Multi-scale mechanical and tribological characterization techniques for development of robust cold spray coatings

冷喷涂是一种创新的沉积工艺，有望在下个世纪取得突破性技术。它有可能提供绿色制造方法的建立结构，而不是加工下来。它还具有在现场修复磨损或腐蚀的工程表面的潜力。在矿山或林业现场进行现场维修将节省大量成本，并减少重型机械运输对环境的影响。尽管有这些希望和潜力，冷喷涂技术仍然非常新，而且对它制造的材料仍然知之甚少。与任何新的制造方法一样，需要有关于工艺条件对材料结构和性能以及最终在工程应用中的性能的影响的重要背景知识。该建议是一种创新的多尺度测试方法，将提供冷喷涂材料的机械和摩擦学性能的数据。通过在不同长度尺度下的测试，我们将发现导致批量性能的机制。有了这些知识，可以优化工艺，以获得具有强大的机械和摩擦学性能的材料。这项研究的主要成果将是双重的。首先，将快速获得一系列材料的重要信息库，包括其喷涂性和材料特性。其次，将演示多规模测试方法，以便小规模测试直接校准到批量性能。使用冷喷涂的工程师可以选择使用小规模测试来监控工艺变量对材料性能的影响。总之，该提案详细介绍了用于确定冷喷涂涂层机械和摩擦学性能的创新材料科学方法，并寻求优化一系列材料的工艺条件，以使最坚固的涂层成为可能。

Cold spray is an innovative deposition process that holds promise for breakthrough technologies in the next century. It has the potential to provide green manufacturing methods of building up structures rather than machining down. It also has the potential to provide repair of worn or corroded engineering surfaces in the field. Repairing on site at a mine or forestry site would provide huge cost saving and reduce environmental impact associated with transport of heavy machinery. With all of this promise and potential, the cold spray technology is still very new and materials fabricated by it are still poorly understood. Like any new manufacturing method, there needs to be significant background knowledge generated about the effect of process conditions on the material structure and properties and ultimately the performance in an engineering application. This proposal is on an innovative multi-scale testing methodology that will provide data on the mechanical and tribological properties of cold sprayed material. By testing at different length scales, we will discover the mechanisms that lead to the bulk performance. With this knowledge, the process can be optimized to obtain materials with robust mechanical and tribological properties. The main outcomes of the study will be twofold. First a significant library of information will be obtained quickly on a range of materials, including their sprayability and material properties. Second, the multi-scale test methodology will be demonstrated such that small-scale tests are directly calibrated to bulk performance. Engineers using cold spray may then have the option to use small-scale tests to monitor the effect process variables have on material properties. In summary, this proposal details an innovative materials science approach for determining mechanical and tribological properties of cold spray coatings and seeks to optimize process conditions for a range of materials to make the most robust coatings possible.