skip to main content


Title: A Study of Pore Formation During Single Layer and Multiple Layer Build by Selective Laser Melting
In this study, different hatch spacings were used to fabricate single layer and multiple layers, and its effect on porosity was investigated by using microcomputed tomography. The combination of laser power (100 W, 150 W, 175 W, and 195W) and scan speeds (600 mm/s, 800 mm/s, 1000 mm/s and 1200 mm/s) which resulted in the least number of pores were selected from the previous single-track experiment. Six levels of hatch spacings were selected based on the track width to form single and multiple layers: 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 120% and 150% of track widths. For the multilayer build, the variation in keyhole porosity within the given window of parameters were found to be attributed to the variation in the hatch spacing. In general, the pore number decreased with increase in hatch spacing from 60% to 90% but increased when hatch spacing further increased from 90% to 120%.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1662662
NSF-PAR ID:
10140437
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 30th Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium
Volume:
30
Page Range / eLocation ID:
522-532
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing has been used to fabricate complex-shaped structures, which often consist of fine features. Due to transient process phenomena, there are differences in terms of the melt pool formation and the surface morphology depending upon the feature area and scan parameters. This study investigates the scan length effect on the surface morphology and the presence of transient length and width that may have a significant effect as the layer addition continues. For this purpose, four scan lengths (0.25 mm, 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm, and 2.0 mm) are used to fabricate six tracks with back-and-forth scanning. A full factorial design of experiments is used to form multi-track depositions with three levels of power (125 W, 160 W, and 195 W), two levels of scan speed (550 mm/s and 1000 mm/s), and four levels of hatch spacing (80 μm, 100 μm, 120 μm, and 140 μm). A white light interferometer is used to acquire the surface data, and MATLAB is used for surface topographical analysis. The results indicated that the scan length has a significant effect on the surface characteristics. The average height of multi-track deposits increases with the decrease of the scan length. Moreover, the transient length and width can be approximated based on the height variation along both the scan and transverse directions, respectively. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    While GCM horizontal resolution has received the majority of scale improvements in recent years, ample evidence suggests that a model’s vertical resolution exerts a strong control on its ability to accurately simulate the physics of the marine boundary layer. Here we show that, regardless of parameter tuning, the ability of a single-column model (SCM) to simulate the subtropical marine boundary layer improves when its vertical resolution is improved. We introduce a novel objective tuning technique to optimize the parameters of an SCM against profiles of temperature and moisture and their turbulent fluxes, horizontal winds, cloud water, and rainwater from large-eddy simulations (LES). We use this method to identify optimal parameters for simulating marine stratocumulus and shallow cumulus. The novel tuning method utilizes an objective performance metric that accounts for the uncertainty in the LES output, including the covariability between model variables. Optimization is performed independently for different vertical grid spacings and value of time step, ranging from coarse scales often used in current global models (120 m, 180 s) to fine scales often used in parameterization development and large-eddy simulations (10 m, 15 s). Uncertainty-weighted disagreement between the SCM and LES decreases by a factor of ∼5 when vertical grid spacing is improved from 120 to 10 m, with time step reductions being of secondary importance. Model performance is shown to converge at a vertical grid spacing of 20 m, with further refinements to 10 m leading to little further improvement.

    Significance Statement

    In successive generations of computer models that simulate Earth’s atmosphere, improvements have been mainly accomplished by reducing the horizontal sizes of discretized grid boxes, while the vertical grid spacing has seen comparatively lesser refinements. Here we advocate for additional attention to be paid to the number of vertical layers in these models, especially in the model layers closest to Earth’s surface where climatologically important marine stratocumulus and shallow cumulus clouds reside. Our experiments show that the ability of a one-dimensional model to represent physical processes important to these clouds is strongly dependent on the model’s vertical grid spacing.

     
    more » « less
  3. Additive manufacturing (AM) as a disruptive technique has offered great potential to design and fabricate many metallic components for aerospace, medical, nuclear, and energy applications where parts have complex geometry. However, a limited number of materials suitable for the AM process is one of the shortcomings of this technique, in particular laser AM of copper (Cu) is challenging due to its high thermal conductivity and optical reflectivity, which requires higher heat input to melt powders. Fabrication of composites using AM is also very challenging and not easily achievable using the current powder bed technologies. Here, the feasibility to fabricate pure copper and copper-carbon nanotube (Cu-CNT) composites was investigated using laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (LPBF-AM), and 10 × 10 × 10 mm3 cubes of Cu and Cu-CNTs were made by applying a Design of Experiment (DoE) varying three parameters: laser power, laser speed, and hatch spacing at three levels. For both Cu and Cu-CNT samples, relative density above 90% and 80% were achieved, respectively. Density measurement was carried out three times for each sample, and the error was found to be less than 0.1%. Roughness measurement was performed on a 5 mm length of the sample to obtain statistically significant results. As-built Cu showed average surface roughness (Ra) below 20 µm; however, the surface of AM Cu-CNT samples showed roughness values as large as 1 mm. Due to its porous structure, the as-built Cu showed thermal conductivity of ~108 W/m·K and electrical conductivity of ~20% IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard) at room temperature, ~70% and ~80% lower than those of conventionally fabricated bulk Cu. Thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity were ~85 W/m·K and ~10% IACS for as-built Cu-CNT composites at room temperature. As-built Cu-CNTs showed higher thermal conductivity as compared to as-built Cu at a temperature range from 373 K to 873 K. Because of their large surface area, light weight, and large energy absorbing behavior, porous Cu and Cu-CNT materials can be used in electrodes, catalysts and their carriers, capacitors, heat exchangers, and heat and impact absorption. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) is an effective method of fabricating nickel–titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys (SMAs) with complex geometries, unique functional properties, and tailored material compositions. However, with the increase of Ni content in NiTi powder feedstock, the ability to produce high-quality parts is notably reduced due to the emergence of macroscopic defects such as warpage, elevated edge/corner, delamination, and excessive surface roughness. This study explores the printability of a nickel-rich NiTi powder, where printability refers to the ability to fabricate macro-defect-free parts. Specifically, single track experiments were first conducted to select key processing parameter settings for cubic specimen fabrication. Machine learning classification techniques were implemented to predict the printable space. The reliability of the predicted printable space was verified by further cubic specimens fabrication, and the relationship between processing parameters and potential macro-defect modes was investigated. Results indicated that laser power was critical to the printability of high Ni content NiTi powder. In the low laser power setting (P < 100 W), the printable space was relatively wider with delamination as the main macro-defect mode. In the sub-high laser power condition (100 W ≤ P ≤ 200 W), the printable space was narrowed to a low hatch spacing region with macro-defects of warpage, elevated edge/corner, and delamination happened at different scanning speeds and hatch spacing combinations. The rough surface defect emerged when further increasing the laser power (P > 200 W), leading to a further narrowed printable space. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    Midlatitude thermospheric wind observations from the Michelson Interferometer for Global High‐resolution Thermospheric Imaging on board the Ionospheric Connections Explorer (ICON/MIGHTI) and from the ground‐based Boulder, Urbana, Millstone Hill and Morocco Fabry‐Perot interferometers (FPIs) are used to study a distinct solar local time (SLT) evolution in the nighttime wind field around the December solstice period. Our results show, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, strong non‐migrating tides in midlatitude thermospheric winds using coincident from different observing platforms. These observations exhibited a structure of strong (∼50–150 m/s) eastward and southward winds in the pre‐midnight sector (20:00–23:00 SLT) and in the post‐midnight sector (02:00–03:00 SLT), with a strong suppression around midnight. Tidal analysis of ICON/MIGHTI data revealed that the signature before midnight was driven by diurnal (D0, DE1, DE2, DW2) and semidiurnal (SE2, SE3, SW1, SW4) tides, and that strong terdiurnal (TE2, TW1, TW2, TW5) and quatradiurnal (QW2, QW3, QW6) tides were important contributors in the mid‐ and post‐midnight sectors. ICON/MIGHTI tidal reconstructions successfully reproduced the salient structures observed by the FPI and showed a longitudinal dual‐peak variation with peak magnitudes around 200°–120°W and 30°W–60°E. The signature of the structure extended along the south‐to‐north direction from lower latitudes, migrated to earlier local times with increasing latitude, and strengthened above 30°N. Tidal analysis using historical FPI data revealed that these structures were often seen during previous December solstices, and that they are much stronger for lower solar flux conditions, consistent with an upward‐propagating tidal origin.

     
    more » « less