稀有轻金属铍及其合金的应用进展

Progress in Application of Rare Light Metal Beryllium and Its Alloys

铍是一种具有优异核性能和物理性能的稀有轻金属,密度低、比刚度高、比强度大、热性能优异,常作为功能和结构材料应用于许多重要领域,其合金具有独特的机械性能、物理性能和良好的加工性能,是高科技领域的重要材料。本文综述了铍及其合金在核能、高能物理、国防及航空航天和商业等众多关键领域的最新应用进展。在核能领域,铍及氧化铍常用作核反应堆的反射体材料或减速剂;在高能物理领域,世界各国均将铍作为粒子加速器中束流管/窗口的最佳制作材料;在国防及航空航天领域,铍是惯性导航系统最理想的结构材料,由铍作为主材的惯性器件具有最高的导航精度,铍及其合金应用于飞行器结构件上,可有效减小构件重量、降低发射成本,铍及铍铝合金良好的光学性能和机械性能,使其成为光学系统中镜体和支撑结构的首选材料;在商业领域中,铍振膜的应用使音响品质显著提升。本文通过铍及其合金在促进其应用领域技术进步和改进产品性能中所发挥的重要作用,说明其作为"战略性、关键性"工程材料所起到的关键支撑,进而分析了我国在铍及其合金的研究生产现状,展望了其发展前景。本文将有助于科技人员对铍及其合金应用的全面认识,使其进入更多领域发挥独特作用。

Beryllium was a light rare metal with excellent nuclear and physical properties.It had low density,high specific stiffness,high specific strength and excellent thermal properties.As a kind of functional and structural materials,beryllium was widely used in many important areas.Its alloys were important materials in many high-tech fields because of their unique mechanical and physical properties and good processing properties.This paper reviewed recent application progress of beryllium and its alloys in the field of nuclear energy,high-energy physics,national defense and aerospace,and commercial applications.In the field of nuclear energy,beryllium metal became an important reflection of nuclear weapons and the reactor material and deceleration owing to its outstanding nuclear performance.Beryllium oxide had more excellent nuclear performance,whose neutron scattering cross section and the reduction ratio were higher than those of beryllium and graphite,which could reflect and decelerate neutrons effectively.Compared with beryllium,the high temperature irradiation stability of beryllium oxide was good.It still had a high mechanical strength at high temperature and thermal conductivity,which made it more suitable for the reflector,the moderator of the reactor and nuclear fuel dispersion agent.In the field of high-energy physics,beryllium had become the ideal material for beam tube in accelerators all over the world due to its low density,high strength,good thermal properties,non-magnetic properties and corrosion resistance.In the field of national defense and aerospace,beryllium is the most ideal structural material for inertial navigation system.As the main material,beryllium had the highest navigation accuracy,and was widely used in the field of inertial navigation for strategic missiles,fighter jets,carrier rockets,civil aviation and nuclear submarines.In addition,beryllium materials possessed superior mechanical properties such as high specific stiffness and high strength while maintaining their original characteristics such as low density and good thermal performance.Therefore,beryllium components could be made lighter and thinner to effectively reduce the weight of components and significantly reduce the launching cost under the premise of meeting the strength requirements.Polishing of beryllium had good reflectivity to infrared rays,which made it play an irreplaceable role in the field of optical.Beryllium mirror had high stiffness and good dimension stability,and could make the optical system capture images clearer and more accurate.It could be used for night vision system,the infrared camera,the optical system of the tank fire control system and fighter jets.Beryllium had become the preferred material for reflectors in space and ground optical systems due to its excellent mechanical,physical and polishing properties.In the commercial field,beryllium had become the preferred material for X-ray windows/tubes due to its good rigidity and high X-ray penetration.Beryllium foil could be used to make the vibration diaphragm of advanced loudspeaker.The application of beryllium diaphragm could improve the sound quality significantly.Beryllium copper alloy was the main form of beryllium consumption,because of its good casting performance,high thermal conductivity,easy welding repair,easy maintenance,had been widely used in the mold industry,and integrated circuit manufacturing process probes were also made of beryllium copper alloy.Beryllium and its alloys played an important and irreplaceable role in nuclear energy,high energy physics,national defense,aerospace and commercial fields.China had built the mining,mineral processing,smelting,processing and beryllium poison protection such as relatively complete industrial system,formed the beryllium oxide,beryllium beads,beryllium alloys and nuclear energy,weapons,inertial navigation and optical instrument with a series of beryllium material products production capacity,which had become one of the three qualified suppliers of beryllium material recognized by ITER,an international thermonuclear fusion reactor.With the increasing understanding of beryllium and its alloys by Chinese scientists and technicians,beryllium and its alloys would enter more application fields and release great potential and play a unique role in the foreseeable future.The important role played by beryllium and its alloys in promoting technological advancement and product performance in its applications fields demonstrated its key supporting role as a"strategic and critical"engineering material.The research and production status of beryllium and its alloys in China were further analyzed,and its development prospect was prospected.