Wain, Henry Laurence (Laurie) (1920 - 2006)

Summary

Henry Laurence (Laurie) Wain worked for the Materials Research Laboratories throughout his working life, rising to Director. He had an interest in high temperature alloys.

Details

Born 30 April 1920. Educated University of Melbourne (BMetE 1941, DSc 1965) and Birmingham (PhD 1952). Research Scientist, Senior Research Scientist, Principal Research Scientist, Senior Principal Research Scientist, Australian Research Laboratories 1941-70, Superintendent, Materials Division 1970-76; Counsellor, Defence Science, CONDS, Washington DC 1976-78; Director, Materials Research Laboratory 1978-81. Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering 1984.

High Temperature Alloys

The infant aeronautics industry developed in anticipation of the Second World War had made a significant contribution and at the war's end there seemed every prospect that it would prosper and that aircraft and engines would continue to be designed and built in Australia.

Powerful and efficient gas turbines make extreme demands on materials particularly for hot end components. High-temperature materials problems were acute, even in the Whittle era, where electric element and exhaust valve materials were the best available. Improvements in gas turbine performance have largely followed developments in the nickel and cobalt base alloys.

Australia, through the agency of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL) and the Defence Standards Laboratories (now Material Research Laboratories) declined this derivative material concept and, opted for an attempt to develop completely new alloy systems, using the best available basic knowledge of alloy developments at that time. The analysis by H. L. Wain and others suggested that binary alloys based on chromium, with additions of such metals as tantalum, tungsten, and molybdenum could enable the gas turbine operating temperatures to be increased considerably.

Since at that time chromium technology was limited to protective electroplating, methods had to be developed to produce and fabricate chromium and its alloys by melting, casting, extrusion, swaging and rolling into useful forms for test purposes. A great concern throughout this work was to develop adequate initial ductility in the chromium alloys and maintain it in service. Chromium, once classed as 'inherently brittle' was shown in the laboratories to be ductile if specific impurity levels and structure were controlled; similar characteristics were developed in chromium alloys. This was a major achievement of the program, even though ductility after service was never as high as engine designers would have liked. Demonstration alloys, the most successful of which contained 2 per cent Ta, 0.1 per cent Ti (to promote ductility) and 0.5 per cent Si (to improve oxidation resistance) were produced in Australia and, under licence in the USA. In Australia, a high temperature turbine was developed and fitted with 53 blades of the new alloy. The disc was forged by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, and the special blade blanks were manufactured by Australian National Industries. The blade system operated uncooled up to inlet gas temperatures of 1250°C, which was some 200°C in advance of the then operating systems.

Source: Technology in Australia 1788-1988, page 928

Related entries

Published resources

Resources

• 'Wain, Henry Laurence (19200430-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1477085. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, https://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_w.html. Details