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At least 469 records · Page 26

Deep Learning for In-Situ Layer Quality Monitoring during Laser-Based Directed Energy Deposition (LB-DED) Additive Manufacturing Process

Defects are a leading issue for the rejection of parts manufactured through the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) Additive Manufacturing (AM) process. In an attempt to illuminate and advance in situ quality monitoring and control of workpieces, we present an innovative data-driven method that synchronously collects sensing data and AM process parameters with a low sampling rate during the DED process. The proposed data-driven technique determines the important influences that individual printing parameters and sensing features have on prediction at the inter-layer qualification to perform feature selection. Three Machine Learning (ML) algorithms including Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) are used. During post-production, a threshold is applied to detect low-density occurrences such as porosity sizes and quantities from CT scans that render individual layers acceptable or unacceptable. This information is fed to the ML models for training. Training/testing are completed offline on samples deemed “high-quality” and “low-quality”, utilizing only features recorded from the build process. CNN results show that the classification of acceptable/unacceptable layers can reach between 90% accuracy while training/testing on a “high-quality” sample and dip to 65% accuracy when trained/tested on “low-quality”/“high-quality” (respectively), indicating over-fitting but showing CNN as a promising inter-layer classifier.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Additive Manufacturing Process Development DOE for NASA HR-1 using Laser Blown Powder Directed Energy Deposition

NASA HR-1 is a Fe-Ni-Cr alloy that is used for high pressure hydrogen applications such as rocket engines, energy, and oil and gas. This investigation was focused on conducting a design of experiment program aimed at mapping the parameter process window for NASA HR-1 using the laser blown powder directed energy deposition (LP-DED) process. A two phased design of experiments (DOE), the first phase of the experiment was focused on optimizing single bead tracks while the second phase of the experiment was focused on optimizing bead overlap hatching in a multi pass bead build up. During the first phase of the deposition parameters, namely laser power, travel speed, and powder feed rate were varied. A down selection from the single bead parameter set was made and hatching experiments were conducted that focused on the overlap distance. In this paper the approach for conducting the DOE and results are discussed. The results focused on measurement of bead geometry, the as-built microstructural evolution, and porosity within the samples. The team at MSFC saw a variety of results across the process map created during the first phase of experimentation and were able to down select a parameter that created an optimal bead shape with a minimal amount of build porosity. It was determined that laser power and robot travel speed were the most sensitive parameters. The results from this investigation will inform future laser powder directed energy deposition parameter developments.

Parker Shake↗

Iterative hybrid manufacture of a titanium alloy component

Here, this paper describes an iterative hybrid (additive + subtractive) manufacturing approach for a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) part using a laser hotwire directed energy deposition system (LHWDED) and a traditional four-axis milling machine tool. The term iterative hybrid manufacturing is used to described hybrid manufacturing where the additive and subtractive operations occur in multiple stages rather than sequentially. It is currently common to produce an entire part by sequential hybrid manufacturing by additively manufacturing (AM) an entire preform geometry that then requires post processing by another machine tool to create final part features. By contrast, a part produced by iterative hybrid manufacturing (IHM) does not produce the entire preform geometry in a single AM process. Instead, a portion of the entire preform geometry is manufactured by an AM process, then that portion is transferred to another machine tool which creates features in that portion, and then that machined portion is transferred back to the AM machine to complete another AM process. There is no limit to the number of iterations that an IHM process can have. IHM offers several advantages over sequential hybrid manufacturing such as the use of shorter and stiffer subtractive tooling, better access to part geometries that require subtractive processes, and the separation of the AM heat source from the subtractive machine tool. A titanium alloy demonstration part was successfully manufactured by IHM with three iterations using a shared pallet system between the AM machine tool and the subtractive machine tool.

Hybrid manufacturing↗

Crystal plasticity model of residual stress in additive manufacturing using the element elimination and reactivation method

Selective laser melting is receiving increasing interest as an additive manufacturing technique. Residual stresses induced by the large temperature gradients and inhomogeneous cooling process can favour the generation of cracks. In this work, a crystal plasticity finite element model is developed to simulate the formation of residual stresses and to understand the correlation between plastic deformation, grain orientation and residual stresses in the additive manufacturing process. The temperature profile and grain structure from thermal-fluid flow and grain growth simulations are implemented into the crystal plasticity model. An element elimination and reactivation method is proposed to model the melting and solidification and to reinitialize state variables, such as the plastic deformation, in the reactivated elements. The accuracy of this method is judged against previous method based on the stiffness degradation of liquid regions by comparing the plastic deformation as a function of time induced by thermal stresses. The method is used to investigate residual stresses parallel and perpendicular to the laser scan direction, and the correlation with the maximum Schmid factor of the grains along those directions. The magnitude of the residual stress can be predicted as a function of the depth, grain orientation and position with respect to the molten pool. The simulation results are directly comparable to X-ray diffraction experiments and stress–strain curves.

316 stainless steel↗

Development of Critical Profilometers to Meet Current and Future NASA Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) Inspection Needs

This project is part of a multi-center effort to develop and validate critical NDE techniques which can be implemented into current and future NASA spacecraft COPV manufacturing processes. After decades of COPV development, manufacturing variance is still high and has necessitated higher safety factors and additional mass to be flown on spacecraft (reducing overall performance). Additionally, the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) indicated that nondestructive evaluation (NDE) was not adequately implemented during Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) COPV manufacturing and provisions were not made for on-going structural integrity and health checks during the various spacecraft programs. This project helps to provide additional data needed to help address these issues. This project seeks to develop and install internal and external laser profilometers at COPV manufacturing facilities to provide data needed to improve COPV quality and consistency. This project also investigates other scanning techniques that will enhance the system to more completely meet manufacturing needs, thus transforming the profilometer into what has been termed the "Universal Manufacturing COPV Scanner".

Saulsberry, Regor↗

Applying Additive Manufacturing to a New Liquid Oxygen Turbopump Design

A liquid oxygen turbopump has been designed at Marshall Space Flight Center as part of the in-house, Advanced Manufacturing Demonstrator Engine (AMDE) project. Additive manufacturing, specifically direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) of Inconel 718, is used for 77% of the parts by mass. These parts include the impeller, turbine components, and housings. The near-net shape DMLS parts have been delivered and final machining is underway. Fabrication of the traditionally manufactured hardware is also proceeding. Testing in liquid oxygen is planned for Q2 of FY2017. This topic explores the design of the turbopump along with fabrication and material testing of the DMLS hardware.

O'Neal, Derek↗

Flash Thermal Diffusivity Measurements and Inspection of Additively Manufactured Ti-6Al-4V Specimens with Varying Process Parameters

Flash thermal diffusivity measurements were obtained on additively manufactured Ti-6Al-4V disk shaped specimens with various process parameters. For additively manufactured metal parts, processing parameters such as laser power and scanning speed are critical to ensure the desired microstructure. For this study, the laser powder bed fusion process parameters were changed at various angular sections on a 21 mm diameter and 3.0 mm thick disk. The measurement of thermal diffusivity was performed by fitting a 1-dimensional thermal model to the data pixel by pixel to produce an inspection image. The image revealed the detection of defects such as lack of fusion porosity and areas of aggregated porosity. The thermal diffusivity imagery was compared to immersion scan ultrasonic and X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements for validation. Based on these results, additional samples were investigated using a single side thermal inspection technique to detect lack of fusion porosity and near surface voids.

thermal nondestructive evaluation↗

Sinter formation during directed energy deposition of titanium alloy powders

During directed energy deposition (DED) additive manufacturing, powder agglomeration and sintering can occur outside of the melt pool when using titanium alloy powders. Using in situ synchrotron radiography we investigate the mechanisms by which sintering of Ti6242 powder occurs around the pool, performing a parametric study to determine the influence of laser power and stage traverse speed on sinter build-up. The results reveal that detrimental sinter can be reduced using a high laser power or increased stage traverse speed, although the latter also reduces deposition layer thickness. The mechanism of sinter formation during DED was determined to be in-flight heating of the powder particles in the laser beam. Calculations of particle heating under the processing conditions explored in this study confirm that powder particles can reasonably exceed 700 °C, the threshold for Ti surface oxide dissolution, and thus the powder is prone to sintering if not incorporated into the melt pool. The build-up of sinter powder layer on deposit surfaces led to lack of fusion pores. To mitigate sinter formation and its detrimental effects on DED component quality, it is essential that the powder delivery spot area is smaller than the melt pool, ensuring most powder lands in the melt pool.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Doppler lidar wind measurement on Eos

A polar-orbiting platform segment of the Earth Observing System (EOS) could carry a CO2-laser based Doppler lidar for recording global wind profiles. Development goals would include the manufacture of a 10 J laser with a 2 yr operational life, space-rating the optics and associated software, and the definition of models for global aerosol distributions. Techniques will be needed for optimal scanning and generating computer simulations which will provide adequately accurate weather predictions.

Fitzjarrald, D.↗

Closed-Loop Control of Laser Surface Treatment via Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Current composite manufacturing rates need to be improved to meet the projected demand of on-demand mobility (ODM) and commercial aircraft transports. Some processes in the composite manufacturing chain require touch labor such as manual sanding of surfaces prior to bonding and installing thousands of mechanical fasteners in bonded primary structures to achieve Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. The consequences are insufficient repeatability in bond quality resulting in increased manufacturing time. The FAA has indicated that robust process control is one potential means of certifying bondlines in primary structure. This work describes an integrated closed-loop control system between a laser machining system and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrumentation as a means of assuring bond performance and achieving certified composite bondlines. Preliminary results from in-situ treatment and inspection are presented. Results indicate that LIBS inspection and laser treatment can be conducted simultaneously to achieve high quality, reliable adhesive bonds.

Rodolfo Ledesma↗

Closed-Loop Control of Laser Surface Treatment via Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

Current composite manufacturing rates need to be improved to meet the projected demand of on-demand mobility (ODM) and commercial aircraft transports. Some processes in the composite manufacturing chain require touch labor such as manual sanding of surfaces prior to bonding and installing thousands of mechanical fasteners in bonded primary structures to achieve Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. The consequences are insufficient repeatability in bond quality resulting in increased manufacturing time. The FAA has indicated that robust process control is one potential means of certifying bondlines in primary structure. This work describes an integrated closed-loop control system between a laser machining system and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrumentation as a means of assuring bond performance and achieving certified composite bondlines. Preliminary results from in-situ treatment and inspection are presented. Results indicate that LIBS inspection and laser treatment can be conducted simultaneously to achieve high quality, reliable adhesive bonds.

Rodolfo Ledesma↗

Validation of Manufacturing Process Designs for Stamped Microchannel Recuperators

Microchannel recuperators can achieve high-efficiency power cycles and chemical reactions by recovering waste heat from hot turbine exhaust and chemical reaction streams. However, the industrial application of microchannel recuperators are restricted by the high cost of patterning and bonding. The objective of this study was thus to investigate new methods for producing microchannel recuperators for emerging markets. Based on greenfield cost estimates, process designs based on stamping, laser welding and vacuum brazing of 316L stainless steel laminae were found to be more economical than conventional photochemical machining and diffusion bonding. Subsequently, validation experiments were conducted to produce stamped microchannel components using cost model parameters. At a mass flow rate of 0.99 g/s, the test article made with laser welding was found to provide higher effectiveness than the test article produced using vacuum brazing. Preliminary investigations showed that residual stresses during laser welding of the laminae led to significant warpage, collapsing channels and making lamina-to-lamina fit up challenging. In contrast, the test article produced by vacuum brazing of stamped laminae showed no clogging and 4.6% and 10.5% channel height standard deviation for the cold and hot channels, respectively. Channel variation in the vacuum brazing sample was determined to be caused by misregistration of laminae during brazing. In future work, efforts are needed to choose cheaper, more ductile brazing foils as well as design a brazing fixture to improve lamina-to-lamina registration.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Multiscale hierarchical and heterogeneous mechanical response of additively manufactured novel Al alloy investigated by high-resolution nanoindentation mapping

Smart alloying and microstructural engineering mitigate challenges associated with laser-powder bed fusion additive manufacturing (L-PBFAM). A novel Al–Ni–Ti–Zr alloy utilized grain refinement by heterogeneous nucleation and eutectic solidification to achieve superior performance-printability synergy. Conventional mechanical testing cannot delineate complex micromechanics of such alloys. This study combined multiscale nanomechanical and microstructural mapping to illustrate mechanical signatures associated with hierarchical heat distribution and rapid solidification of L-PBFAM. The disproportionate hardening effect imparted by Al 3 (Ti,Zr) precipitates in the pool boundaries and the semi-solid zone was successfully demonstrated. Nanomechanical response associated with heterogeneity in particle volume fraction and coherency across melt pool was interpreted from nanoindentation force–displacement curves. The hardness map effectively delineated the weakest and strongest sections in the pool with microscopic accuracy. The presented approach serves as a high throughput methodology to establish the chemistry-processing-microstructure-properties correlation of newly designed alloys for L-PBFAM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Scalable in situ non-destructive evaluation of additively manufactured components using process monitoring, sensor fusion, and machine learning

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Additive Manufacturing (AM) is among the metal 3D printing technologies most broadly adopted by the manufacturing industry. However, the current industry qualification paradigm for critical-application L-PBF parts relies heavily on expensive non-destructive inspection techniques, which significantly limits the use-cases of L-PBF. In situ monitoring of the process promises a less expensive alternative to ex situ testing, but existing sensor technologies and data analysis techniques struggle to detect sub-surface flaws (e.g., porosity and cracking) on production-scale L-PBF printers. In this work, an in situ NDE (INDE) system was engineered to detect subsurface flaws detected in X-Ray Computed Tomography (XCT) directly from process monitoring data. A multilayer, multimodal data input allowed the INDE system to detect numerous subsurface flaws in the size range of 200–1000µm using a novel human-in-the-loop annotation procedure. Furthermore, a framework was established for generating probability-of-detection (POD) and probability-of-false-alarm (PFA) curves compliant with NDE standards by systematically comparing instances of detected subsurface flaws to post-build XCT data. Here, we also introduce for the first time in the AM in situ sensing literature the a 90/95 – the flaw size corresponding to a 90% detection rate on the lower 95% confidence interval of the POD curve. The INDE system successfully demonstrated POD capabilities commensurate with traditional NDE methods. Traditional ML performance metrics were also shown to be inadequate for assessing the ability of the INDE system’s flaw detection performance. It is the hope of the authors that future studies will adopt the POD and PFA approach outlined here to provide better insight into the utility of process monitoring for AM.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Influence of Process Parameters and Alloy Composition on Crack Mitigation in Selective Laser Melting

Microcracking and residual stresses are key limitations of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses a high power laser to consolidate successive layers of metal powder. For tungsten, these microcracks find their origin in the combination of a ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT) between 200°C and 400°C and high residual stresses. This work utilized in situ high speed video to capture the cracking mechanisms, and combined the experimental results with thermomechanical modeling to unveil correlations between crack network morphology and process parameter-related variables, such as the local temperature and residual stress distributions. Consequently, preheating and alloying with rare earth oxides were adopted as possible crack mitigation strategies, the efficacy of which was tested against the initial fundamental baseline results. Preheating temperatures above 500°C eliminated all cracking, though this threshold is expected to be higher when tungsten powder (higher oxygen content) is introduced. Alloying can serve as an active oxygen getter in the system, but the rare earth oxides in this work were too large to have significant contributions to crack-mitigation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Rapid Design and Manufacturing of High-Performance Materials for Turbine Blades

This research demonstrated the concept of carbide precipitation-strengthened refractory high entropy alloys (RHEA). The advantage of a precipitation strengthened alloy is all phases are in thermodynamic equilibrium promoting microstructural stability, and consequently retention of properties at elevated temperatures. Additionally, as with any precipitation strengthened – or age hardened - alloy, components can be heat-treated after manufacturing to manipulate the microstructure and optimize properties for performance. This is an advantage of the precipitation strengthened alloys over composites and ceramics materials, where the microstructure and properties are essentially fixed upon the initial materials manufacturing stage. High throughput (HT), multi-scale computer modeling was used to identifying novel RHEA compositions with desired characteristics needed for precipitation strengthening. Designs were validated by producing small ingots via are melting. The results showed that carbides precipitated and consequently, the strength of the alloys (measured in compression) increased after heat-treatment, which is the desired effect. The project also demonstrated the feasibility of producing articles from RHEA by additive manufacturing (AM). Electron beam melting (EBM) and laser direct energy deposition (L-DED) additive manufacturing methods, were explored with various processing parameters were interrogated for both methods. Sound (crack-free and dense) precipitation strengthened RHEA samples were produced via EDM AM, demonstrating the feasibility of the concept.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Keyhole-mode Microscopy Dataset for Laser Powder-bed Fusion Modeling

Laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that uses high-power sintering lasers to precisely construct metal designs. Material is accumulated by selectively sintering regions of a metal powder layer to a growing structure underneath forming a 3D geometry. Certain conditions make fusion in this process to operate in "keyhole-mode," characterized by targeted materials evaporating as plasma. While keyhole-mode operations can produce deeper molten pools than that observed in "conduction-mode", this mode of operation is often undesirable, as its molten regions can collapse on themselves, encapsulating metal vapors and forming cavities. The formation of such cavities negatively affects strength and consistency of the fused materials. To identify and avoid these detrimental effects of keyhole-mode operation, considerable data collection and analysis regarding this mode of operation is needed. Therefore, under the support of the "Open Data Initiative," Lawrence Livermore National Lab is releasing a dataset for analysis of this keyhole effect, and the conditions which transition operation from conduction-mode to keyhole-mode melting. This dataset consists of 600+ micrographs from laser powder-bed single track runs, with differing cross-section angles and input parameters, operating under both normal and keyhole mode operations. This journal documents the collection, organization, and usage of this dataset.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗