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At least 181 records · Page 10

Impacts of the Additive Manufacturing Process on the Roughness of Engine Scale Vanes and Cooling Channels

Abstract By leveraging the additive manufacturing (AM) platform, development time and costs for turbine component testing can be reduced relative to traditional investment casting. Surface roughness is a key characteristic of the additive manufacturing process that can impact flow, heat transfer, and mechanical integrity of printed components. There are multiple design and build considerations that result in variability in surface roughness, especially when additively fabricating complicated three-dimensional vanes and internal cooling passages. This study characterizes the surface roughness of internal cooling passages, vanes, and flat external surface samples made using additive manufacturing, specifically the direct metal laser sintering process. The samples were manufactured with various wall thicknesses, layer thicknesses, build locations, build directions, and on different AM machines. A combination of computed tomography scanning and optical profilometry was used to evaluate surface roughness levels. The data indicate that the dominant factors in roughness for a given layer thickness are a function of wall thickness, build location, and build direction.

Engineering↗

Edge States Drive Exciton Dissociation in Ruddlesden–Popper Lead Halide Perovskite Thin Films

Efficient photovoltaic cells based on thin films of solution-processed 2D Ruddlesden–Popper hybrid perovskites (RPPs) represent an exciting breakthrough due to their enhanced tunability and chemical stability relative to those fabricated from 3D phases. However, reports of efficient charge separation and current collection are in apparent contradiction with the well-known enhancement of the exciton binding energy in multilayered halide perovskites, which should lower the device’s internal quantum efficiency and voltage. This controversy has led to various proposals for the electronic and physical structure of RPP thin films, including phase inhomogeneity as the driving force for exciton dissociation and transport. We address this apparent paradox in high-quality hot-cast RPP films by correlating ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy with X-ray scattering measurements. We show that a hot-casting fabrication method produces highly phase pure n = 3 (BA) 2 (MA) n-1 Pb n I 3n+1 RPP structures. The high-phase purity and large grain sizes allow us to observe vertical transport of excitons via a diffusive process and allow us to determine that charge separation is primarily driven by dissociation at surface localized subgap electronic states. Furthermore, we analyze the differential absorption kinetics in films of varying thickness to directly determine that the excitonic diffusion constant is ~0.18 cm 2 s –1 . We propose that a surface localized structural distortion, observed using surface selective grazing incidence X-ray scattering measurements, is responsible for the creation of the surface localized defect states. We find that the density and spatial distribution of these defect states is a function of preparation conditions.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

A new platform for development of photosystem I based thin films with superior photocurrent: TCNQ charge transfer salts derived from ZIF-8

The transmembrane photosynthetic protein complex Photosystem I (PSI) is highly sought after for incorporation into biohybrid photovoltaic devices due to its remarkable photoactive electrochemical properties, chiefly driving charge separation with ~1 V potential and ~100% quantum efficiency. In pursuit of these integrated technologies, three factors must be simultaneously tuned, namely, direct redox transfer steps, three-dimensional coordination and stabilization of PSI aggregates, and interfacial connectivity with conductive pathways. Building on our recent successful encapsulation of PSI in the metal–organic framework ZIF-8, herein we use the zinc and imidazole cations from this precursor to form charge transfer complexes with an extremely strong organic electron acceptor, TCNQ. Specifically, the PSI-Zn-H 2 mim-TCNQ charge transfer salt complex was drop cast on ITO to form dense films. Subsequent voltammetric cycling induced cation exchange and electrochemical annealing of the film was used to enhance electron conductivity giving rise to a photocurrent in the order of 15 μA cm -2 . This study paves the way for a myriad of future opportunities for successful integration of this unique class of charge transfer salt complexes with biological catalysts and light harvesters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Predicting Thermal Excursions During in situ Oxidative Regeneration of Packed Bed Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis Catalyst

Ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) uses a secondary reactor to upgrade biomass pyrolysis vapors to stabilized CFP oils with reduced oxygen content. In one configuration, the secondary reactor is operated as a packed-bed swing reactor system which allows coke-deactivated beds to be decarbonized in situ while other beds remain online for vapor upgrading. In situ decarbonization must be done carefully to avoid irreversible deactivation and/or physical degradation of catalyst pellets. Given that packed bed reactors are well known to have poor heat transfer characteristics, this is a critical issue impacting scaleability and commercial viability of the technology. To predict thermal excursions during regeneration, finite element computational models have been built to assist in scaling up oxidative decarbonization of a Pt/TiO2 CFP catalyst (0.5 mm spheres) from a bench scale packed bed with 100 g of catalyst to a pilot scale packed bed with 2 kg of catalyst and internal cooling tubes. Based on transient measurements of outlet temperature and effluent CO2 concentration, and using an assumed coke profile and activation energy, this paper demonstrates that specific combinations of effective thermal conductivity and wall heat transfer coefficient can fit bench scale oxidative regeneration data equally well. For the upscaled 2 kg bed, four bench-scale “best fit” parameter pairs give different predictions for location and magnitude of thermal excursions, with the maximum computed bed temperature gradients ranging from 30 °C cm-1 to as high as 3000 °C cm-1. The larger the fraction of heat removal by conduction through the cooling tubes, the greater the differences between the parameter pairs. The modelling results presented in this paper cast doubt on the industrial viability of the proposed combination of catalyst, bed and regeneration process, and point to the need for alternate reactor designs. However, there is considerable uncertainly in some of the key model parameters. The reliability of model predictions can be increased by adding more temperature measurements at key bed locations, testing additional variations in process conditions, performing careful bed dissections to determine the true coke profile, and perhaps most importantly, directly measuring the effective thermal conductivity of the catalyst pellets.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Highly Efficient Vacuum Smelting of Aluminum

The goal of this SBIR project was to develop and demonstrate an innovative aluminum smelting technology that will significantly increase the range of aluminum alloys that can be manufactured from recycling of scrap aluminum. This will result in reduction of need for primary aluminum with corresponding 95% energy and CO 2 emission benefits. The proposed melting of pre-sorted aluminum alloys using UHV’s patented high throughput sorter funded by ARPA-E METALS program in an energy efficient vacuum furnace avoids the typical 5% metal loss due to oxidation of molten metal. In addition, pre-sorting scrap into different categories (cast, wrought, extrusion and aerospace) allows lower cost production of high value aluminum alloys without the need for adding alloying elements to primary aluminum. During this SBIR project, pure aluminum and several different commercial alloys were procured and melted in a laboratory furnace in vacuum, CH4 and air environments. The slag and oxidation formation were measured using weight and cross-sectional scanning electron microscope. The results otained were mixed and did not show direct correlation between furnace pressure and oxidation. We believe that the results were tainted due to small furnace size and non-uniformity of oxidation layer. A more thorough investigation is required to prove the advantages of vacuum smelting which could not be performed due to the COVID-19 lockdowns during this project. The theoretical fact remains that in the absence of oxygen in the furnace, there should be no oxide after melting, however the team could not prove it experimentally, and thus decided to dis-continue the project.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Activation of dislocations in Mg with solute Y

Mg-Y cast alloy shows excellent ductility (elongation to failure > 15%) compared with pure Mg and commercial Mg cast alloys. By monitoring the microstructure evolution during an in situ tensile test of a Mg-2.5 wt%Y alloy, we identify the activation of prismatic slip, which is rare in Mg. Synchrotron X-ray micro-beam Laue diffraction (μ-Laue) and transmission electron microscopy revealed the morphology of prismatic slip bands and individual dislocations. Density functional theory and molecular dynamics calculations indicate that solute Y can significantly reduce the stacking fault energy (SFE) along direction on prismatic plane in Mg lattice and thus facilitate the nucleation of dislocations during deformation. The presence of free dislocations in the Mg lattice can also lead to nucleation of {10–12} twins even under unfavorable geometric conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Stochastic Learning Approach for Binary Optimization: Application to Bayesian Optimal Design of Experiments

Here, we present a novel stochastic approach to binary optimization suited for optimal experimental design (OED) for Bayesian inverse problems governed by mathematical models such as partial differential equations. The OED utility function, namely, the regularized optimality criterion, is cast into a stochastic objective function in the form of an expectation over a multivariate Bernoulli distribution. The probabilistic objective is then solved by using a stochastic optimization routine to find an optimal observational policy. This formulation (a) is generally applicable to binary optimization problems with soft constraints and is ideal for OED and sensor placement problems; (b) does not require differentiability of the original objective function (e.g., a utility function in OED applications) with respect to the design variable, and thus it enables direct employment of sparsity-enforcing penalty functions such as $\ell_0$, without needing to utilize a continuation procedure or apply a rounding technique; (c) exhibits much lower computational cost than traditional gradient-based relaxation approaches; and (d) can be applied to both linear and nonlinear OED problems with proper choice of the utility function. The proposed approach is analyzed from an optimization perspective with detailed convergence analysis of the optimization approach and is also analyzed from a machine learning perspective with correspondence to policy gradient reinforcement learning. The approach is demonstrated numerically by using an idealized two-dimensional Bayesian linear inverse problem and validated by extensive numerical experiments carried out for sensor placement in a parameter identification setup.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development of large-scale, 3D Printed high temperature ceramic material

Through this collaborative effort, a new 3D printing platform for ceramics called laser-induced slip casting (LIS) was explored and developed for improving the processing and manufacture of silicon carbide (SiC), a high temperature ceramic material. This method prints layers of ceramic slips/slurries with subsequent selective-laser heating to dry each layer to build a 3D structure. The completed and dried part is then sintered. This manufacturing process is inherently lower cost than alternative ceramic printing methods such as binder jet technology or stereolithography when it comes to the feedstock material but is more expensive than robocasting or direct ink writing. However, it has the potential to make more controlled parts with less defects compared to robocasting. The largest cost is the heating source for the printer. With this technique, there is potential to make large ceramic parts in a near-net shape. Further, there is no known commercial manufacturing of 3D printed ceramics that creates a large range of different high-density ceramics at large scale. The goals and outcomes for the development of the new printing technology were: 1) assessing the technology with alumina by characterizing coupons, 2) printing and sintering of silicon carbide (SiC), and 3) characterization and properties testing of materials printed and a scale-up of SiC part(s). Through this collaborative project, it was sought to provide the best solution to achieving highly dense and near-net shaped ceramic parts at large scale and reduced cost. The goal was to produce high density sintered materials for applications in defense, energy generating systems, armor, and wear parts using 3D printing methods. Variables including powder particle sizes, dispersant molecular weights (MWs), binders, printing parameters, and post processing were explored as well as the characterization of the physical properties (add specifics here).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Densification Pressure Optimization of MOF-808-Based Membranes for Lithium Metal Batteries

The use of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in hybrid electrolytes for lithium (Li) metal batteries has grown in prominence in recent years, primarily due to the chemical tunability of the MOF’s pore structures, which can directly influence Li–ion transport properties. The most attractive form factor for a MOF electrolyte is a thin, flexible membrane, which requires the application of pressure to increase the contact between the MOF particles. Herein, a systematic study of the influence of pressure on the properties of MOF-808-based membranes is presented. It is shown that when a dry, roll-pressed membrane is subjected to pressure ≥120 MPa, a total loss of crystallinity and a significant loss of porosity is observed. Alternatively, a slurry-cast membrane, compressed under controlled pressures, can maintain crystallinity and porosity while decreasing the interparticle void space. Interesting, the conductivity of the membranes infiltrated with liquid electrolyte is not greatly affected by the pressure applied, though ultimately it is shown that for cycling with Li metal, compressed membranes with compact particles are preferred. In conclusion, this study highlights the critical importance of controlling the pressure applied to MOF-based membranes during fabrication and during cell assembly and lays out the foundation for further investigation of how to optimize membrane fabrication for hybrid electrolytes that use MOFs as the dominate component.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Enhanced Sustainability in Treatment of Contaminated Metals for Clearance and Recycling - 20290

Cyclife Sweden AB has, for more than 30 years, provided metal treatment services to the domestic and international nuclear industry with the aim of creating value through metal clearance and recycling. These operations are to a large extent based on the concept that the materials, after pre-treatment, including decontamination, will be melted for clearance. During the melting process, some nuclides separate from the metal while the remaining radioactivity becomes fully homogenized in the metal bath and the resulting ingots, along with the samples taken before casting At a time when activities to fight Climate Challenge are in focus, any savings in energy consumption, in addition to the positive environmental effect of recycling metals back to industry, is more than welcome. If the clearance of certain metallic items can be achieved safely, without using melting, it is the environmentally preferred option provided it carries a reasonable cost. It is even better if an object can go through a decontamination and clearance process prior to re-use inside or outside the nuclear sector. Cyclife Sweden is currently investing in a direct clearance process, to be operated in parallel with the melting process. This new process is expected to be fully operational in the late summer of 2020 and includes pre-treatment, decontamination and heavily shielded clearance measurement installations. The treatment will also allow clearance measurements of larger objects without the need for segmentation, along with allowing objects composed of different materials, like electric motors can be accepted for treatment. This paper gives an overview of the circular economy aspects in a nuclear back-end context, the Cyclife approach to further implement a circular economy approach in the processes, Material Acceptance Criteria for treatment, the facility set-up for the new process and how the melting route and the direct route can be combined in an efficient industrial scale process. To put the new capabilities into perspective, the two different treatment and clearance approaches, i.e. direct clearance and melting, are to be compared. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

CRADA Number NFE-20-08283 with Actinic LLC (CRADA Final Report)

Significant advances have been made in the additive manufacturing (AM) of thermoplastics and optically cured thermosets; however, AM of thermally cured thermosets has lagged. Materials belonging to this class of thermosets, such as silicone rubbers and polyurethanes, are not well represented in the AM space despite their widespread use in medical, defense, and other fields. Ideally, a solution would enable AM of current commercially viable thermally cured thermosets with a speed that is comparable to those already realized for thermoplastics and optically cured thermosets. Realizing this goal will provide several benefits, including: 1. Make thermally cured thermoset designs impossible via casting. 2. Iteration of part designs without investment in new molds. 3. Devices and personal protection equipment, custom-fit to the end-user. 4. Ability to print multifunctional composite materials. 5. Rapid production ability for DoD personnel deployed at forward locations. 6. Simplify supply chains and replace multiple parts with a single raw material. These benefits motivate the development of a commercially viable 3D printer for thermally cured thermosets, based on the technique of photothermal curing. This project further developed a printer capable of printing composites containing commercially available thermally cured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), directly yielding cured parts such as boxes, walls, and free-standing overhangs.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Laser-induced slip casting as an additive manufacturing approach for silicon carbide

Here, this work presents processing silicon carbide (SiC) with the laser-induced slip casting (LIS) additive manufacturing (AM). SiC was stabilized in water with polyethyleneimine (PEI) dispersant, and SiC slurries were made with rheology for LIS printing. High-density ceramic parts were printed, followed by single-step binder burnout and sintering. The printed parts achieved 93–95 % of theoretical density. X-ray computed tomography (XCT) revealed a small distribution of flaws exceeding 100 microns. The mechanical properties were measured in both parallel and perpendicular to the printing layers, and the orientation with layers perpendicular to the bending moment resulted in higher strength compared to the parallel direction. Porosity resulting from processing and large inclusions of boron carbide (B4C) were the root cause of failure in the measured samples. Despite these defects through this effort, this new approach demonstrates promise for green forming of SiC with densities greater than 95 % theoretical and tensile strengths above 250 MPa.

Additive Manufacturing↗

Electroslag additive manufacturing: A pathway for high throughput near net shape production

Electroslag Additive Manufacturing (ESAM), a new high-throughput additive manufacturing (AM) method that combines Electroslag Strip Cladding (ESC) and wire arc AM (WAAM) is introduced. This combination enables the high deposition rate of ESC (more than 20 kg/h with a 60 mm strip electrode) to benefit from the precise geometric control of WAAM. As a precursor to ESAM, the ESC process is investigated in an AM context independently by evaluating both direct and staggered bead-stacking strategies and analyzing the microstructural and mechanical properties of each. This is followed by an ESAM demonstration producing an annular geometry by pairing ESC with gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), wherein GTAW is utilized to construct annular walls that are subsequently infilled via ESC. The microstructure and mechanical properties of ESC-only AM are compared with that of the ESAM method and it is shown that printed integral retaining walls do not impact the resulting mechanical properties of ESAM. Furthermore, results indicate that ESAM-produced Alloy 625 parts exhibit tensile properties on par with cast counterparts, supporting the method’s scalability to components exceeding one metric ton, and possibly making ESAM a viable future manufacturing approach for competitive production of large-scale components currently manufactured by casting and forging.

Additive manufacturing↗

Electrochemically driven carbon dioxide separation

This project explored the viability of a Ni(OH) 2 based hydroxide exchange membrane carbon capture (HEMCC) device for direct air capture. It is built off an H 2 fuel cell based HEMCC previously developed in the Yushan Yan group at University of Delaware. Taking the same membrane-based, electrochemically driven pH gradient concept, similar flux performance was able to be seen in the Ni(OH) 2 system as the H 2 system when using comparable current densities. The project produced two types of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The first was a traditional MEA with two electrodes and a membrane, the second was a flow-through membrane MEA. Consistent performance was achieved with the traditional MEA with an energy cost of 1.1 MWh∙ton -1 and flux of 82 kg∙m -2 ∙yr -1 . This was the most stable of the two designs. This project investigated strategies to improve performance with a flow-through membrane design. Two designs were made, one with a cast phase inversion membrane, and one with powdered membrane layer. The template phase inversion membrane achieved low pressure drop but had performance limitations due to a skin layer of membrane limiting CO 2 gas transport. The powdered membrane layer had better performance but higher pressure drop. Finally, using the powdered membrane, commercial battery materials were able to be used in order to achieve higher flux. This showed that the flow through membrane design does have the capability to overcome flux inefficiencies in the traditional MEA. Moreover, the process design of the system is proposed and given in this project. The process mass and energy balances were calculated for a reference plant of 1000 t/yr CO 2 capture, which contains several subsystems, e.g. air processing subsystem, electrical subsystem, and CO 2 purification and compression subsystem is designed and evaluated. Based on our calculation, When the power consumption for stack is 1 MWh t -1 CO 2 , Additional 382 kWh t -1 CO 2 will be consumed by other subsystem of the plant, i.e. The total power consumption of 1.38 MWh t -1 CO 2 , lower than the final milestone of 1.5 MWh t -1 CO 2 in this project.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Unveiling the mechanism of surface corrugation formation on a quasi free-standing bi-layer graphene via experimental and modeling investigations

Extensive studies have been conducted to accomplish the controls over the formation of surface corrugations on chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene. However, the underlying mechanism of the surface corrugation formation on graphene remains elusive, due to the difficulty delineating the growth-induced surface corrugations from wrinkles formed during graphene transfer with the use of a supporting layer casted on top of the sample. Here, in this study, “quasi free-standing” graphene was realized using the weakly-interacting h-BN layer during a wet transfer process to study the surface corrugation formation on graphene. The weak interaction of graphene with the supporting h-BN layer allows for the growth-induced surface corrugations to be released, enabling the investigation of the primary mechanism for the graphene corrugation behavior during the transfer process. The experimental measurements of surface corrugations were conducted using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to reveal that surface corrugations are formed following the graphene’s crystallographic directions. Density functional theory calculations using the projector augmented-wave (PAW) method and Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) exchange correlation functional were also conducted for two models of “atomic-scale ripples” and “nanoscale wrinkles” and showed that all of them are formed along the crystallographic axis of graphene, which is in good agreement with the experimental observations.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

An error-in-constitutive equations strategy for topology optimization for frequency-domain dynamics

This paper presents a topology optimization formulation for frequency-domain dynamics to reduce solution dependence upon initial guess and considered loading conditions. Due to resonance phenomena in undamped steady-state dynamics, objectives measuring dynamic response possess many local minima that may represent poor solutions to a design problem, an issue exacerbated for design with respect to multiple frequencies. In this work, we propose an extension of the modified error-in-constitutive-equations (MECE) method, used previously in material identification inverse problems, as a new approach for frequency-domain dynamics topology optimization to mitigate these issues. The main idea of the proposed framework is to incorporate an additional penalty-like term in the objective function that measures the discrepancy in the constitutive relations between stresses and strains and between inertial forces and displacements. Then, the design problem is cast within a PDE-constrained optimization formulation in which we seek displacements, stresses, inertial forces, and a density-field solution that minimize our new objective subject to conservation of linear momentum plus some additional constraints. We show that this approach yields superior designs to conventional gradient-based optimization approaches that solely use a functional of displacements as the objective, while strictly enforcing the constitutive equations. The MECE strategy integrates into a density-based topology optimization scheme for void–solid or two-phase material structural design. We highlight the merits of our approach in a variety of scenarios for direct frequency response design, considering multiple frequency load cases and structural objectives.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Plastic shrinkage of mortars cured with a paraffin-based compound – Bimodal neutron/X-ray tomography study

Early-age drying (immediately after casting) of mortars and the corresponding plastic shrinkage were studied using bimodal neutron/X-ray computed tomography. This novel, correlative 3D imaging mode enabled studying simultaneously and without any source of spurious perturbation the water migration and loss processes together with the corresponding deformations due to plastic shrinkage. Bimodal imaging opens up new possibilities for studying dynamic processes of coupled water transport and deformations in porous solids. The measurements were carried out on model systems (cylindrical mortar specimens with height of 19 mm). The study focused on the effect of a paraffin-based curing compound. Our results confirm that when the curing compound was applied directly onto the drying surface in a sufficient amount, both the evaporation rate and the rate of vertical displacement (settlement) were substantially reduced. The results shed a new light on the mechanisms of plastic shrinkage and the action of curing compounds.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Ink Casting and 3D‐Extrusion Printing of Yb 14 MnSb 11 for High‐Temperature Thermoelectric Material

Abstract Complex shapes are created from Yb 14 MnSb 11 , a high‐temperature thermoelectric Zintl phase, via a two‐step process: i) layer‐by‐layer 3D‐extrusion of ink containing partially‐reacted powders which are ball‐milled from a blend of Yb, MnSb, and Sb powders; ii) heat treatment to synthesize the ternary compound Yb 14 MnSb 11 and densify the extruded powders. A high phase purity for Yb 14 MnSb 11 (83–94%) is achieved in both cast and 3D‐extruded ink specimens via a solid‐state reaction between Yb, MnSb, and Yb 4 Sb 3 during reactive sintering. Pressure‐free sintering at temperatures of 1200–1400 °C densifies the powders to 82% relative density but can also induce the decomposition of the Yb 14 MnSb 11 phase due to Yb sublimation. A process window with optimized sintering temperature and time is identified, achieving both low porosity and high phase purity and reaching a maximum zT = 0.61 at 1000 °C, about half of the maximum zT value for bulk Yb 14 MnSb 11 made via conventional processes (pressure sintering of precursor powders). The present approach – direct ink writing of ball‐milled powders, combined with reactive sintering – is a scalable and affordable method to fabricate thermoelectric legs with intricate 3D shapes, for enhanced performances in high‐temperature thermoelectric applications.

Chen, Ming [Department of Materials Science &amp, ↗