The effects of powder properties on in-flight particle velocity and deposition process during low pressure cold spray process

In cold spray process, impacting velocity and critical velocity of particles dominate the deposition process and coating properties for given materials. The impacting velocity and critical velocity of particles depend on the powder properties and cold spray conditions. In the present study, the in-flight particle velocity of copper powder in low pressure cold spraying was measured using an imaging technique. The effects of particle size and particle morphology on in-flight particle velocity and deposition efficiency were investigated. The critical velocity of copper powder was estimated by combining the in-flight particle velocity and deposition efficiency. The effect of annealing of feedstock powder on deposition and critical velocity was also investigated. The results showed that the irregular shape particle presents higher in-flight velocity than the spherical shape particle under the same condition. For irregular shape particles, the in-flight velocity decreased from 390 to 282 m/s as the particle size increases from 20 to 60 μm. Critical velocities of about 425 m/s and more than 550 m/s were estimated for the feedstock copper powder with spherical and irregular shape morphology, respectively. For the irregular shape particles, the critical velocity decreased from more than 550 to 460 m/s after preheating at 390 °C for 1 h. It was also found that the larger size powder presents a lower critical velocity in this study.     

冷动力喷涂法制备钨和钨合金涂层 及其涂层的计算模拟

采用冷动力喷涂法以纯钨和钨-镍-铁合金为原料在铜合金基体上制备了钨涂层和钨-镍-铁涂层. 研究了冷喷涂过程中钨粉粒径、喷涂距离等因素对涂层性能的影响. 用扫描电子显微镜分析了涂层的表面、断面微观结构, 并用原子力显微镜测量了涂层的粗糙度. 此外, 计算了冷喷涂过程中粉末颗粒的实际速度, 并采用有限元分析软件ANSYS/LS-DYNA模拟了冷喷涂过程中颗粒撞击基体时的变形情况.     

Deposition characteristics of copper particles on roughened substrates through kinetic spraying

In this paper, a systematic study of copper particle deposition behavior on polished and roughened surfaces (aluminum and copper) in kinetic spray process has been performed. The particle deformation behavior was simulated through finite element analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS explicit 6.7-2. The particle-substrate contact time, contact temperature and contact area upon impact have been estimated for smooth and three different roughened substrate cases. Copper powders were deposited on smooth and grit-blasted copper and aluminium substrates and characterized through scanning electron microscopy and Romulus bond strength analyzer. The results indicate that the deformation and the resultant bonding were higher for the roughened substrates than that of smooth. The characteristic factors for bonding are reported and discussed. Thus the substrate roughness appears to be beneficial for the initial deposition efficiency of the kinetic spray process.     

A discrete droplet transport model for predicting spray coating patterns of an electrostatic rotary atomizer

Electrostatic spray (E-spray) coating is widely used for coating conductive substrates. The combination of a high-velocity shaping air, an imposed electric field and charged droplets, leads to higher transfer efficiency than conventional spray coating. In this paper, a mathematical model of droplet transport in E-spray is presented which enables simulating the coating deposition rate profile. A dilute spray assumption (no particle–particle interactions) allows modeling single-droplet trajectories resulting from a balance of electrostatic force, drag and inertia. Atomization of liquid droplets is not modeled explicitly—rather an empirical correlation is used for the mean droplet size while individual droplet sizes and starting locations are determined using random distributions. Strong coupling requires the electrostatic field and droplet trajectories be determined iteratively by successive substitution with relaxation. The influences of bell-cup voltage and atomization constant on the coating deposition rate profile, mass transfer efficiency and droplet trajectories are also shown. Using individually predicted droplet trajectories and impact locations, a static coating deposition rate profiles is determined. For the parametric values considered in this paper, the predicted spray is a cone hollow with no deposition in the center, a heavy ring near the center, and a tapering of thickness toward the outer edge.     

Measurement of particle velocity and characterization of deposition in aluminum alloy kinetic spraying process

Particle velocity is a very important parameter in kinetic spraying (or cold gas dynamic spraying). It is difficult to measure the velocity of a particle with supersonic speed at low temperature (lower than 500 °C). Thus, in many investigations only estimated values are used for evaluating coating processes. In this paper, the modeling of particle acceleration was reviewed, and the measurement of in-flight particle velocity in a kinetic spraying process was performed. Particle velocity and flux distributions from different process gas temperatures and pressures were investigated. The influences of process gas temperature and pressure on particle velocity were discussed. Characteristic of Al-Si feedstock deposition onto a mild steel substrate was described by comparing coatings structures with the in-flight particle conditions. The deposition behavior showed two critical particle velocities for Al-Si powder deposition onto a substrate and for particle-particle bonding.     

The bond strength of Al-Si coating on mild steel by kinetic spraying deposition

Kinetic spraying (or cold gas dynamic spraying) works by accelerating small solid particles to supersonic velocities, and then impacting them onto a substrate. These high impact velocities, and low particle temperatures are the principal attributes of kinetic spraying technology. However, only recently has this technology's interfacial behavior, due to particle/substrate impaction, become well understood. In order to investigate the particle/substrate bond behavior, Al-Si feedstock was deposited onto mild steel, over a range of particle velocities; next, their respective coating bond strengths were measured by the stud pull coating adherence test. The effects of the particle velocity and the substrate surface roughness on the coating bond strength were presented, and a model of the particle/substrate bond generation was discussed in an effort to estimate the bond strength.     

Fracture of diamond coatings by high velocity sand erosion

This paper describes a study of the behaviour of diamond coatings when subjected to solid particle erosion from sand particles. The coatings were deposited by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) onto tungsten substrates and tested using a high velocity air–sand erosion test facility. The erosion tests were conducted using particle impact velocities of between 33 and 268 m/s. Examination of the eroded test specimens showed that the principal damage features were circumferential cracks and pin-holes. Comparison with Hertz impact theory revealed that the measured circumferential crack diameters were more than double the predicted Hertzian contact diameter. Moreover, a trend of increasing circumferential crack diameter with coating thickness, which is not predicted by Hertz, was found. Instead, the crack diameters showed good agreement with those predicted by the theory of stress wave reinforcement, which is more commonly associated with liquid impact damage of brittle materials. During impact, the bulk compression and shear waves are reflected at the rear surface of debonded regions of the coating to return to the front surface and reinforce the Rayleigh surface wave, which generates a tensile stress. Where this stress exceeds the local tensile strength of the coating, a ring of cracks surrounding the area of impact is created. The results from the present study therefore suggest that stress wave reflection is responsible for the formation of the cracks at locally debonded regions of the coating. This hypothesis was supported by images acquired using scanning acoustic microscopy, which showed that circumferential cracks and pin-holes were only found on areas of the coating that had become delaminated by multiple particle impacts during the erosion tests.     

Effect of gas temperature on critical velocity and deposition characteristics in kinetic spraying

This study evaluated the effects of particle temperature and substrate material on critical velocity and deposition efficiency in kinetic spraying. A wide range of process gas pressures and temperatures was used in this experiment to vary both particle velocity and temperature. A bronze (Cu-Sn alloy) feedstock was deposited onto aluminum, mild steel and bronze substrates. The experimental results showed that the critical velocity was strongly dependent on the combinations of particle/substrate and particle temperature. The decreasing critical velocity could be obtained at the same particle velocity, due to an increasing particle temperature. In our experiments, the critical velocity decreased by 50 m/s when the process gas temperature increased by 100 °C. When process conditions are optimized to have good bond strength and deposition efficiency, two critical velocities must be considered; one is that of the particle deposition onto the substrate (Vcr1) and the other is that of particle-particle bonding (Vcr2).     

Significant influence of particle surface oxidation on deposition efficiency, interface microstructure and adhesive strength of cold-sprayed copper coatings

The critical velocity for particle deposition in cold spraying is a key parameter, which depends not only on the material type, but also the particle temperature and oxidation condition. The dependency of deposition efficiency of cold spray Cu particles on the particle temperature and surface oxidation was examined. The effect of particle surface oxide scales on the interfacial microstructure and adhesive strength of the cold-sprayed Cu coatings was investigated. The results show that the deposition efficiency significantly increases with increasing the gas temperature but decreases with augmenting the oxygen content of the starting powder. The oxide inclusions at the interfaces between the deposited particles inhibit the effective bonding of fresh metals and remarkably lower the bond strength of the deposited Cu coatings on steel.     

Influence of substrate hardness transition on built-up of nanostructured WC-12Co by cold spraying

The ability of cold spray process to retain the feedstock microstructure into coating makes it possible to deposit nanostructured WC-Co coatings. In the present study, the deposition behavior of nanostructured WC-12Co coating was examined through the surface morphology and cross-sectional structure of the deposited single WC-12Co particle impacting on the substrates with different hardness using a nanostructured WC-12Co powder. Substrates included stainless steel, nickel-based self-fluxing alloy coatings with different hardness. It was observed from the top surface and cross-section of individual WC-12Co particles that the penetration leading to particle deposition depends on substrate hardness. When the substrate surface is covered by WC-12Co particles, the hardness of the newly formed substrate, i.e. the coating, increases greatly. The significant increase of the surface hardness leads to the rebounding off of impacting particles and erosion of the deposited particles, which prohibits effective built-up of coating. However, it was found that with spray jet fixed, a deposit with a thickness up to over 700 μm can be built-up. A model involving in substrate hardness transition during deposition is proposed to explain such phenomenon, which can be employed to optimize the conditions to build up a uniform nanostructured WC-12Co coating.     

高压烧结镀Cr、Ti膜金刚石/铜复合材料热导率研究

 采用磁控溅射方法,在金刚石表面镀覆活性金属Cr膜和Ti膜,在高温高压下合成了镀活性金属膜金刚石/铜复合材料。实验发现,活性金属的加入增强了金刚石与铜界面间的结合强度,减少了界面热阻,提高了复合材料的热导率。复合材料热导率随着金刚石体积分数的增加而降低,随着金刚石的粒度增大而提高。这主要是由界面热阻引起的,可以通过增大金刚石粒度和改善界面状态来提高复合材料热导率。     

Numerical analysis of partially molten splat during thermal spray process using the finite element method

A finite element method is used to simulate the deposition of the thermal spray coating process. A set of governing equations is solving by a volume of fluid method. For the solidification phenomenon, we use the specific heat method (SHM). We begin by comparing the present model with experimental and numerical model available in the literature. In this study, completely molten or semi-molten aluminum particle impacts a H13 tool steel substrate is considered. Next we investigate the effect of inclination of impact of a partially molten particle on flat substrate. It was found that the melting state of the particle has great effects on the morphologies of the splat.     

Microstructure and tribological performance of self-lubricating diamond/tetrahedral amorphous carbon composite film

In order to smooth the rough surface and further improve the wear-resistance of coarse chemical vapor deposition diamond films, diamond/tetrahedral amorphous carbon composite films were synthesized by a two-step preparation technique including hot-filament chemical vapor deposition for polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and subsequent filtered cathodic vacuum arc growth for tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C). The microstructure and tribological performance of the composite films were investigated by means of various characterization techniques. The results indicated that the composite films consisted of a thick well-grained diamond base layer with a thickness up to 150 μm and a thin covering ta-C layer with a thickness of about 0.3 μm, and sp³-C fraction up to 73.93%. Deposition of a smooth ta-C film on coarse polycrystalline diamond films was proved to be an effective tool to lower the surface roughness of the polycrystalline diamond film. The wear-resistance of the diamond film was also enhanced by the self-lubricating effect of the covering ta-C film due to graphitic phase transformation. Under dry pin-on-disk wear test against Si₃N₄ ball, the friction coefficients of the composite films were much lower than that of the single PCD film. An extremely low friction coefficient (∼0.05) was achieved for the PCD/ta-C composite film. Moreover, the addition of Ti interlayer between the ta-C and the PCD layers can further reduce the surface roughness of the composite film. The main wear mechanism of the composite films was abrasive wear.     

Co元素对硬质合金基底金刚石涂层膜基界面结合强度的影响

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理平面波赝势方法, 研究了硬质合金刀具基底黏结相Co元素对金刚石涂层膜基界面结合强度的影响机理. 借助Materials Studio软件建立了WC/Diamond膜基界面模型和WC-Co/Diamond膜基界面模型, 采用CASTEP仿真软件计算了WC/Diamond膜基界面模型和WC-Co/Diamond膜基界面模型的最优稳定结构. 通过仿真计算, 获得了WC/Diamond膜基界面模型和WC-Co/Diamond膜基界面模型的界面结合能、电荷密度图及Mulliken重叠布居数. 经对比分析后发现, 硬质合金基底中磁性元素Co的存在能转移金刚石涂层膜基界面处W元素及C元素的电荷, 从而使膜基界面处的原子因失电荷而相斥, 这直接导致了金刚石涂层膜基界面间距变大, 使得金刚石涂层膜基界面结合能降低.     

Deposition of diamond structures from interacting gas jets

We have reported on the results of experiments on the gas-jet synthesis of diamond from methane and hydrogen flows for various mixing conditions. An original method of separate feed of gas jet has been proposed, which makes it possible to attain a high growth rate for the diamond phase. The synthesis of diamond structures in gas-jet deposition has been studied for separate feeds of two flows (hydrogen and the mixture of hydrogen with methane) in two versions, i.e., with a lateral feed of the methane-containing mixture and axisymmetric feed. Experiments were performed under the following conditions: the temperature of the surface (activating hydrogen) 2400 K, a substrate temperature of 900–1300 K, pressure in the deposition chamber 2 × 10² Pa, gas mixture fluxes (relative to hydrogen) 1500 ncm³/min, CH₄ concentration in H₂ of 0.1–0.7%, and the distance from the substrate to the reactor 10 mm. In the case of a separate feed of the methanecontaining gas and hydrogen, a deposition rate of 20 μm/h was attained. In the case of an axisymmetric separate feed of the gases, a single crystal with a mass of 0.6 mg was grown, which corresponded to the deposition rate of approximately 200 μm/h.     

Numerical studies on velocity, temperature history and heat transfer to the particles injected into the argon plasma

A new approach to study the particle velocity in a thermal plasma in relation to input parameters (power, gas flow rate, injection velocity of the particle and particle size) and nozzle dimensions (nozzle length and diameter) has been made. Injected particle's temperature and thermal history were calculated for particles of three different materials (alumina, tungsten and graphite) in argon plasma. Allowable powder feed rate was calculated for the particles. Heat transfer per particle injected in to the plasma is reported. Liquid fraction of the particle after it reached the melting point is also reported. Particle velocity is found to increase with increase in power, gas flow rate and injection velocity and decrease with increase in particle size, nozzle length and nozzle diameter. Thermal histories of the particles in relation to the plasma temperature and particle diameter are presented. Particle's residence time is found to increase with increase in diameter of the particle. Allowable powder feed rate for complete melting of the particle is higher at higher percentage utilisation of the plasma power. Powder feed rate is seen to decrease with increase in particle size and it is higher for tungsten and lower for graphite particle. Heat transfer rate from plasma to particle is seen to decrease with increase in time and the same is higher for plasmas of higher temperature and smaller sized particle. Received 4 May 2000 and Received in final form 15 March 2001     

Deposition characteristics of Al-12Si alloy coating fabricated by cold spraying with relatively large powder particles

In this paper, the microstructure, microhardness and adhesive strength of Al-12Si coating produced by cold spraying were investigated. It is found that a thick, dense and well bonded Al-12Si coating could be produced by cold spraying with a relatively large powder through the control of spray conditions. The critical velocity for large Al-12Si particles was lower than that of small Al-12Si particles. The as-deposited Al-12Si coating had the same crystal structure as Al-12Si powder. The localized interface melting occurred resulting from both the adiabatic shearing upon impact and the thermal effect of hot gas. Some fine Si particles precipitated in α-Al matrix because of the thermal effect of hot gas during coating deposition. The dispersed Si particles in Al-12Si coating improved the coating microhardness.     

Enhancement of the thermal properties of silver-diamond composites with chromium carbide coating

The present work reports the enhancement of the thermal properties in Ag/diamond matrix composites reinforced with chromium carbide coated diamond particles. The coated diamond particles were characterized by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectra. The composites were synthesized by spark plasma sintering. The chromium carbide coating on the diamond particles resulted in composites exhibiting improved wettability and strong interfacial bonding between the diamond particles and Ag matrix. The composites with coated diamonds showed a low coefficient of thermal expansion of 8.24 × 10^?6/K and a high thermal conductivity of 695 W/mK at 60 % particle volume fraction, which greatly outperformed the composites with uncoated diamonds at the same particle volume fraction. The obtained results are useful for synthesizing Ag/diamond composites with greatly improved thermal performance.     

Electroless plating of silver on cenosphere particles and the investigation of its corrosion behavior in composite silicon rubber

In this paper, silver coating on the surface of cenosphere particles was prepared by electroless plating method. The adhesion, oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance properties of silver coating mixed in silicone rubber were investigated. The corrosion characteristic of silver coating was evaluated by anodic polarization curves of the silicone rubber composite in sulfuric acid solution. The results showed that the silver coating on the surface of cenosphere particles was smooth and uniform. The silver film was not oxidized and peeling off during preparation of composite silicone rubber. The adhesion between the cenosphere particle and silver film was good enough. The anodic polarization curves of the silicone rubber composite showed typical activation and passivation transformation. The values of corrosion potential, the initiating passive potential and maintaining passivity potential of composites filled with different contents of Ag-coated cenosphere particles were the same and related to the nature of silver coating. The passive current density of composite increased with increase of the amount of Ag-coated cenosphere particles and was inversely proportional to the resistance of silicone rubber composite. The better the conductivity of silicone rubber composite is, the higher corrosion rate will be.     

Different spray processes for different Al2O3 coating properties

Among the different coating technologies, a thermal spray has a leading position because of its versatility: an extremely wide variety of materials can be deposited to protect back materials from wear, corrosion, thermal flux, etc. For example, atmospheric plasma spray is a rather well-established process but some other ones, such as flame technology, can also be used with lower economical impact. After a respective optimization of the processing parameters, both plasma and wire flame thermal processes were tested to form Al₂O₃ coatings. For each process, in-flight particle conditions, coating cross-section micro-structures and coating properties were successively determined. The experimental parameters were correlated to in-flight particle characteristics and to coating micro-structure and compared to resulting coating features. The evolution of particle velocity and temperature showed well-marked trends and the mean values were dependent on the spray process. The results emphasized the difference of spray system in terms of kinetic and thermal transfers to the particles. Then, the differences observed on in-flight particle characteristics can be used to explain the differences observed in coating properties, such as porosity content and hardness.