Articles | Volume 6, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/ms-6-127-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/ms-6-127-2015
Research article
 | 
11 Aug 2015
Research article |  | 11 Aug 2015

An analysis of the particulate flow in cold spray nozzles

M. Meyer and R. Lupoi

Abstract. Cold Spray is a novel technology for the application of coatings onto a variety of substrate materials. In this method, melting temperatures are not crossed and the bonding is realized by the acceleration of powder particles through a carrier gas in a converging-diverging nozzle and their high energy impact over a substrate material. The critical aspect of this technology is the acceleration process and the multiphase nature of it. Three different nozzle designs were experimented under constant conditions and their performance simulated using Computational Fluid Dynamics tools. The Deposition Efficiency was measured using titanium as feedstock material and it was shown that it decreases with the cross-sectional throat area of the nozzle. Computational results based on a one-way coupled multiphase approach did not agree with this observation, while more sophisticated modelling techniques with two-way couplings can partially provide high-quality outcomes, in agreement with experimental data.

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Short summary
Cold Spray is a novel technology for the application of coatings, in which bonding is realized by the acceleration of powder particles through a carrier gas and their high speed impact over a substrate material. Different nozzle designs are shown experimentally to vary in deposition efficiency, which cannot be explained by standard computational simulations. In order to amend the modelling techniques, a stronger coupling of solid and gas phase is employed, which provided improved results.