Processing and Testing of Materials using New Advanced Powder Metallurgy and Additive Manufacturing Strategies

Brochu教授的研究小组是开发和验证用于纳米结构粉末固化的先进粉末冶金工艺和基于快速固化的增材制造技术的领导小组之一，该技术专注于易凝固开裂的材料，主要是铝合金。这个研究项目将进一步提升他的研究在四个方面的产业影响。首先，Brochu教授将开发新的表面工程工艺，以促进超固体烧结纳米结构材料的烧结。该计划将提高粉末冶金（PM）预测的经济增长5.31%，在2012-2016年期间，通过低成本的改进性能粉末（纳米颗粒）的可用性，这将提高制造零件的性能。这将在包括汽车、生物医学和航空航天在内的各个行业中看到。其次，Brochu教授将系统地研究场辅助烧结与硬件原型之间的关系。这种新型炉将允许加热速度轻松达到1000C/min，从而减少整体烧结次数。由于烧结在流程图中占能源消耗的73%，这些新概念将减少粉末冶金行业的经济和能源足迹。第三，该研究计划将在三个方面为增材制造技术提供一个阶段性的增长：(1)提供新的策略和开发新的硬件，以获得相当于锻造的机械性能，这将绕过目前“比铸造好，比锻造差”的概念。(2)开发新方法，对存在固化裂纹的材料进行增材制造（AM），这通常与高强度合金有关。该项目将向几乎所有材料家族开放增材制造，与目前大约商业化的合金家族相比，这将是一个巨大的飞跃。(3)通过合金工程设计凝固路径，允许超细晶材料的增材制造，这些材料目前是通过严重的塑性变形和大量的加工制造的。总体而言，该计划将在2012年为现有的全球市场贡献18.432亿美元，到2017年将增长到34.719亿美元，并进一步增加增材制造的足迹和产业整合。(4)该项目还将开发新的局部测试策略，利用纳米冲击和纳米疲劳压痕技术评估更容易发生断裂的区域。其结果将是创造一种低成本和快速创新的测试技术，以评估这些先进材料的使用性能。该项目将在材料加工、表征和测试以及新型硬件设计等领域培养4名新的硕士研究生、6名新的博士研究生和1名在读博士研究生。培训方法将把新工艺/设备的设计与新材料的设计联系起来，并通过分析建模来支持所有潜在现象的图表。HQPs将培养毕业生的特质，如分析工具、决策、团队合作等，并将辅以知识产权、管理、领导和公开演讲等软技能。他们将接受良好的培训，以适应加拿大就业市场的现实，包括涂料行业、设备设计和制造、金属材料加工和转化以及材料性能评估。

Prof. Brochu's research group is one of the leading group to develop and validate advanced powder metallurgy processes for consolidation of nanostructured powders and rapid solidification-based additive manufacturing technologies focused on materials suffering from solidification cracking, mainly aluminum alloys. This research program will further elevate the industrial impact of his research in four fronts. Firstly, Prof. Brochu will develop new surface engineering processes to facilitate the sintering of nanostructured materials through super solidus sintering. This program will raise the powder metallurgy (PM) forecasted economical growth of 5.31% over the 2012-2016 period by the availability of low-cost improved properties powders (nanograined), which will improve the performance of the manufactured parts. This will be seen in various industries, including automotive, biomedical and aerospace. Secondly, Prof. Brochu will translate systematic studies on the relationship between field assisted sintering towards hardware prototypes. The novel furnaces will permit heating rate reaching easily 1000C/min and consequently reducing the overall sintering runs. As sintering represent 73% of the energy consumption in the flowchart, these new concepts will reduce the economical and energetic footprint of the PM industry. Thirdly, the research program will provide a step growth of the additive manufacturing technology on three fronts: (1) Provide new strategies and developing new hardware to obtain mechanical properties equivalent to wrought, which will circumvent the current concept of "better than cast, worst than wrought". (2) Develop new approaches to perform additive manufacturing (AM) of materials suffering from solidification cracking, which are typically associated with high strength alloys. This program will open AM to almost all families of materials, which will be a quantum jump compared to the approximately currently commercialised 8 families of alloys. (3) Engineer solidification paths through alloy engineering to permit AM of ultra fine grained materials, materials that are currently fabricated by severe plastic deformation followed by extensive machining. Overall, this program will contribute to the existing global market of $1,843.2 million in 2012, and growth to $3,471.9 million by 2017, and further increase the AM footprint and industrial integration. (4) The program will also develop new localized testing strategies to assess the regions more susceptible to fracture initiation using nano-impact and nano-fatigue indentation technique. The outcome will be the creation of a low-cost and rapid innovative testing technique to assess the service properties of these advanced materials. This program will train four new Master students, six new and one continuing Ph.D students in fields including materials processing, characterization and testing, and design of new hardware. The training methodology will link the design of novel processes/devices with design of new materials and supported by analytical modeling to graps all underlying phenomena. The HQPs will develop graduate attributes such as analytical tools, decision-making, teamwork attributes, and will be augmented by soft skills such as IP, management, leadership and public speaking. They will be well trained for the reality of the Canadian employment markets, including coating industry, equipment design and fabrication, metallic materials processing and transformation, and materials performance assessment.