Microstructure Evolution and Epitaxial Growth Characteristics of Droplet and Arc Deposition Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Alloy

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00331

Acta Metall Sin

2024, Vol. 60

Issue (11): 1584-1594 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00331

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Microstructure Evolution and Epitaxial Growth Characteristics of Droplet and Arc Deposition Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Alloy

GENG Ruwei¹(

), WANG Lin², WEI Zhengying³(

), MA Ninshu⁴

1 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
2 School of Materials Science and Physics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
3 State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing System Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
4 Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

Cite this article:

GENG Ruwei, WANG Lin, WEI Zhengying, MA Ninshu. Microstructure Evolution and Epitaxial Growth Characteristics of Droplet and Arc Deposition Additive Manufacturing for Aluminum Alloy. Acta Metall Sin, 2024, 60(11): 1584-1594.

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Abstract

Aluminum alloys are widely used in the automobile, rail transportation, and aerospace industries owing to their excellent properties such as low density, high thermal conductivity, and high specific strength. Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) enables the high-quality integrated forming of aluminum alloy components. Among the MAM techniques, droplet and arc additive manufacturing (DAAM) is a newly proposed method that offers advantages, such as high efficiency and low cost. In DAAM process, a droplet generation system is designed above the substrate fixed on a three-dimensional motion platform. Below the droplet generation system, an arc heat source with variable polarity is tilted. During the DAAM process, the metal droplets drop vertically and sequentially into the molten pool generated by the arc heat source to realize metallurgical bonding. Layer-by-layer deposition of aluminum alloy components is achieved by moving the substrate. This study focuses on the DAAM process for 2319 aluminum alloy. The temperature field distribution, microstructure evolution, and epitaxial growth characteristics were investigated. First, the temperature field distribution during the deposition process was calculated using the finite element method combined with element birth and death techniques. Based on the temperature field analysis, the solidification parameters at different positions of the molten pool were calculated. These parameters were then substituted into a phase field (PF) model to determine the growth and evolution of the microstructure at different positions in the molten pool. Columnar crystal structures were formed in the bottom and middle regions of the molten pool. From the bottom to the upper part of the molten pool, the temperature gradient decreased and the solidification speed increased. Therefore, columnar crystals to equiaxed transition occurred in the middle and upper regions. Additionally, misorientation angles were introduced in the PF model to investigate the epitaxial growth characteristics of the solidification process. Larger misorientation angles had a more obvious influence on dendrite morphology and were more likely to be eliminated during competitive growth. Finally, the metallographic analysis showed that from the bottom to the upper part of the deposition layer, the microstructure changed from columnar to equiaxed crystals, and the presence of columnar crystal epitaxial growth agreed well with the simulation results.

Key words: additive manufacturing droplet and arc deposition microstructure evolution epitaxial growth aluminum alloy

Received: 10 August 2023

ZTFLH:

TG40

Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(52205432);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52275376);China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2022M723375);Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20221118);Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(ZR2023QE232)

Corresponding Authors: GENG Ruwei, Tel: 18292875966, E-mail: geng6294@cumt.edu.cn;
WEI Zhengying, professor, Tel: 13571946262, E-mail: weizhengying437@163.com

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2023.00331 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2024/V60/I11/1584

Fig.1 Schematic of droplet and arc additive manufacturing (DAAM) process (a) and experimental platform (b) (V_s—substrate moment velocity, GTA—tungsten inert gas)

Fig.2 Temperature (T)-dependent physical properties of 2319 aluminum alloy

Fig.3 Initial conditions of epitaxial growth phase field model (θ₀—misorientation angle)

Fig.4 Temperature field distributions of deposition layer under currents of 220 A (a), 240 A (b), and 260 A (c); and temperature change curves at the center point of the layer under different currents (d) (G—temperature gradient)

Fig.5 Temperature gradient and solidification velocity distribution in the molten pool (V—solidification speed; inset shows the temperature field, and two blue arrows represent the projection process of the selected points on the fusion line)

Fig.6 Microstructure growth processes at the bottom (a-c) and the middle part (d-f) of molten pool (c— concentration, c_∞—concentration far away from the interface, c / c_∞—relative concentration, t—time, Δt—time step. One grid size is 0.216 μm)
(a) t = 2500Δt (b) t = 8500Δt (c) t = 24500Δt
(d) t = 2500Δt (e) t = 8500Δt (f) t = 19500Δt

Fig.7 Columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) processes during solidification showing the microscopic microstructure growths (a-c) and corresponding temperature field distributions (d-f) at different time (ΔT—undercooling)
(a, d) t = 5100Δt (b, e) t = 5700Δt (c, f) t = 6700Δt

Fig.8 Relationship between micromorphology and solidification conditions of grains (For an alloy of a given composition, the morphology and size of the grains are mainly determined by G and V in the molten pool)

Fig.9 Growth processes of solidification microstructure at the misorientation angles of 20° (a-c), 30° (d-f), and 40° (g-i) (ΔZ is the grain height difference with different misorientation angles) (a, d, g) t = 2500Δt (b, e, h) t = 7500Δt (c, f, i) t = 12500Δt

Fig.10 Deposition layer (a) and cross-sectional morphology (b) obtained by droplet and arc additive manufacturing

Fig.11 Microscopic structures of the deposition layer at different positions
(a) bottom (zone A in Fig.10b)
(b) middle (zone B in Fig.10b)
(c) upper part (zone C in Fig.10b)

Fig.12 Epitaxial characteristics of dendrite growth

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