Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process where powder, wire or filament is fused layer by layer to form a part. A new metal AM technology, named Metal Extrusion Additive Manufacturing (MEAM), is currently under development at the LMM. In this process, aluminium wire is fed through a nozzle and melted in order to produce a liquid stream which bonds and solidifies onto the previous manufactured layer, as is now practiced with thermoplastic polymers in Fusion Deposition Modelling. This is especially challenging for metallic materials due to their low viscosity and capillary instabilities such as bulging.
The application of a static magnetic field on the liquid stream is being studied in our laboratory to explore whether this can help overcome these issues. To this end, thin-walls of Al-Cu alloys were manufactured using MEAM with and without the application of a magnetic field ranging from 0 to 0.7 T. Their microstructure was then characterised using synchrotron X-ray nano-holotomography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France.
The goal of this semester project is to continue the work of a previous semester student regarding the data analysis. This involves processing and analysis of the tomography data, including pre-processing, 3D volume reconstruction, segmentation, visualisation and quantitative microstructural analysis steps. The student will then compare the microstructures obtained with and without magnetic field, in order to assess the influence of the magnetic field on solidification and defect formation.
Responsible supervisors: Abdellah Abdesselam, Ignacio Rodriguez Barber and Julie Gheysen.
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