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Development of lunar regolith composite and structure via laser-assisted sintering

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Abstract

Aiming at the exploration and resource utilization activities on the Moon, in situ resource utilization and in situ manufacturing are proposed to minimize the dependence on the ground transportation supplies. In this paper, a laser-assisted additive manufacturing process is developed to fabricate lunar regolith composites with PA12/SiO2 mixing powders. The process parameters and composite material compositions are optimized in an appropriate range through orthogonal experiments to establish the relationship of process—structure—property for lunar regolith composites. The optimal combination of composite material compositions and process parameters are mixing ratio of 50/50 in volume, laser power of 30 W, scanning speed of 3500 mm/s, and scanning hatch space of 0.2 mm. The maximum tensile strength of lunar regolith composites reaches 9.248 MPa, and the maximum depth of surface variation is 120.79 µm, which indicates poor powder fusion and sintering quality. Thereafter, the mechanical properties of laser-sintered lunar regolith composites are implemented to the topology optimization design of complex structures. The effectiveness and the feasibility of this laser-assisted process are potentially developed for future lightweight design and manufacturing of the solar panel installed on the lunar rover.

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Abbreviations

AM:

Additive manufacturing

CAD:

Computer-aided design

DIC:

Digital image correlation

DLP:

Digital light processing

DSC:

Differential scanning calorimetry

DTG:

Differential thermogravimetry

ESA:

European Space Agency

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

SLS:

Selective laser sintering

STA:

Synchronous thermal analyzer

TGA:

Thermogravimetric analysis

F :

External force loading on the structure

h :

Hatch space

p :

Laser power

r :

Mixing ratio

R :

Influence degree of corresponding factors

T m :

Melting peak temperature

T r :

Recrystallization peak temperature

v :

Scanning speed

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB1102800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Excellent Young Scholars (Grant No. 11722219), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51905439), and the Emerging (Interdisciplinary) Cultivation Project of Northwestern Polytechnical University, China (Grant Nos. 19SH030403 and 20SH030201).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State IJR Center of Aerospace Design and Additive Manufacturing, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Hua Zhao, Shaoying Li, Jihong Zhu, Shangqin Yuan & Weihong Zhang

  2. Beijing Institute of Radio Measurement, Beijing, 100854, China

    Lu Meng

  3. Key Laboratory of Metal High Performance Additive Manufacturing and Innovative Design, MIIT China, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Jihong Zhu

  4. Unmanned System Research Institute, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Shangqin Yuan

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  1. Hua Zhao
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  2. Lu Meng
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  3. Shaoying Li
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  4. Jihong Zhu
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Correspondence to Jihong Zhu or Shangqin Yuan.

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Zhao, H., Meng, L., Li, S. et al. Development of lunar regolith composite and structure via laser-assisted sintering. Front. Mech. Eng. 17, 6 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-021-0662-2

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