同轴送粉工艺参数对激光增材再制造喷嘴粉流流场的影响规律

激光增材再制造同轴送粉喷嘴粉流汇聚特性是影响零件成形质量和成形效率的重要因素,基于 DEM-CFD 耦合方法,开展三维同轴送粉喷嘴粉-气流场仿真分析,依据表征粉流汇聚特性的喷嘴中心轴向粉流分布浓度、焦点距离、 上焦点截面粉流分布浓度和单位距离粉流分布浓度等参数,设计单因素试验,在喷嘴结构不变的条件下,分析输粉气流速度、送粉速率和中心光路保护气速度对粉流分布的影响规律。 结果表明:输粉气流速度越大,焦点距离越小,轴向粉流分布浓度越小,上焦点截面粉流浓度分布直径越小,单位距离粉流分布浓度越大,粉流的集聚性越好;中心光路保护气速度对粉流焦点浓度影响较小,保护气速度越大,焦点距离越大,上焦点截面粉流浓度分布直径越小,单位距离粉流分布浓度增加,粉流的集聚性越好;送粉速率对焦点距离影响较小,送粉速率越大,喷嘴轴向粉流分布浓度越大,上焦点截面粉流浓度分布直径越大,单位距离粉流分布浓度出现先增大后减小的趋势。     

Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Gas Flows,Powder Transport and Heating in Coaxial Laser Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) Process

The results of theoretical and experimental investigations of direct metal deposition (DMD) processes involving a CO₂-laser with the power up to 5 kW and wave length of 10.6 μm are presented. The physical and mathematical model of multi-layer gas flows with gas-jet transportation of metal powder particles has been developed. To simulate the flows of carrier and shaping gases in annular channels of a triple coaxial nozzle, Navier-Stokes equations were applied for an axisymmetric flow. Thermodynamics and powder particles transport are calculated from a discrete-trajectory model with due regard to particle collision with solid walls of the transport nozzle. It is shown that particles may overheat on their way between the nozzle and substrate; the overheating depends on the trajectories by which particles move, on their size, and time of their retention in the laser-radiation region. The results of performed experimental researches on DMD processes visualization are presented. Some results of numerical simulation and experimental data are compared and analyzed.     

Development of non-eroding rocket nozzle throat for ultra-high temperature environment

The powder processing methods including powder metallurgy (P/M) and powder injection molding (PIM) techniques for tungsten (W)–rhenium (Re) were employed to produce a W–Re rocket nozzle. The composition of W–Re was determined by 25 wt.% of Re to avoid the formatting brittle sigma (σ) phase. The samples for analysis of the densification behavior on sintering were prepared by die pressing and cold isostatic pressing (CIP). The feedstock for the PIM process was produced by mixing the W–25 wt.% Re powder and binder system based on a wax-polymer with an optimum solid loading through the twin-extruder mixer. The injection molded specimens were debound to extract and decompose the binders via the solvent and thermal debindings. The debound samples were sintered in a hydrogen atmosphere. After sintering, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was carried out in an argon atmosphere to enhance the density.The dilatometry experiments were performed to analyze and predict a densification behavior during sintering. The master sintering curve (MSC) model was used to characterize the densification behavior with a minimal set of preliminary experiments. The mechanical properties were evaluated through microstructure and chemical composition measured by EDX–SEM and X-ray diffraction (XRD).Finally, the eroding test was conducted using the W–25 wt.% Re rocket nozzle produced by PIM under the high temperature. After carrying out erosion tests, the erosion rate, hardness and microstructure were evaluated.     

Optimization of the shape of nozzles for coaxial laser cladding

The results of mathematical modelling of the flows of powder in nozzles for coaxial laser cladding are presented. The modelling results are used to determine the optimum geometrical parameters of the nozzle used for the construction of appropriate technological equipment. Calculations are carried out to determine the optimum values of the flow rate of powder, the size of powder particles, the geometry of the powder flow and the distance from the outlet of the nozzle to the surface of the components. The resultant values were used in the development of technological processes of cladding with powders of different composition.     

激光熔覆载气式同轴送粉喷嘴关键参数的探究

以激光熔覆载气式同轴送粉喷嘴为研究对象,建立了三通道激光熔覆喷嘴的三维模型,运用计算流体动力学理论对激光熔覆送粉喷头关键参数进行了数值分析,基于商用计算流体力学(CFD)软件FLUENT对送粉通道不同倾角和送粉口不同直径条件下的粉末流场情况进行了数值模拟。分析与计算结果表明,在其他参数一定的条件下,选样送粉通道倾角角度70°和送粉口直径1.5 mm时,有利于改善激光熔覆效果,为CFD技术在流体机械分析中的应用提供了参考。     

Optical Diagnostics Study of Gas Particle Transport Phenomena in Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying and Comparison with Model Predictions

Cold gas dynamic spraying (CGDS), a relatively new thermal spraying technique has drawn a lot of attention due to its inherent capability to deposit a wide range of materials at relatively low-operating temperatures. A De Laval nozzle, used to accelerate the powder particles, is the key component of the coating equipment. Knowledge concerning the nozzle design and effect of process parameters is essential to understand the coating process and to enable selection of appropriate parameters for enhanced coating properties. The present work employs a one-dimensional isentropic gas flow model in conjunction with a particle acceleration model to calculate particle velocities. A laser illumination-based optical diagnostic system is used for validation studies to determine the particle velocity at the nozzle exit for a wide range of process and feedstock parameters such as stagnation temperature, stagnation pressure, powder feed rate, particle size and density. The relative influence of process and feedstock parameters on particle velocity is presented in this work.     

气液两相同轴式超声喷嘴内流场数值模拟研究

为了提高超声喷嘴的雾化效率,以同轴射流的气液混合两相为介质,结合气泡雾化和超声雾化的优势,建立气液两相同轴式超声喷嘴内流场数值模型,研究不同含气率下内部流场云图和气相分布情况。结果得到:喷嘴流体速度呈层状分布,在喷嘴出口附近出现涡旋,在涡旋交界处流体速度达到最大,越靠近谐振腔内部速度越小;在喷嘴内部气泡呈块状分布,随着流体流动,渐渐地开始聚集;考虑到喷嘴内部流体的湍流扰动效果,确定气相工质体积为20%～30%较为合适;进口含气率越大,Y轴方向上的含气率越大,喷嘴X轴线方向上含气率略高于近壁面处,在X轴和壁面之间的含气率最少。     

Numerical investigation on flow process of liquid metals in melt delivery nozzle during gas atomization process for fine metal powder production

Based on volume of fluid (VoF) interface capturing method and shear-stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model, numerical simulation was performed to reveal the flow mechanism of metal melts in melt delivery nozzle (MDN) during gas atomization (GA) process. The experimental validation indicated that the numerical models could give a reasonable prediction on the melt flow process in the MDN. With the decrease of the MDN inner-diameter, the melt flow resistance increased for both molten aluminum and iron, especially achieving an order of 10² kPa in the case of the MDN inner-diameter ≤1 mm. Based on the conventional GA process, the positive pressure was imposed on the viscous aluminum alloy melt to overcome its flow resistance in the MDN, thus producing powders under different MDN inner-diameters. When the MDN inner-diameter was reduced from 4 to 2 mm, the yield of fine powder (<150 μm) soared from 54.7% to 94.2%. The surface quality of powders has also been improved when using a smaller inner-diameter MDN.     

Direct laser fabrication of thin-walled metal parts under open-loop control

Direct laser fabrication (DLF) is an advanced manufacturing technology, which can build full density metal parts directly from CAD files without using any modules or tools. The investigation on the fabrication of thin-walled parts of nickel alloy using open-loop DLF process is introduced in this paper. The experimental setup consisted of a CO₂ laser, a 3-axis CNC table, a coaxial powder nozzle and a powder recycler. The 3D-CAD file of a thin-walled metal part was converted into the STL file format and imported into software HUST-RP to generate ‘pseudo-random’ scanning paths of laser beam. The influence of process parameters on the build height of thin-walled metal parts was studied by 1–10 layered single-bead stacks of nickel alloy. The result shows that the interference factors which affect the build height of thin-walled metal parts occur randomly during the process. For open-loop DLF process, thin-walled metal parts can achieve much better shape quality if the process parameters are suitable. Multilayer single-bead walls were built up with different scanning velocity to obtain the optimal process parameters of thin-walled parts of nickel alloy. It shows that thin walls of nickel alloy with uniform height can be built up layer by layer in a certain range of specific energy. However, it is difficult to control the build height of complex thin-walled metal parts in an accurate manner just using optimal parameters. A special coaxial powder nozzle was designed in this paper. In a certain range, the deposition thickness of the nozzle is nearly linearly increased with increase in the standoff distance between the powder focusing point of the nozzle and the deposition substrate. By means of the nozzle, a novel method to control the build height of thin-walled metal parts using open-loop DLF process was introduced. The difference in build height of a thin-walled part can be compensated automatically in one or several layers during the process. It is proved that the build height of a thin-walled metal part can be accurately controlled in theory using the nozzle. A complex single-bead part of nickel alloy whose geometry was designed to be the well-known Chinese ‘FU’ was fabricated and explained in this paper. The result shows that the shape quality of the sample is quite good, and actual build height of the sample is 53.54 mm while the designed value is 54 mm.     

Effect of the depth of the submerged entry nozzle in the mold on heat,flow and solution transport in double-stream-pouring continuous casting

The effect of the depth of the submerged entry nozzle (SEN) in the mold on the velocity, temperature fields and composition distribution in the solidification zone was investigated for double-stream-pouring continuous casting (DSPCC) processing using the standard k–? turbulent model. This analysis is based on an axi-symmetric steady mathematical model involving coupled flow, heat and solution transport. The results show that the mixture zone in the liquid pool between the internal and external fluids moves down and the liquid pool becomes deeper when the depth of the SEN in the mold increases. The 2024/3003 aluminum composite ingots were prepared using a laboratory-made DSPCC facility. The measured copper concentration in the cross-section of the ingots for the different depths of the SEN in the mold is in good agreement with that calculated by numerical simulation.     

三通道激光熔覆同轴送粉喷嘴气体速度场试验

在激光熔覆过程中,三通道同轴送粉喷嘴是关键部件,它利用惰性气体将金属粉末稳定地输送到熔池,同时形成保护流场,隔绝周围的空气。喷嘴气体流场对粉末的汇聚和高温区域的保护具有显著的作用,直接影响粉末利用率、金属材料性能和零件的成形精度。为了研究喷嘴保护流场特性,文中采用粒子图像测速(PIV)技术结合数值模拟计算,对自研的三通道同轴送粉喷嘴气体速度场分布进行了试验和分析。结果表明,喷嘴中心、内环和外环三个通道出口的气流速度一致时,喷嘴所形成的流场较为稳定,没有涡流存在。因此,粉末的汇聚性及对溶池的保护效果好;当外通道气流速度大于内通道时,在工件表面上出现旋涡,流场呈不稳定状态;随喷嘴与工件表面距离增加,有效保护范围减小。     

Non-isothermal oxidation of ceramic nanocomposites using the example of Ti–Si–C–N powder: Kinetic analysis method

A method of kinetic analysis applicable to non-isothermal oxidation processes of ceramic nanocomposites is presented using Ti–Si–C–N powder as the substrate. The nanoparticle size and phase composition were determined using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Thermogravimetric measurements were carried out for powder samples in dry air in the temperature range 298–1770 K. The following heating rates were applied: 3, 5, 10, 20 K min⁻¹. Mass spectrometry was used to analyze gaseous oxidation products and solid products were identified by the XRD technique. The Coats–Redfern equation was applied for the kinetic analysis. For each stage of the oxidation kinetic models, the best accuracy was achieved using a series of criteria, and then the A and E parameters of the Arrhenius equations were estimated. Both linear regression and artificial neural networks were applied in testing kinetic models.     

Parametric study on a coaxial multi-material powder flow in laser-based powder deposition process

The manner with which the composite powder particles injected into the laser formed molten pool decides the deposition quality in a typical laser-based powder deposition of composite material. Since, the morphology and physical properties of nickel (Ni) and tungsten carbide (WC) are different their powder flow characteristics such as the powder particles stream structure, maximum concentration at the converging spot, and the powder particles velocity are noticeably different. In the current study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based powder flow model is established to characterize the coaxial powder flow behavior of Ni–WC composite powders. The key powder flow characteristics such as the stand-off distance, the diameter of the powder stream at the stand-off distance, and the velocity of the powder particles are measured using three different vision based techniques. Both the numerical and experimental results reveal the exact stand-off distance where the substrate needs to be placed, the diameter of the concentration spot of powder at the stand-off distance, and a combination of suitable nozzle angle, diameter, and carrier gas flow rate to obtain a maximum powder concentration at the stand-off distance with a stable composite powder flow.     

Plasma–Powder Feedstock Interaction During Plasma Spray–Physical Vapor Deposition

Plasma spray–physical vapor deposition is a new process developed to produce coatings from the vapor phase. To achieve deposition from the vapor phase, the plasma–feedstock interaction inside the plasma torch, i.e., from the powder injection point to the nozzle exit, is critical. In this work, the plasma characteristics and the momentum and heat transfer between the plasma and powder feedstock at different torch input power levels were investigated theoretically to optimize the net plasma torch power, among other important factors such as the plasma gas composition, powder feed rate, and carrier gas. The plasma characteristics were calculated using the CEA2 code, and the plasma–feedstock interaction was studied inside the torch nozzle at low-pressure (20-25 kPa) conditions. A particle dynamics model was introduced to compute the particle velocity, coupled with Xi Chen’s drag model for nonevaporating particles. The results show that the energy transferred to the particles and the coating morphology are greatly influenced by the plasma gas characteristics and the particle dynamics inside the nozzle. The heat transfer between the plasma gas and feedstock material increased with the net torch power up to an optimum at 64 kW, at which a maximum of ~3.4% of the available plasma energy was absorbed by the feedstock powder. Experimental results using agglomerated 7-8 wt.% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) powder as feedstock material confirmed the theoretical predictions.     

Numerical Study of Suspension HVOF Spray and Particle Behavior Near Flat and Cylindrical Substrates

In thermal spray processes, it is demonstrated that substrate shape and location have significant effects on particle in-flight behavior and coatings quality. In the present work, the suspension high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying process is modeled using a three-dimensional two-way coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian approach. Flat and cylindrical substrates are placed at different standoff distances, and particles characteristics near the substrates and upon impact are studied. Suspension is a mixture of ethanol, ethylene glycol, and mullite solid powder (3Al₂O₃·2SiO₂) in this study. Suspension droplets with predefined size distribution are injected into the combustion chamber, and the droplet breakup phenomenon is simulated using Taylor analogy breakup model. Furthermore, the eddy dissipation model is used to model the premixed combustion of oxygen–propylene, and non-premixed combustion of oxygen–ethanol and oxygen–ethylene glycol. To simulate the gas phase turbulence, the realizable k–ε model is applied. In addition, as soon as the breakup and combustion phenomena are completed, the solid/molten mullite particles are tracked through the domain. It is shown that as the standoff distance increases the particle temperature and velocity decrease and the particle trajectory deviation becomes more significant. The effect of stagnation region on the particle velocity and temperature is also discussed in detail. The catch rate, which is defined as the ratio of the mass of landed particles to injected particles, is calculated for different substrate shapes and standoff distances in this study. The numerical results presented here is consistent with the experimental data in the literature for the same operating conditions.     

Experiment and numerical simulation of two-phase flow in oxygen enriched side-blown furnace

Taking an oxygen enriched side-blown furnace as the prototype, a hydraulic model was established according to the similarity principle. The influence of three factors on the gas—liquid two-phase flow was analyzed, i.e. the airflow speed, the submerged depth and the downward angle of the nozzle. A numerical simulation of the hydraulic model was carried out trying to find the suitable turbulence model which can describe the side-blown two-phase flow correctly by comparing the simulation results with the experimental data. The experiment shows that the airflow speed has a great influence on the flow of the water. The submerged depth of the nozzle has a relatively smaller influence on the penetration depth and the surface fluctuation height in the liquid phase. When the nozzle is at a downward angle of 15°, the penetration depth and the surface fluctuation height are reduced. It is concluded that the numerical results with the realizable k–ɛ turbulence model are the closest to the experiment for the penetration depth, the surface fluctuation height and the bubble scale.     

PIV Validation of 3D Multicomponent Model for Cold Spray Within Nitrogen and Helium Supersonic Flow Field

This study presents the validation of a developed three-dimensional multicomponent model for cold spray process using two particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments. The k-ε type 3D model developed for spherical titanium particles was validated with the measured titanium particle velocity within a nitrogen and helium supersonic jet. The 3D model predicted lower values of particle velocity than the PIV experimental study that used irregularly shaped titanium particles. The results of the 3D model were consistent with the PIV experiment that used spherical titanium powder. The 3D model simulation of particle velocity within the helium and nitrogen jet was coupled with an estimation of titanium particle temperature. This was achieved with the consideration of the fact that cold spray particle temperature is difficult and expensive to measure due to considerably lower temperature of particles than thermal spray. The model predicted an interesting pattern of particle size distribution with respect to the location of impact with a concentration of finer particles close to the jet center. It is believed that the 3D model outcomes for particle velocity, temperature and location could be a useful tool to optimize system design, deposition process and mechanical properties of the additively manufactured cold spray structures.     

激光熔覆技术研究进展

激光熔覆技术是一种先进的材料表面改性技术,具有稀释率小、熔覆层组织致密、涂层与基体结合良好及工作环境无污染等优点。从激光熔覆喷头、激光熔覆工艺、激光熔覆材料、激光熔覆技术的工业应用这4个方面,综述了激光熔覆的研究进展。其中,在激光熔覆喷头方面,介绍了激光光斑的种类及转换原理和熔覆材料的引入方式,总结了激光束与粉束的耦合模式和熔覆喷头的种类,包括旁轴送粉熔覆喷头、光外同轴送粉喷头、光内同轴送粉喷头以及特殊工况下的熔覆喷头。在激光熔覆工艺方面,阐述了工艺参数对熔覆层宏观形貌和组织性能的影响,总结了激光熔覆复合工艺的辅助加工方法,论述了超高速激光熔覆新工艺的原理及技术优势,并介绍了激光熔覆过程控制的研究进展。在激光熔覆材料方面,阐述了熔覆材料的种类及增强相的添加方式。在激光熔覆技术的工业应用方面,介绍了激光熔覆技术在矿山机械、模具再制造以及铁路修复等领域的应用。最后对激光熔覆技术的发展趋势及应用前景做出了展望。     

Comparison of coaxial and off-axis nozzle configurations in one step process laser cladding on aluminum substrate

Laser cladding of aluminum bronze alloy has been studied in order to increase the wear resistance of aluminum parts. Aiming a more productive and controlled process, this study analyzes the blown powder process, with two possibilities of blowing configurations that are off-axis and coaxial nozzle, and process parameters, such as axial motion speed, mass flow and power modulation. Dilution, catchment efficiency and hardness were analyzed for the used process parameters and nozzle configurations.