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New insights into the mechanism of ultrasonic atomization for the production of metal powders in additive manufacturing


Abstract Ultrasonic atomization is one of the promising technologies for producing metal powders for additive manufacturing, where precise control of particle size and morphology is essential. In this study, we coupled an ultrasonic transducer with a carbon fibre plate and atomized liquid droplets and films under different vibration amplitudes. Water, glycerol, and pure aluminium melt were used to study the atomization mechanism and the resulting droplet/powder characteristics, respectively. High-speed optical and ultrafast synchrotron X-ray imaging were used to study in situ the ultrasonic atomization dynamics, including pulsation and clustering of cavities inside the liquid layer/films, development of capillary waves, and formation of liquid droplets. For the first time, we observed and captured the occurrence of cavitation in the atomization of resting drops, films and impact droplets. The inertial cavitation events interfered with the capillary waves across the interphase boundary, puncturing and breaking the boundary to produce atomized mist. The in situ observation revealed the intricate dynamics of ultrasonic atomization and underscored the pivotal role of cavitation events throughout the entire atomization process. We also conducted experiments on ultrasonic atomization of liquid aluminium, producing particles of perfectly spherical shape. The particle size decreased as the vibration amplitude was decreased. Our work has demonstrated the important processing strategies on how to tailor the particle size while ensuring consistent particle shape and morphology, which is the key processing capability for producing high quality feedstock for additive manufacturing applications.
Authors Abhinav Priyadarshi ORCID , Shazamin Bin Shahrani , Tomasz Choma ORCID , Łukasz Żrodowski ORCID , Ling Qin University of WyomingORCID , Chu Lun Alex Leung ORCID , Samuel J. Clark ORCID , Kamel Fezzaa ORCID , Jiawei Mi ORCID , Peter Lee ORCID , Dmitry Eskin ORCID , Iakovos Tzanakis ORCID
Journal Info Elsevier BV | Additive Manufacturing , pages: 104033 - 104033
Publication Date 2/1/2024
ISSN 2214-7810
TypeKeyword Image article
Open Access hybrid Hybrid Access
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2024.104033
KeywordsKeyword Image Additive Manufacturing (Score: 0.528907)