With the rapid development of space exploration, higher requirements have been put forward for aerospace equipment, functionality and serviceability of aerospace materials turn out to be increasingly significant. Therefore, high-performance fiber materials have been widely applied in the aerospace field due to their superior mechanical properties, lightweight characteristics, and weaveability. In recent years, researchers worldwide have conducted extensive studies on the preparation processes and intrinsic structures of aerospace fiber materials, and have carried out frontier explorations in areas such as mechanical reinforcement, space environment resistance and ultra-high temperature resistance. This paper systematically summarizes the currently widely used prevalent organic and inorganic high-performance fiber materials from the perspectives of structures, performance, and application. It particularly highlights cutting-edge technologies, material characteristics, and preparation methods of advanced textile materials in the aerospace field, as well as their application advantages in various aerospace sectors. Additionally, it outlines future development directions and application prospects of novel fiber materials in space technology, aiming to provide new insights for advancing aerospace fiber material research.
Aerospace primary load-bearing components require structural materials that are lightweight and offer high specific stiffness, high specific strength, excellent wear resistance and good environmental adaptability, which poses a considerable challenge to conventional metals/alloys. In this work, SiCp/2024Al composites with dual-heterogeneous architecture were fabricated based on powder metallurgy route. By planetary ball milling, mechanically mixing, hot consolidation and extrusion, laminated bimodal grained Al matrix was inherited from the processed powder mixtures, integrated with micron and nano SiCp with deliberate spatial distribution. The dual-heterogeneous SiCp/2024Al composites exhibit outstanding comprehensive mechanical properties: elastic modulus >95.0 GPa, yield strength of 696.5 MPa, tensile strength of 792.1 MPa and elongation of 5.9%, maintaining comparable tensile strength while achieving a 136.0% increase in elongation, with only a 10.3% reduction in yield strength, compared with uniform ultrafine-grained counterparts reinforced solely with micron SiC particles. The superior strength is attributed to grain boundary strengthening and insufficient mobile dislocations, whereas the excellent strength-ductility synergy originates from hetero-deformation induced hardening and enhanced dislocation accumulation due to intragranular nano-precipitates. This study provides valuable insights for the toughness-strength balanced design and scalable production of lightweight Al matrix composites for aerospace load-bearing applications.
Zirconia (ZrO2) ceramic fibers have been widely used in various fields due to their advantages of high-temperature resistance, low thermal conductivity, and good chemical stability. This paper reviews the research progress of ZrO2 fibers in recent years, including stabilization strategies, preparation methods, and applications. First, the stabilizers and stabilization mechanism of ZrO2 fibers are introduced briefly. Then, various preparation methods for ZrO2 fibers are discussed, including electrospinning, solution blow spinning, centrifugal spinning, template method, and dry spinning. After that, the applications of ZrO2 fibers in thermal insulation, air filtration, and water treatment are introduced in detail. Finally, the preparation and application prospects of ZrO2 fibers are prospected.
Under extreme service conditions involving long-term high temperatures, thermo-mechanical cycling, and concurrent oxidation/corrosion, the design of aerospace structural alloys is simultaneously constrained by the exponentially expanding compositional space, the scarcity and high cost of high-fidelity property labels, and the limited transferability of strongly coupled multi-scale mechanisms. Along the “composition–process–microstructure–property–service” chain, a materials intelligent design paradigm is constructed with physics-based constraints at its core: multi-modal and multi-fidelity data are standardized, aligned across domains, and stored in a unified database; conservation laws, crystallographic symmetry, and phase-diagram consistency are embedded into classical machine learning models, convolutional neural networks, graph neural networks, and Transformer/pre-trained architectures; microstructural intermediates such as segmented phase maps and size distributions are explicitly introduced to strengthen the mapping among processing, microstructure, and properties; and uncertainty quantification, domain adaptation, and out-of-distribution detection are employed to control the risk associated with model extrapolation. At the decision-making level, generative design and multi-objective Bayesian optimization are incorporated to form a closed-loop “generation–screening–validation–update” workflow. For γ–γ′-strengthened Ni/Co-based superalloys, L12-strengthened heat-resistant/high-temperature Al alloys, and multi-principal/high-entropy alloys, multi-objective trade-offs are performed with respect to γ′ volume fraction and solvus temperature versus lattice misfit, precipitation and coarsening kinetics versus the synergy between thermal conductivity and strength, and sublattice occupancy versus long-range order. Overall, this physics-informed intelligent framework enables robust extrapolation that balances performance and confidence under small-sample, cross-domain, and multi-modal data conditions, and provides a unified feature space and evaluation criterion for the continuous iteration of long-life high-temperature alloys.
Alumina-mullite biphasic fibers have attracted significant interest due to their exceptional mechanical properties and high-temperature stability. However, achieving the formation of mullite and α-Al2O3 biphasic structures at lower temperatures remains a challenge. This study introduces a novel approach for low-temperature preparation of alumina-mullite biphasic fibers. The method utilizes a biphasic hybrid sol precursor, leveraging the encapsulation effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Aluminum carboxylate sol and tetraethyl orthosilicate were selected as raw materials. PEG encapsulates both mullite and alumina precursor sol particles, creating a biphasic mixed sol system. Alumina-mullite biphasic fibers were then fabricated via a dry spinning process. Results show that when the Al2O3/SiO2 ratio was between 60:15 and 70:15, the mullite precursor sol preferentially transformed to mullite. By encapsulating both mullite precursor sol particles (Al2O3/SiO2 ratio of 65:15) and alumina sol particles with PEG 4 000, then concentrating and mixing the two sols, the fiber with a biphasic structure was formed at 1 300 °C. This structure consisted of rod-like α-Al2O3 and mosaic-shaped mullite. The study also clarified the underlying mechanism of PEG encapsulation, providing a theoretical basis for developing high-performance alumina-based fibers.
The pulsed laser has been proven to be a powerful tool for studying single event effects. In practical applications, laser test results must be correlated with high-energy particles to achieve accurate predictions of spatial SEE rates. Currently, most laser-high energy particle correlation methods are based on charge collection 3-D rectangular-parallel-piped or nested Parallelepiped models. These models still need to introduce the effect of ionization track differences. By adjusting the defocusing distance of the laser, an ionization track with varying feature sizes was obtained at different depths of the bipolar device operational amplifier LM324. The charge collection produced by the laser with different characteristic ionization tracks was compared, and the influencing factors and the action mechanism were analyzed. The results indicated that influenced by carrier density, the ionization track width at different depths of the semiconductor devices was the main factor that affected the charge collection. More charge was collected when the ionization track width in the surface area of the device was larger. The opposite result was observed in the depletion region and substrate layer. The implications of the results for laser-high energy particle correlations are further discussed. Considering the effect of the ionization track on the charge collection efficiency, the equivalent LET of the laser will be overestimated or underestimated.
Characterization and classification prediction of hypervelocity impact flash radiation are crucial for the assessment and diagnosis of structural material damage. On the hypervelocity impact range of China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center, tests have been conducted to study the radiation characteristics of impacts. The projectiles contained aluminum spheres and aluminum-polycarbonate combination, and various structural targets were naked Hexogen（RDX）, empty box, and packed RDX. Within an impact velocity range of 2.6 km/s to 7.3 km/s, measurements were taken of the time-series signals of radiation intensity across two channels: 800.0 nm and 393.4 nm. By comparing the radiation time-series data, significant differences were observed in the peak radiation signals generated by impacts on different targets, which also showed correlations with impact velocity. Through quantitative extraction of radiation peak features from the signals, the power-law variation relationship between radiation characteristics and impact velocity under different experimental conditions were studied. This analysis revealed distinct differences in radiation signal characteristics corresponding to various targets. Furthermore, by mapping these radiation features onto a two-dimensional plane and performing analysis of two-dimensional feature classification, it was demonstrated that the radiation characteristics of different targets could be effectively classified and predicted.
As a high-performance thermosetting resin, cyanate ester resin demonstrates significant application potential in the fields such as aerospace, electronic packaging, and radar communications, owing to its unique chemical structure and excellent comprehensive properties. In recent years, modification of cyanate ester resin to further enhance its thermal stability, mechanical properties, and processability while reducing costs has become a research hotspot in the field of polymer and composite materials. This paper aims to review the latest research progress on modification methods for cyanate ester resins. By exploring the effects of various modification methods on the properties of cyanate ester resins and their respective advantages and disadvantages, it seeks to provide methodological references for developing cyanate ester resins suitable for space environmental applications and to support the broadening of their applications.
The Earth’s magnetotail tail lobes are extended structures formed by solar wind compression on the sunward side of the magnetosphere. These regions are filled with low-density, high-temperature rarefied plasma, whose particle spectrum and flow characteristics significantly differ from typical magnetospheric environments like the solar wind. When the Moon periodically traverses this region, the interaction between charged particle streams and the lunar surface triggers redistribution of surface charge and alters the spatial migration characteristics of near-surface lunar dust. Therefore, this study employs the Spacecraft Plasma Interaction System (SPIS) software to simulate lunar surface charging behavior induced by charged particle streams arriving at and departing from the lunar surface within the magnetotail lobe environment. It investigates the evolution of lunar surface potential, current, and the spatial distribution of charged lunar dust during the particle influx process. Results indicate: During the initial charging phase, high-speed electron streams reach the lunar surface first, causing the surface potential to rapidly drop to approximately −39.00 V. As the negative surface potential intensifies, charged lunar dust generated by collisions with the electron stream migrates outward due to electrostatic repulsion, causing the potential to gradually rebound and stabilize between −1.00~−20.00 V. During the steady-state phase, electron, ion, and dust currents achieve flux equilibrium. Charged dust primarily accumulates within 0~100 m above the lunar surface, forming a near-surface dust layer with a density of approximately 106 m−3.
