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Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules

Ceramic-based hollow spheres are considered a great driving force for many applications such as offshore buoyancy modules due to their large diameter to wall thickness ratio and uniform wall thickness geometric features. We have developed such thin-walled hollow spheres made of alumina using slip ca...

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Autores principales: Jiang, Bo, Blugan, Gurdial, Sturzenegger, Philip N., Gonzenbach, Urs T., Misson, Michael, Thornberry, John, Stenerud, Runar, Cartlidge, David, Kuebler, Jakob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28773651
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma9070529
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author Jiang, Bo
Blugan, Gurdial
Sturzenegger, Philip N.
Gonzenbach, Urs T.
Misson, Michael
Thornberry, John
Stenerud, Runar
Cartlidge, David
Kuebler, Jakob
author_facet Jiang, Bo
Blugan, Gurdial
Sturzenegger, Philip N.
Gonzenbach, Urs T.
Misson, Michael
Thornberry, John
Stenerud, Runar
Cartlidge, David
Kuebler, Jakob
author_sort Jiang, Bo
collection PubMed
description Ceramic-based hollow spheres are considered a great driving force for many applications such as offshore buoyancy modules due to their large diameter to wall thickness ratio and uniform wall thickness geometric features. We have developed such thin-walled hollow spheres made of alumina using slip casting and sintering processes. A diameter as large as 50 mm with a wall thickness of 0.5–1.0 mm has been successfully achieved in these spheres. Their material and structural properties were examined by a series of characterization tools. Particularly, the feasibility of these spheres was investigated with respect to its application for deep sea (>3000 m) buoyancy modules. These spheres, sintered at 1600 °C and with 1.0 mm of wall thickness, have achieved buoyancy of more than 54%. As the sphere’s wall thickness was reduced (e.g., 0.5 mm), their buoyancy reached 72%. The mechanical performance of such spheres has shown a hydrostatic failure pressure above 150 MPa, corresponding to a rating depth below sea level of 5000 m considering a safety factor of 3. The developed alumina-based ceramic spheres are feasible for low cost and scaled-up production and show great potential at depths greater than those achievable by the current deep-sea buoyancy module technologies.
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spelling pubmed-54568712017-07-28 Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules Jiang, Bo Blugan, Gurdial Sturzenegger, Philip N. Gonzenbach, Urs T. Misson, Michael Thornberry, John Stenerud, Runar Cartlidge, David Kuebler, Jakob Materials (Basel) Article Ceramic-based hollow spheres are considered a great driving force for many applications such as offshore buoyancy modules due to their large diameter to wall thickness ratio and uniform wall thickness geometric features. We have developed such thin-walled hollow spheres made of alumina using slip casting and sintering processes. A diameter as large as 50 mm with a wall thickness of 0.5–1.0 mm has been successfully achieved in these spheres. Their material and structural properties were examined by a series of characterization tools. Particularly, the feasibility of these spheres was investigated with respect to its application for deep sea (>3000 m) buoyancy modules. These spheres, sintered at 1600 °C and with 1.0 mm of wall thickness, have achieved buoyancy of more than 54%. As the sphere’s wall thickness was reduced (e.g., 0.5 mm), their buoyancy reached 72%. The mechanical performance of such spheres has shown a hydrostatic failure pressure above 150 MPa, corresponding to a rating depth below sea level of 5000 m considering a safety factor of 3. The developed alumina-based ceramic spheres are feasible for low cost and scaled-up production and show great potential at depths greater than those achievable by the current deep-sea buoyancy module technologies. MDPI 2016-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5456871/ /pubmed/28773651 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma9070529 Text en © 2016 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jiang, Bo
Blugan, Gurdial
Sturzenegger, Philip N.
Gonzenbach, Urs T.
Misson, Michael
Thornberry, John
Stenerud, Runar
Cartlidge, David
Kuebler, Jakob
Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title_full Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title_fullStr Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title_full_unstemmed Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title_short Ceramic Spheres—A Novel Solution to Deep Sea Buoyancy Modules
title_sort ceramic spheres—a novel solution to deep sea buoyancy modules
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5456871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28773651
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma9070529
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