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Effect of non-isothermal deposition on surface morphology and microstructure of uniform molten aluminum alloy droplets applied to three-dimensional printing

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Abstract

Non-isothermal deposition of uniform molten droplets as basic building blocks has a great influence on the geometric profile and microstructure of metallic components fabricated by the drop-based three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. In this paper, the thermal and dynamic behaviors of molten aluminum droplets during non-isothermal deposition were studied numerically and experimentally. The result shows that local solidification and interfacial re-melting occur during the initial period of non-isothermal deposition. The re-melting in microseconds depends greatly on the impacting droplet temperature, the deposition surface temperature, and the thermal contact resistance. Further, the coupling action of subsequent solidification and oscillation behaviors of aluminum droplet fixed on the target surface was also investigated. It is interesting to find that the formation and distribution of the solidified surface morphology, such as the typical micron-sized ripples, are significantly affected by layer-by-layer solidification and underdamped oscillation in the remaining molten metal. Based on the above research, a semiquantitative relationship between external morphology and internal microstructure was proposed, which was further certified by investigating the piled vertical columns. The works should be helpful for the process optimization and non-destructive detection of drop-based 3D printing techniques.

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Abbreviations

a :

Radius of spherical droplet

a l :

Equivalent radius of remaining molten metal

c :

Specific heat

D r :

Spacing between ripples

H :

Height of deposited droplet

h’ :

Radiation heat transfer coefficient

h r :

Distance between ripple and deposition surface

k :

Thermal conductivity

L :

Latent heat of fusion

R :

Radius of spherical cap

R c :

Thermal contact resistance

t :

Time

t damp :

Viscous damping time

t l :

Oscillation period of remaining molten metal

t osc :

Inertial oscillation time

t spr :

Spreading time

T a :

Ambient temperature

T d :

Droplet temperature

T int :

Interface temperature

T t :

Target surface temperature

T sub :

Initial substrate surface temperature

V l :

Volume of remaining liquid

V cap′:

Volume of spherical cap above solidified layer

v :

Velocity

v s :

Velocity of solidification front

α :

Thermal diffusivity

σ :

Surface tension

σ′:

Stefan–Boltzmann constant, 5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4

ε :

Emittance of 7075 aluminum alloy

γ :

Volume thermal expansion coefficient of 7075 aluminum alloy

μ :

Viscosity

ν :

Kinematic viscosity

ρ :

Density

θ :

Contact angle

Oh :

Ohnesorge number (\( = {\mu \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {\mu {\sqrt {D\sigma \rho } }}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\sqrt {D\sigma \rho } }} \))

Re :

Reynolds number (\( = DV\rho /\mu \))

We :

Weber number (\( = DV^{2} \rho /\sigma \))

d :

Droplet

t :

Target surface

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51221001), the Defense Industrial Technology Development Program (A1120133026), the Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (20126102110022), and the Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing (NWPU) (85-TZ-2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Han-song Zuo, He-jun Li & Yao-feng Wu

  2. School of Mechatronic Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Le-hua Qi, Jun Luo & Song-yi Zhong

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  1. Han-song Zuo
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  2. He-jun Li
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Correspondence to He-jun Li.

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Zuo, Hs., Li, Hj., Qi, Lh. et al. Effect of non-isothermal deposition on surface morphology and microstructure of uniform molten aluminum alloy droplets applied to three-dimensional printing. Appl. Phys. A 118, 327–335 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8735-2

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