Last year the Eyjafjallajökull eruption of led to a shut of airlines that cost an estimated $2 billion dollars. Airlines since have been rushing to invent new ways to protect their planes against damage that would be sustained from the volcanic ash that is thrown into the atmosphere during an eruption. While many would view ash to be a powder soft substance like one could find in the bottom of a grill, they are in fact wrong, and ash is essentially mini rocks. They can be incredibly sharp objects, which in an essence can sand blast the outside of a plane and completely damage the internal workings of a jet engine. Researchers believe they have found a new ceramic coating that can protect the planes from these issues.
"Of course, it's best for jets to avoid ash in the first place," said Nitin Padture, College of Engineering Distinguished Professor at the Ohio State University, who led the study. "That's not always possible. We determined that these coatings could offer sufficient protection against small amounts of ash ingested by the engine over time." The article explains.
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| Photograph of the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud. Ohio State University researchers have discovered that a new class of ceramic coatings could offer jet engines special protection against volcanic ash damage in the future. |
The researchers compared different ash samples and ceramic samples on jet engines, then would disassemble them to see how the two variations would interact. From the research they learned valuable insight into what causes the damage to the planes. When asked if they had learned anything else by conducting the study, one researcher replied, “We also learned how to pronounce 'Eyjafjallajökull.'"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110413120957.htm
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