Application of Computational Thermodynamic and Solidification Kinetics to Cold Sprayable Powder Alloy Design

Belsito, Danielle L

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Application of Computational Thermodynamic and Solidification Kinetics to Cold Sprayable Powder Alloy Design

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Military aircraft that require high maneuverability, durability, ballistic protection, reparability, and energy efficiency require structural alloys with low density, high toughness, and high strength. Also, repairs to these aircraft demand a production process that has the flexibility to be relatively in-situ with the same high-performance output. Materials produced by the cold spray process, a thermo-mechanical powder consolidation technique, meet many of the requirements. In accordance with President Obama’s 2011 Materials Genome Initiative, the focus of this effort is to design customized aluminum alloy powders which exploit the unique behavior and properties of the materials created by the cold spray process. Analytical and computational models are used to customize microchemistry, thermal conditioning, and solidification behavior of the powders by predicting equilibrium and non-equilibrium microstructure and resulting materials properties and performance. Thermodynamic, kinetic, and solidification models are used, including commercial software packages Thermo-Calc, Pandat™, and JMatPro®, and TC-PRISMA. Predicted powder properties can be used as input into a cold spray process impact model to determine the consolidated materials’ properties. Mechanical properties of powder particles are predicted as a function of powder particle diameter and are compared to experimental results.

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