PhD Design & Analysis of Integrated Ultrasonic Atomizer production Metal Powder

Power and Flow focuses on clean and efficient process technology, to cater for fast-growing energy demands. Our mission is to perform world-class scientific research on multiphase and reactive flows in the area of energy conversion and process technology. The research is concerned with the development of computational and experimental techniques for the study of multiphase reactors. This includes, for example, multiphase flow modeling of intensified contacting in bubble column reactors and multiphase processes in fluidized beds. Typical applications of this research include the automotive, chemical industries and additive manufacturing.

Project description

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing is a technique in which parts are produced by adding material. It allows for direct manufacturing of one of a kind, end-use parts with complex geometries directly from a digital building plan, in a cost and time efficient manner. In addition, AM has the ability to reduce the amount of waste, for example by reusing residual raw materials. One of the most advanced printing techniques for metals is powder bed-based printing, such as Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), where thin layers of micron-sized metal powder, with a thickness of 20-100 micron, are deposited in a build chamber and locally fused by a laser or an electron beam to create a solid part.

The entire metal 3D printing production chain, including the production of powder from scrap material, involves a number of processes that require different equipment. These processes include 1) the production of metal powder occurring in a molten metal atomizer, 2) after treatments such as sieving to narrow the particle size distribution, 3) transport and feeding the metal powder in the 3D printer, 4) deposition of the metal powder in a bed layer and 5) the actual 3D printing. The process can be made even more efficient if the 5 different steps are combined in a single device which uses waste molten metal or unused metal powder as input to produce a metal 3D printed solid part. This requires the integration of state-of-the-art printing techniques with a technology able to generate and deposit metal powder.

The aim of this project is to design, build and test an atomization-deposition system. The project has three main objectives:

Project team

The supervisors for this project are dr. Giulia Finotello and prof. Niels Deen from the section Power and Flow and dr. Joris Remmers from the section Mechanics of Materials. The research interests of Giulia Finotello include development of advanced experimental techniques and numerical tools to investigate spraying dynamics. Joris Remmers is an expert in the field of the analysis of mechanical properties of 3D printed products. The collaboration between the two sections allows to relate the properties of the spraying process with the mechanical structure and properties of the 3D printed parts.