Effects of metal particles on cold spray deposition onto Ti-6Al-4V alloy via Abaqus/Explicit

Abstract

Titanium alloy is the main structural material of the aerospace system component. About 75 % of titanium and titanium alloys in the world are used in the aerospace industry. Hence, it is of great significance to study the surface deposition characteristics by cold spraying technology, taking Ti-6Al-4V alloy as an example, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method in Abaqus/Explicit was used to spray aluminum, Ti-6Al-4V, copper, tungsten alloy (W alloy) and titanium particles onto Ti-6Al-4V substrate. The simulation results show that the deposition effect is good over 600 m/s, and higher energy is obtained for Ti-6Al-4V particles with the same properties as the matrix. For aluminum, Ti-6Al-4V, copper, W alloy, and titanium particles with different properties, under the same initial speed condition, the greater the density of the material, the deeper the foundation pit. W Alloy has the largest initial kinetic energy, the deepest foundation pit, and better surface bonding performance. The aluminum particle has the smallest initial kinetic energy, the shallowest foundation pit. However, the deposition effect of multiple aluminum particles has not improved. The collision process’s kinetic energy is transformed into internal energy, frictional dissipation, and viscous dissipation. Besides, the internal energy is mainly plastic dissipation and strain energy. Therefore, it is recommended to use Ti-6Al-4V, copper, nickel, W alloy, and titanium particles for different occasions, such as Ti-6Al4V substrate surface restorative and protective coatings. Pure aluminum particles are not recommended.