Addive Manufacturing, Material Development, Simulation, New Materials, EHLA, LMD
Topic 1: Forest Biorefineries – Process and materials innovation involving wood-based biomass in support of a circular bioeconomy
Address high temperature corrosion challenge in biomass combustion and biomass/coal co-combustion for power and heat generation.
Develop materials solution to support the deployment of advanced biochemical and thermochemical conversation technologies, including hot dilute acidic pre-hydrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, fast pyrolysis, and supercritical water gasification.
Resolve corrosion problems to advance the application of bioenergy products, including the development of materials requirement standard on the transportation and storage of crude bio-oils, hydro-de-oxygenation
The Chair of Digital Additive Production (DAP) at the faculty for mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, is headed by Prof. Johannes Henrich Schleifenbaum is responsible for the operation of the EHLA system. Fundamental and applied research on Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies is carried out in three groups at DAP and five groups at DAP that focus on new materials and processes, process chains with simulation and digital data models for AM. The LMD process is studied and optimized with regard to geometric precision by the use of process simulation and process observation with high-speed videography and thermography. The EHLA process is to date applied for environmentally-friendly wear-resistant coatings on rotational parts, e.g. brake discs, hydraulic pistons, bearings etc.
The research goal of the group “Advanced Materials and Processes” is using the extraordinary process conditions of AM technologies such as extremely high cooling rates of up to 106 K/s as a possibility to obtain improved material properties by suppressing diffusion and undesirable macro segregations and ensuring a homogenous material behavior within the bulk material. Therefore, the research group engages in fundamental research on AM processes and the interactions of energy source and materials that determine the manufactured part’s properties. Also, manufacturing processes are developed for classes of alloys that have to date exclusively been processed conventionally or new classes of alloys. Process monitoring and evaluation of the process data concord with the development of accurate process simulation models: the process data and extensive test results of samples are used to validate and improve existing models for simulation of L-PBF and LMD processes. Self-describing information models for cross-linking various AM systems in the demonstrational network of DAP are used for digitalization of research in AM. The process chain is digitally and holistically mapped, matching the digital principle of AM and synergistically using the potentials of digitalization. Research is conducted on additive control stations for line integration to sensor data processing and fusion in a data brine to virtual control loops which permits information to flow back from production into an improved component design.
High-strength and high-speed steels and promising new materials like high entropy alloys (HEAs), high manganese steels, have been studied experimentally and solidification has been simulated successfully. The 3D-EHLA system will enable rapid progress in process understanding and training of Artificial Intelligence algorithms due to extensive data gathered by sensor technology. This knowledge will be used to optimize alloy development processes via EHLA and is also used to gain a deeper knowledge of the AM-process especially regarding correlation between process parameters and intensity distributions and the materials’ microstructure and properties.