Search Results for geometry

The thermal spray application of inert gas atomised iron based powders for combined wear and corrosion protection prospectively offers important economical advantages compared to the well-established cermet coatings due to their lower price. Recent studies revealed basic knowledge about the thermal spray processing of these materials. For protecting the substrate from corrosive media, coatings have to be dense and impermeable to fluids. Especially poor bonding, occurring between partially melted or unmelted spray particles, leads to open porosity. Hence a certain degree of melting of particles is required. The GTV K2 spray gun allows the use of different nozzles to vary process temperature and velocity in a wide range. This paper shows the influence of applicated nozzles and process conditions on coating characteristics. Powder and coating characterisation is carried out by means of optical microscopy, digital image analysis, SEM and XRD. Additionally, some results regarding microhardness and wear behaviour are given.

This study assesses the effect of injector geometry on particle injection in plasma spraying. Numerical simulations show that high particle velocities can be realized with an injector that is significantly longer than the norm. In order to verify the prediction, injectors with different diameters and lengths were used to spray Al 2 O 3 powders while measuring particle velocity at the injector outlet. Based on velocity, coating thickness, and XRD measurements, it is shown that small changes in injector geometry can have a significant influence on particle behavior without affecting phase composition. The unaltered state of the phase composition indicates that the particles did not possess enough momentum to penetrate the comparatively fast plasma jet.

The performance (particle velocity and velocity distribution) of a typical injector, and the resulting particle spray pattern for metallic (NiCrAlY) and ceramic (ZrO 2 ) particles are examined as a function of carrier gas flow rate and the effect of varying the geometry immediately upstream of the injector. Injector performance is also examined for a 1:1 mixture of ceramic and metallic particles such as is used in the spraying of functionally graded materials. The upstream geometries tested included a 90° "tee," a 90° elbow, and a straight entrance. The elbow geometry was tested in both "up" and "down" orientation to determine the influence of gravity. The upstream geometry can alter the average particle injection velocity by 10-15% influencing both the spray pattern trajectory and width.

Effect of nozzle geometry (such as throat diameter of a barrel nozzle, exit diameter and exit divergence angle of a divergent nozzle) on HVOF thermal spraying process (thermodynamical behavior of combustion gas and spray particles) was investigated by numerical simulation and experiments with Jet Kote II system. The process changes inside the nozzle as obtained by numerical simulation studies were related to the coating properties. A NiCrAlY alloy powder was used for the experimental studies. While the throat diameter of the barrel nozzle was found to have only a slight effect on the microstructure, hardness, oxygen content and deposition efficiency of the coatings, the change in divergent section length (rather than exit diameter and exit divergence angle) had a significant effect. With increase in divergent section length of the nozzle, the amount of oxide content of the NiCrAlY coatings decreased and the deposition efficiency increased significantly. Also, with increase in the exit diameter of the divergent nozzle, the gas temperature and the degree of melting of the particle decreased. On the other hand the calculated particle velocity showed a slight increase while the gas velocity increased significantly.

The conditions of particle injection into the side of plasma jets play an important role in determining the microstructure and properties of sprayed deposits. However, few investigations have been carried out on this topic. The current work presents the results of an experimental and computational study of the influence of injector geometry and gas mass flow rate on particle dynamics at injector exit and in the plasma jet. Two injector geometries were tested: a straight tube and a curved tube with various radii of curvature. Zirconia powders with different particle size range and morphology were used. A possible size segregation effect in the injector was analyzed from the space distribution of particles collected on a stick tape. The spray pattern in the plasma jet was monitored from the thermal radiation emitted by particles. An analysis of the particle behavior in the injector and mixing of the carrier-gas flow with the plasma jet was carried out using a 3-D computational fluids dynamics code.

In this study, dense multicomponent NiCoCrAlTaY bond coats and feather-structured YSZ topcoats are deposited on DZ40M alloy vane surfaces by the PS-PVD method. Based on thickness measurements and microstructure examination, it is shown that the double vane surface was completely covered by both layers. The thickest portion of the coating was found close to the leading and trailing edges of the vane. The results show that it is possible to manufacture TBCs, including the bond coat and topcoat, on first-stage turbine blades by a single PS-PVD process.

The influence of air plasma sprayed alumina coating geometry, microstructure, interface roughness on its delamination and crack propagation resistance during low temperature thermal cycling, i.e. thermal mismatch stress, is investigated both numerically and experimentally. Previous studies on thermal cycling loading concentrate on flat, numerically designed locally curved specimens and/or mathematically modeled roughness without extension towards real coating morphology, which renders the conclusions less practically driven. Results show that arbitrarily oriented cracks originate predominantly near the coating/substrate interface and propagate along zones of high tensile and shear residual stress. The crack path deflection was attributed to the complex stress concentration structure resultant from the intricate microstructural porosity and coating general convex geometry. Microstructural features such as porosity increase the interfacial and coating tensile stress, which may lead to important delamination processes even during low temperature thermal cycling.

Nozzle geometry influences gas dynamics, such as gas density, velocity and temperature, making sprayed particle behavior one of the most important parameters in cold spray process. Gas flow at the entrance convergent section of the nozzle takes place at relatively high temperature and are subsonic. Thus, this region is a very suitable environment for heating spray particle. In this study, numerical simulation and experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of nozzle contour (convergent –divergent and convergent-divergent-barrel), entrance geometry of convergent–divergent nozzle and powder injection position at nozzle on the cold spray process. The process changes inside the nozzle were observed through numerical simulation studies and the results were used to find a correlation with coating properties. A copper and titanium powder was used in the experiments. Working gas (is nitrogen) pressure and temperature at nozzle-intake were 3MPa and 623K, respectively. In addition, the change in the nozzle contour and the change in the entrance convergent section length of the gun nozzle were found to have a slight effect on the coating microstructure. Powder injection position was also found to influence deposition efficiency and coating properties. Deposition efficiency of both copper and titanium increase with increasing the length of the convergent section of the nozzle.

Suspensions have shown a great potential for being employed as the spraying materials in flame spraying processes with the aim of producing thin and dense coatings. The internal axial injection of a suspension within processes like the high-velocity suspension flame spraying (HVSFS) offers the advantage of complete suspension entrainment within the gas stream, which therefore results in enhanced momentum and heat transfer to the particles. Experimental assessment of the achieved particle velocities and temperatures within the combustion chamber is nonetheless practically infeasible. A better insight into the process is attainable through employing computational simulations. Following a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling approach for HVOF processes, combustion and gas flow turbulences were simulated for different combustion chamber geometries and ethene/oxygen ratios commonly used in the HVSFS process. Simulations were done with the commercial software ANSYS CFX 16.2. To account for the highly turbulent flow characteristics, the k-ε model and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model were chosen, employing an eddy-dissipation-model for fuel gas combustion. Second-order upwind discretization was used to enable a good resolution of flow features like shock diamonds. The results of the simulation using different levels of detail of the combustion reaction were compared to experiments employing the modelled combustion chambers and gas flows. Chamber pressure and positions of the shock diamonds were monitored in order to allow a qualitative evaluation of the calculated values.

Thermally sprayed hard metal coatings are the industrial standard solution for numerous demanding applications. Often the performance of thermally sprayed coatings is improved by using finer particle sizes due to improved surface finish and decreased defect sizes. In the aim of utilizing finer particle and primary carbide sizes in thermal spraying of hard metal coatings, several approaches have been studied to control the spray temperature. The most viable solution is to use the modern high velocity air-fuel (HVAF) spray process, which has already proven to produce high quality coatings with dense structures. In HVAF spray process, the particle heating and acceleration can be efficiently controlled by changing the nozzle geometry. In this study, fine WC-10Co4Cr powder (-25+5 µm) was sprayed with three nozzle geometries to investigate their effect on the particle temperature, velocity and coating microstructure. The study demonstrates that the particle melting and resulting W2C formation can be efficiently controlled by changing the nozzle geometry from cylindrical to convergent-divergent. Moreover, the average particle velocity was increased from 780 to over 900 m/s. This increase in particle velocity significantly improved the coating structure and density while deposition efficiency decreased slightly. Further evaluation was carried out to resolve the effect of particle in-flight parameters on coating structure and cavitation erosion resistance, which was significantly improved with the increasing average particle velocity.

Characteristics of atmospheric plasma spraying based on single-cathode-anode-systems like the F4 gun with convergent-cylindrical nozzle designs, are voltage fluctuations caused by periodically changes of the arc length. As a result continuous varying plasma flow properties lead to inhomogeneities during energy transfer to injected powder particles and variations of coating quality and process efficiency. With an adjusted convergent-divergent nozzle design and optimized high energy plasma parameters it is proven that process efficiency and stability could be significantly increased, also due to the reduced arc movement. A drawback in this case is the increased anode wear which needs to be optimized to secure industrial usage. Aim of this work was to minimize the anode wear of contoured convergent-divergent nozzles by using high efficient plasma parameters. Therefore arc characteristics in different nozzle designs were analyzed and the influence of the geometry to arc anode attachment was investigated. Consequently a stepwise optimization of anode wear by keeping the plasma fluid dynamic properties almost constant could be achieved. The results contribute to understanding of the arc characteristics in atmospheric plasma spraying. Also a new concept of a ”three-zone anode geometry“, convergent-inlet-section, cone-shaped arc movement section and a divergent plasma fluid shape section was developed.

Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying is a relatively new high rate deposition process that uses a supersonic gas flow to accelerate fine powder particles (micron size) above a critical velocity. Upon impact, the particles deform plastically and bond to the substrate to form a coating. In this study, nanocrystalline Al-Mg coatings are produced using the Cold Spray technology. In an attempt to improve the understanding and optimize the process, the effects of substrate preparation and substrates thickness on the overall quality of the coatings are investigated. Two different grit materials are used to prepare the substrates with simple grit-blasting. Results show that the use of different grit sizes leads to changes in the mass deposited on the substrate (deposition efficiency) but has no significant effect on the coating microstructure. Other trials are conducted on samples of different thickness to verify the applicability of the Cold Spray process on thin surfaces. Results show that the Cold Spray process can be used to produce coatings on thin surfaces without noticeable damage to the substrate and with the same coating quality.

Plasma spraying operations performed with high carrier gas flow rate may improve the coating properties but they can also lead to lump formation and thus coating defects. The damaged work piece must then be stripped and recoated, which implies a considerable waste in terms of coating powder, energy and time. The aim of this study was to determine the cause of the lumps, and propose process modifications for avoiding their formation while keeping the coating quality. Numerical simulations based on 3D turbulent Navier-Stokes equations in local thermal and chemical equilibrium were carried out to understand the problem and estimate the feasibility of the proposed solutions. The computational results were supplemented by experiments for validation. A first set of investigations was focused on the location and orientation of the powder port injector. It turned out that it was not possible to keep the coating quality while avoiding lump formation by simply moving the powder injector. A new geometry of the nozzle exit was then designed and successfully tested for a first application with Ni-5Al powder used in production.

Thermal plasma jets interact intensively with the surrounding atmosphere. This interaction leads to strong changes of the plasma jet properties affecting the resulting products. Modification of the nozzle parameters and conditions at the exit of the torch helps to vary and better control the process of plasma jet and ambient air interaction. In the present study, the DC arc plasma torch was equipped with a modified anode nozzle (M2.5) and a surrounding shroud at the jet exit. The process of air entrainment was investigated when shroud gas was supplied producing a protecting envelope to reduce the air entrainment. Schlieren photography and the enthalpy probe with the mass spectrometer were applied to study the influence on plasma jet behavior. The effect of shroud nozzle geometry as well as the effect of the shroud gas flow rate was investigated. Likewise, influence of gas shrouding on the resulting coatings was studied.

The quality of thermal sprayed coatings greatly depends on the individual flattened splats. Generally they are characterized by two main factors, flattening ratio and splat profile. The flattening ratio is specified straightforward, but it is difficult what factor should be selected from the various properties for the splat profiles. Fractal geometry is introduced to the profile evaluation of the splats which are formed by the free-fall metal droplets and by the alumina coatings using plasma spraying method. The fractal dimension of each splat was measured by SIA (Slit Island Analysis) technique which measures the ratio of area to contour length of the island appeared on the horizontally sliced plane of the splat. The obtained fractal dimension was related to with Re and We numbers in a bi-linear form, which is the same characteristics as the unevenness ratio obtained previously. It was concluded that fractal dimension is an effective measure to evaluate the splat profile.

The present study was devoted to the optimization of the nozzle exit geometry of a TAFA 9000 wire-arc spray gun. Computational Fluid Dynamic was first used in order to examine the effect of different nozzle configurations, considering small changes operated on the original design. Finally, one of the modified geometries tested numerically was retained in view of the CFD results and the corresponding new nozzle was machined. In a second step, experiments were performed in order to observe the effect of the new design on in-flight droplet characteristics. For this part, a comparison was made between the original design and the modified one for two different type wires (a steel wire and a stainless steel cored wire). These experiments were performed using the well known DPV 2000 device for different operating conditions. The results indicate that the modified design provides a significant increase in the droplet velocity (about 20% higher for the new design) with unchanged thermal spray parameters, indicating that the gun exit design may have a strong influence on inflight characteristics of the droplets. Moreover, droplets were collected in water and the size distribution was analyzed.

Adhesion of ceramic coatings considerably depends on the surface characteristics of blasted substrates. The roughened surfaces have two kinds of topographical characteristics, one is of their cross section and the other is of planar. The roughened surfaces is generated by angled grit-blasting process which can be expected to improve the adhesion of ceramic coatings. The topography of the roughened surfaces has fractal characteristics in their cross section and has been more effectively related to the adhesive strength of ceramic coatings than average surface roughness traditionally used. This paper presents that fractal characteristics is evaluated in the planar topography of the blasted surfaces and shows that the planar fractal characteristics is closely related adhesion of ceramic coatings. The planar fractal dimension is evaluated by SIA (Slit Island Analysis) which needs the height data on the roughened surface. Those data are obtained by a laser-microscope in confocal type.

Cold spray nozzles can have a significant impact on particle behavior and coating quality depending on their shape and size. This study investigates the influence of nozzle geometry on the cold spray process. Simulations show that particle velocities are highest at the outlet of de Laval type nozzles and that convergence pipe nozzles achieve the highest particle temperatures. Paper includes a German-language abstract.

Recently it has been suggested that the carrier gas jet interaction with the plasma can have a large effect on the resulting particle temperature. The postulated interaction is through deflection of the main plasma jet and by delaying the heating of particles by the formation of a "cold" gas bubble. We have examined the effect of the gas jet itself on the temperature of the particles by attempting to artificially form a cold gas bubble using a separate, closely oriented gas jet. The effect of the "twin" co-flowing jet was evaluated by measuring its effect on the mean and standard deviation of the particle injection velocity and the resulting spray pattern and particle temperature. Additionally we have used alternative carrier gases with similar density but with specific heats that are higher than argon by a factor of two. A measurable but minor effect on particle temperature is observed.

This paper investigates three different types of nozzle geometries and the first steps for individual shape optimization to maximize the powder impact velocities. The basic types concern (i) a convergent, (ii) a convergent-divergent, and (iii) a convergent-constant geometry. For each nozzle type, four geometrical variables were investigated to reveal their individual and possibly combined potential to improve particle impact velocities.