issue
Authors – please consider to publish your contribution in the Open Ceramics Special Issue on:
Advances in
Ultra-high Temperature Ceramics and Composites.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/open-ceramics/about/call-for-papers#advances-in-ultra-high-temperature-ceramics-and-composites.
Publication is free of charge until December 31, 2023.
Past UHTC Conferences
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics: Materials for Extreme Environment Applications
August 3-8, 2008 – Lake Tahoe, California
Conference Chairs:
Eric Wuchina, Naval Surface Warfare Center, USA
Alida Bellosi, Institute of Science & Technology for Ceramics, Italy
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics: Materials for Extreme Environment Applications II
May 13-18, 2012 – Hernstein, Austria
Conference Chairs:
Bill Fahrenholtz, Missouri University of Science & Technology, USA
Bill Lee, Imperial College, London, UK
Eric Wuchina, Naval Surface Warfare Center, USA
Yanchun Zhou, Aerospace Research Inst. Of Materials & Processing Technology, China
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics: Materials for Extreme Environment Applications III
April 12-16, 2015 – Gold Coast, Australia
Conference Chairs:
George Franks, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Carolina Tallon, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics: Materials for Extreme Environment Applications IV
September 17 – 20, 2017 – Windsor, UK
Conference Chairs:
Jon Binner, University of Birmingham, UK
Bill Lee, Imperial College, London, UK
Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics: Materials for Extreme Environment Applications V
June 5-8, 2022 – Snowbird, Utah
Conference Co-Chairs:
Daniel Butts, MACH-20, LLC, USA|
Carmen Carney, Air Force Research Laboratory, USA
Carolina Tallon, Virginia Tech, USA
Gregory Thompson, University of Alabama, USA
Chris Weinberger, Colorado State University, USA
Conference Venue
Coming soon
Conference Sponsors
Coming soon
Sponsorship Opportunities
Coming soon
General Information About ECI
Engineering Conferences International (ECI) is a not-for-profit, global engineering conferences program, originally established in 1962 that provides opportunities for the exploration of problems and issues of concern to engineers and scientists from many disciplines.
The format of the conference provides morning and late afternoon or evening sessions in which major presentations are made. Poster sessions will be scheduled for evening discussion as well. Available time is included during the afternoons for ad hoc meetings, informal discussions, and/or recreation. This format is designed to enhance rapport among participants and promote dialogue on the development of the meeting. We believe the conferences have been instrumental in generating ideas and disseminating information to a greater extent than is possible through more conventional forums.
All participants are expected both to attend the entire conference and to contribute actively to the discussions. The recording/photographing of lectures and presentations is forbidden. As ECI conferences take place in an informal atmosphere, casual clothing is the usual attire.
Smoking is prohibited at ECI conferences and conference functions.