Titanium - the BEST material for manufacturing submarines

Titanium is a silver-white metal, but titanium and titanium alloys tend to form a thin, dense titanium oxide film in the air, so it usually looks grayish white. Basic characteristics of titanium and titanium alloys include low density, high strength, high specific strength and strong corrosion resistance. These excellent properties and characteristics have made titanium and titanium alloys widely used in ship and marine engineering since the mid-1960s and have received unanimous praise.

Propellers, seawater pipelines, acoustic devices, fire fighting equipment and others made of titanium alloys are used on ships such as nuclear submarines, deep submersibles, hovercrafts and minesweepers. Titanium and titanium alloys used in submarines are mainly industrial pure titanium (TAO-10), Ti-6Al-4V (TC4), Ti-6Al-2Nb-1Ta-0.8Mo, Ti-3Al-2.5V (TA4), etc.

Titanium has excellent corrosion resistance in water, and is particularly resistant to seawater corrosion. It is no exaggeration that the corrosion resistance of titanium in all natural waters is second to none among all metallic materials. Titanium may lose its luster in high temperature water and water vapor (>300 ° C) but it does not corrode.

Titanium and titanium alloys are resistant to corrosion in seawater even at 260 ° C. Titanium tube condensers remain intact after 25 years of operation in contaminated seawater, with only slight discoloration and no signs of corrosion. Industrial pure titanium is resistant to seawater crevice corrosion, pitting corrosion and erosion corrosion.

The erosion rate in high-speed flowing seawater (eg 36.6 m/s) will increase. When seawater contains abrasive particles such as sand, it may influence the erosion resistance of titanium, but the effect is much smaller than that of copper alloy and aluminum alloy. Titanium is also the best anti-cavitation corrosion material in seawater.

However, since titanium is neither corrosive nor toxic in seawater, its surface is liable to attach a large number of marine organisms, which are difficult to remove. This is a problem to be solved in the application of titanium alloy in submarine.

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