Bonding mechanism from the impact of thermally sprayed solid particles

Power particles are mainly in solid state prior to impact on substrates from high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spraying. The bonding between particles and substrates is critical to ensure the quality of coating. Finite element analysis (FEA) models are developed to simulate the impingement process of solid particle impact on substrates. This numerical study examines the bonding mechanism between particles and substrates and establishes the critical particle impact parameters for bonding. Considering the morphology of particles, the shear-instability–based method is applied to all the particles, and the energy-based method is employed only for spherical particles. The particles are given the properties of widely used WC-Co powder for HVOF thermally sprayed coatings. The numerical results confirm that in the HVOF process, the kinetic energy of the particle prior to impact plays the most dominant role in particle stress localization and melting of the interfacial contact region. The critical impact parameters, such as particle velocity and temperature, are shown to be affected by the shape of particles, while higher impact velocity is required for highly nonspherical powder

Residual stress in laser cladded rail

To improve the fatigue life of components subject to loads with high surface strain gradients, it is possible to coat them with an alloy of higher durability. The present study focuses on the effect of cladding high value track components, made of a standard rail steel UIC 900A/grade 260, with a layer of a premium martensitic stainless steel to reduce wear and fatigue. The laser cladding process inevitably generates residual stresses in the clad and parent metal, which could be detrimental to the integrity of the component. Therefore, measurements to determine the residual stress state of cladded rail were performed using semi-destructive centre-hole and deep hole drilling and non-destructive neutron diffraction techniques. Subsequently, the effects of cycling loading and wear, representative of typical service loads, on the redistribution of the residual stress field were investigated. It was observed that laser cladding causes a triaxial compressive residual stress field in the clad and near the interface and a tensile stress field in the parent material. The stress field is shown to change when the first cycle of load is applied but reaches a steady state after only 10 cycles: After the 10th cycle there is no evidence that the clad continues accumulating strain which could indicate that there is low risk of ratcheting. Wear effect on residual stress redistribution was found to be local on the surface of the specimen only

Study of the porosity in plasma-sprayed alumina through an innovative three-dimensional simulation of the coating buildup

International audiencePorosity is a key feature of a thermally sprayed coating microstructure. Within ceramic coatings, porosity is made of pores and cracks of various shapes, dimensions, and orientations. Cracks can be intralamellar or interlamellar due to the buildup of the coating, which leads to piled-up lamellae from impinging and the additional rapid solidification of liquid droplets. Pores are interconnected with cracks, which results in a three-dimensional (3-D) porosity network. Direct observation of this network is an intricate task and current attempts remain somewhat limited. A 3-D simulation of this network was, therefore, developed in this work, based on a stochastic approach to the building up of simulated lamellae in the sprayed microstructure. A library of mathematical objects was achieved from morphological measurements, using confocal microscopy of actual isolated flattened lamellae, i.e., “splats” and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This stochastic approach to the simulation of hundreds of lamellae also involves the random distribution of cracks and pores. Simulation fit parameters were selected according to the overall characteristics of porosity (i.e., content, orientation, size, etc.) that were determined from the thorough quantitative image analysis (QIA) of cross-sectioned plasma-sprayed alumina coatings. Two plasma modes that varied the atmosphere in a controlled-atmosphere plasma spraying (CAPS) chamber were applied, to produce the microstructures of two different alumina coatings. The 3-D random modeling tool allowed the processing of a volume of digital material through a 3-D simulated binary image of a two-phased composite material. Using one 3-D image result of the simulation, finite element (FE) calculations were performed, in order to study the overall dielectric properties of a plasma-sprayed alumina as a function of porosity. The influence of anisotropy is discussed, in particular, and both analytical and numerical predicted values were compared to experimental ones. The presence of the defects related to both digital coatings is also discussed

Advanced Modeling and Simulation Tools to Address Build-Up Issues in Additive Manufacturing by Cold Spray

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