Search Results for numerical prediction

Numerical studies directly quantifying particle-substrate adhesion under different spray process parameters during impact remain scarce, primarily due to the lack of consideration for adhesion models. This study addresses this gap by investigating bonding behavior under varying spray conditions using a single-particle model with the PD numerical method, incorporating adhesion forces.

Solution precursor plasma spraying has been used to deposit ceramic coatings with submicron/nanocrystalline structures. Previous studies revealed that the deposition mechanism in the solution precursor plasma spraying differs from that in the conventional plasma spraying. To increase the understanding of the deposition mechanism in the solution precursor plasma spraying, a numerical model is used to predict the particle conditions on the substrate. Five types of particle conditions, melted particles; small sintered particles; dry agglomerates; wet agglomerates; and wet droplet are assumed based on the computed temperature distribution of the particles. An analysis of the deposition mechanism in the solution precursor plasma spraying is performed. Experiment results s are also collected to verify the numerical prediction and the analysis of the deposition mechanisms.

In cold spray (CS) additive manufacturing process, micrometer scale particles accelerated through a supersonic nozzle are targeted on a surface with velocities in the rage of 300-1500 m/s in solid state. The impact energy of the particles leads them to deform plastically with high shear energy near the impact interface and adhere to the surface metallurgically, mechanically, and chemically. Using CS, deposition of metals, metal matrix composites, and polymers are achieved with high adhesive/cohesive strength and low porosity. Sensitivity of the CS additive manufacturing process to the variabilities in the process parameters are still being understood. Among the process parameters, particle morphology can have significant implications on drag forces, and therefore, on the particle impact velocity. This in turn affects the deposition efficiency (DE) and the quality of products. In this work, a new approach is introduced for computing DE by incorporating particle sphericity and its variation into one-dimensional numerical models. Size, sphericity, and the variability of size and sphericity of aluminum, copper, titanium, and tantalum particles are measured from static optical microscope images. The data is used for predicting impact velocity, temperature, and DE. The model results are then compared with particle velocity measurements.

The final target of this study was to achieve a better understanding of the behaviour of thermally sprayed abradable seals such as AlSi/polyester composites. These coatings are used as seals between the static and rotating parts in gas turbine applications. The machinability of the composite coatings during the friction of the blades depends on their mechanical and thermal effective properties. In order to predict these properties from micrographs, numerical studies were performed with different software packages such as OOF developed by NIST and TS2C developed at the UTBM. In 2008, differences were reported concerning prediction of effective thermal conductivity obtained with the two codes. In the present paper, it is shown that a particular attention must be paid to the mathematical formulation of the problem. In particular, results obtained with a finite difference method using a cell centre approach or a nodal formulation, allow explaining the discrepancies previously noticed. A comparison of the predictions of computed effective thermal conductivities is thus proposed for different codes and different meshing methods. This study is part of the NEWAC project, funded by the European Commission within the 6th RTD Framework program (FP6).

The coatings of zinc and its alloys are broadly used to prevent the rusting of substrate surfaces such as steel. Cold gas dynamic spray (CGDS) is an innovative coating technique in which the deposition of solid powder particles depends upon the kinetic energy of the particles rather than thermal energy. Therefore, application of cold spray is to provide superior rust resistance by depositing more materials, formation of passivation layer, and cathodic protection. In this study, numerical investigations on zinc micro and nano size particles in CGDS were carried out. The height of the injector, the expansion ratio and the diameter of the inlet of the de-Laval nozzle was varied systematically by optimizing the stand-off distance using the two-dimensional axisymmetric models of CGDS, to study their effects on the velocity and the distribution of the particles. Prediction of the deposition efficiency was carried out using the various critical and erosion velocity models.

Numerical predictions and experimental observations have been correlated to improve the qualitative understanding of the degree of thermal degradation occurring during the HVOF spray deposition of Nylon-11. Particle residence time (<1 ms) in the HVOF jet was insufficient for significant decomposition of the Nylon-11 but was sufficient for noticeable discoloration (yellowing) of the particles of a powder with a mean particle size of 30 µm. Experimental observations showed this to be the case even though numerical predictions indicated that the temperature of a 30 µm diameter particle should be considerably higher than the upper degradation limit of Nylon-11. Initial thermal oxidation of Nylon-11 promotes the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds that strongly absorb in the visible spectrum even at concentrations of parts per million, resulting in discoloration of the Nylon.

The study of heat transfers in a substrate exposed to an impinging plasma jet is proposed using two different software products. Thermal exchanges between the plasma jet and the substrate were first calculated using the PHOENICS CFD software in which a two-layer extension to the Chen-Kim k-s model was implemented in order to consider both the turbulent nature of the plasma jet and heat transfer phenomena through the viscous sub-layer formed at the surface of the substrate. The model is supposed to provide accurate predictions of thermal exchanges. However this preliminary step is not described since it is part of some previous studies. In a second step, two different commercial software products are used to perform three dimensional transient calculations of the heat conduction inside the substrate. The first approach consists in the use of the finite element based SYSWELD software whereas the second one consists in the use of the finite volume based PHOENICS software. Numerical results are presented and compared for the case of an impinging plasma jet displacing linearly on the substrate. Additionally, the influence of different parameters such as the substrate sample thickness, the stand-off distance, the displacement velocity or the nature of the substrate is also discussed. The results show a good accordance between numerical predictions obtained using the two methods concerning the maximum temperature observed. These results are useful since the substrate temperature is known to have an important influence on the coating adhesion and properties.

An advanced method for the efficient numerical prediction of the shape of the structure produced by thermal spray is presented. This method is based on the combination of a local non-linear thermo-mechanical FEM calculation of the inherent strain distribution after the process of thermal spraying in a representative sample and a global linear FEM calculation of the shape of the whole structure. One of the advantages of this method is the significant reduction of the computation time compared to a traditional transient FEM simulation. An application example shows the results of shape prediction of a large and complex structure generated by thermal spraying. The application of this method to the prediction of the shape of large structures opens the way for the optimization of the thermal spray technology towards the near net shape production process.

In suspension high-velocity oxyfuel (SHVOF) thermal spraying, the suspension is usually injected axially into the combustion chamber. Deposition of oxygen sensitive materials such as graphene can be difficult using this approach as the particles degrade with extended exposure to oxygen at high temperatures. Radial injection outside of the nozzle, however, reduces in-flight particle time thereby accommodating oxygen sensitive nanomaterials. The aim of this study is to investigate how radial injection parameters affect in-flight particle conditions during SHVOF spraying. The models used in this work are shown to accurately predict flame temperature in the combustion chamber for an Al 3 O 2 suspension. Experimental observations of the liquid jet obtained using high-speed imaging are compared to numerically predicted values. The results indicate that in-flight particle characteristics can be improved by more than 30% in SHVOF spraying by optimizing the suspension flow rate and radial injection angle.

Many CFD software packages are commonly used for the modeling of thermal plasma jets. Unfortunately, according to some recent results reported in the literature, one may notice that two different software products do not always provide similar results for a similar case. For example, PHOENICS and FLUENT were recently used in a single study and some abnormal differences were observed in the numerical predictions [1]. After some intensive search, the reasons were identified and are explained in the present paper: it appears that all Fluent built-in k-å type turbulence models have to be modified especially for high temperature flows. Since Fluent is now extensively used for the modeling of plasma jets, it was considered useful to report the required correction to the scientific thermal spray community and this is the purpose of the present paper.

A study of thermal fluxes transferred during the HEATCOOL process is proposed. The concept of this process, specially designed to enhance the residual stresses relaxation, consists in the use of a consecutive three-step procedure during the coating elaboration (heating / spraying / cooling). The present study focuses on thermal exchanges occurring during the heating step. For this, the elaborated experimental equipment incorporates a series of ten holes aligned equidistantly with 5 mm separation. A burning gas mixture (premixed acetylene and oxygen) is injected through these holes and the burning gas jets impinge and heat the substrate. The stand-off distance between the heating device and the substrate may be adjusted between 30 and 90 millimeters. Concerning thermal fluxes transferred using this experimental device, a front work piece incorporating several thermocouples was used to perform heat flux measurements. In a first step, the case of a single hole was considered. Since this method is not able to provide the thermal flux directly, the corresponding thermal fluxes were deduced using an inverse heat conduction problem method that was specially developed. Results obtained using this inverse problem method based on experimental measurements are then compared with numerical predictions obtained using a computational fluid dynamic model representing the system. For this part, the PHOENICS software was used to perform the corresponding computations.

The modeling of the cold gas dynamics spray process is conducted. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the gas flow, including turbulence model equations. The model is validated with experimental measurements for flows with and without shock waves. It predicts accurately the gas flow for both cases. A one-dimensional model is used to track the particles injected in the flow. It is shown that the effects of the shock wave present in front of the substrate are not negligible for small diameter particles and have a direct influence on their impact velocity. The spray stand-off distance is shown to have a direct effect on the flow structure and on the impact velocity of the particles. It is shown that the one-dimensional approach is not sufficient for the particle analysis.

In this study, three kinds of engineering metals, which are aluminum (1100-H12), commercially pure titanium and mild steel were combined as particle/substrate and classified into four cases, i.e., soft/soft, hard/hard, hard/soft and soft/hard, according to their physical and mechanical properties respectively. Based on finite element modeling, impacting interface elements of four cases were analyzed and impact behaviors were numerically characterized. For soft/soft and hard/hard cases, the maximum temperature at the substrate side, which approached melting point, is higher than that of particle side when the shear instabilities occur. In particular, the different size of thermal boost-up zone was numerically estimated and theoretically discussed for these two cases. Meanwhile, for soft/hard and hard/soft cases, the specific aspect of shear instability, which has very high heat-up rate, was always observed at the relatively soft impact counterpart, and a thin molten layer was expected as well. Thus, the successful bonding of the above mentioned four cases can be predicted as a result of the synergistic effect of localized shear instability with interfacial melting.

Solution precursor plasma spraying is used to produce finely structured ceramic coatings with nano- and submicron features. The solution is injected into a plasma jet as a liquid stream or gas atomized droplets that break up into a finer mist. The deposition process and coating properties are extremely sensitive to torch operating conditions, injection modes, and substrate temperatures. This study employs numerical methods to investigate the size distribution of injected droplets for liquid stream and gas blast injection. Droplet or particle size, temperature, and substrate position is predicted for different injection modes.

This study developed microstructure-based finite element (FE) models to investigate the behavior of cold-sprayed aluminum-alumina (Al-Al2O3) metal matrix composite (MMCs) coatings subject to indentation and quasi-static compression. Based on microstructural features (i.e., particle weight fraction, particle size, and porosity) of the MMC coatings, representative volume elements (RVEs) were generated by using Digimat software and then imported into ABAQUS/Explicit. State-of-the-art physics-based modelling approaches were incorporated into the model to account for particle cracking, interface debonding, and ductile failure of the matrix. This allowed for analysis and informing on the deformation and failure responses. The model was validated with experimental results for cold-sprayed Al-18 wt.% Al2O3, Al-34 wt.% Al2O3, and Al-46 wt.% Al2O3 metal matrix composite coatings under quasi-static compression by comparing the stress versus strain histories and observed failure mechanisms (e.g., matrix ductile failure). The results showed that the computational framework is able to capture the response of this cold-sprayed material system under compression and indentation, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The outcomes of this work have implications for extending the model to materials design and under different types of loading (e.g., erosion and fatigue).

A high resolution numerical model has been developed to simulate the simultaneous spreading and solidification of single and multiple-splat on a cold substrate. The model combines the level set formulation with curvilinear adaptive finite volume scheme to predict the deforming shape of the splat's free surface as well as the solidification interface shape and dynamics. An adaptive grid generation captures the solidification front and the level set formulation allows the free surface deformation caused by merging and separation. Numerical results on spreading, merging and solidification of a single splat and two splats are presented to demonstrate the capability of the scheme. It also shows that this model can be extended to predict porosity in thermal spray coatings.

Dynamic and thermal behaviors of particles injected into an HVOF supersonic flow were modeled using the Lagrangian formulation coupled with a moving grid system which allows to treat melting and solidification problems in a particle. The particle behaviors of alumina, Tribaloy-400 and MCrAlY were examined by numerical simulations. Velocities calculated by this model were compared with experimental measurements available in publications. For investigating the particle temperatures for which experimental data are hardly available, qualitative experiments were conducted with an MCrAlY powder. It was thus observed that unmelted particles predicted by the numerical simulation were also found in the microstructure of the sprayed MCrAlY coating. From this work, it was shown that the established model provides a reasonable prediction of dynamic and thermal particle behaviors in HVOF flows.

The numerical forecast constitutes an interesting way for plasma spraying to minimize the number of experiments to achieved the optimum spraying conditions. Many computational codes have been developed to predict the properties of the plasma jet (velocity, temperature) and the particles behavior within (temperature, velocity, melting state). According to the particle injection orthogonally to the plasma jet, the models have to be 3D. However, such codes need several hours if not several days of calculations to obtain the results of one condition. This is the main drawback of the existing sophisticated codes. The computing time is not compatible with industrial needs. Various clever numerical methods were developed in the past to simulate 2-D parabolic gas flows for laminar boundary layers or jets. For example, the Genmix 2-D axi-symmetric algorithm developed by Spalding and Patankar, and known as the Bikini method requires a very low-cost memory and computing time. This algorithm makes it possible, when using the proper thermodynamics and transport properties of plasma gases and the whole equation of Boussinesq-Oseen-Basset and taking into account the thermophoresis and non continuity effect for small particle, to predict in a fast and rather realistic way, the velocity and temperature fields of the plasma jet.

This study investigates the influence of laser cladding parameters on the geometry and composition of metal-matrix composite (MMC) coatings. Composite coatings are made of a Ni-Cr-B-Si metallic matrix and of WC reinforcement with a volume fraction of 50 %. Optical microscopy is used to characterize the coating geometry (height, width and penetration depth) and to determine the real volumetric content of WC. Laser cladding on low carbon steel substrate is carried out using a cw Nd:YAG laser, a coaxial powder injection system and a combination of Taguchi and EM methods to design the experiments. This combination explores efficiently the multidimensional volume of laser cladding parameters. The results, which express the interrelationship between laser cladding parameters and the characteristics of the clad produced, can be used to find optimum laser parameters, to predict the responses and to improve the understanding of laser cladding process.

The generation of a high velocity carrier gas flow for cold metal particle applications is addressed, with specific focus on titanium cold spraying. The high hardness of this material makes cold spraying titanium difficult to achieve by industry standard nozzles. The redesign of a commercial conical convergent-divergent cold spray nozzle is achieved by the application of aerospace design codes, based on the Method of Characteristics, towards producing a more isentropic expansion by contouring the nozzle walls. Steady three-dimensional RANS SST k-ω simulations of nitrogen are coupled two-way to particle parcel tracking in the Lagrangian frame of reference. The new contoured nozzle is found to produce higher particle velocities with greater radial spread, when operated at the same conditions/cost of operation as the commercial nozzle. These numerical results have shown the potential for extending cold spray to high density and low ductility particles by relatively minor rig modifications, through an effective synergy between gas dynamics and material science.