Heat Transfer During Deposition of Molten Aluminum Alloy Droplets to Build Vertical Columns

Abstract

To create functional metal parts by depositing molten metal droplets on top of each other, we have to obtain good metallurgical bonding between droplets. To investigate conditions under which such bonds are achieved, experiments were conducted in which vertical columns were formed by depositing molten aluminum alloy (A380) droplets on top of each other. A pneumatic droplet generator was used to create uniform, 0.8 mm diameter, molten aluminum droplets. The droplet generator was mounted on a stepper motor and moved constantly so as to maintain a fixed distance between the generator nozzle and the tip of the column being formed. The primary parameters varied in experiments were those found to have the strongest effect on bonding between droplets: substrate temperature (250–450°C) and deposition rate (1–8 Hz). Droplet temperature was constant at 620°C. To achieve metallurgical bonding between droplets, the tip temperature of the column should be maintained slightly below the melting temperature of the alloy to ensure remelting under an impacting drop and good bonding. The temperature cannot exceed the melting point of the metal; otherwise the column tip melts down. The temperature at the bottom of a column was measured while droplets were being deposited. An analytical one-dimensional heat conduction model was developed to obtain the transient temperature profile of the column, assuming the column and the substrate to be a semi-infinite body exposed to a periodic heat flux. From the model, the droplet deposition frequency required to maintain the tip temperature at the melting point of the metal was calculated.