Additive manufacturing for metals is a manufacturing process where powder, wire or filament is deposited or fused layer by layer to form a finished part. A new additive manufacturing technology is currently under development at LMM in which 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 meniscus is being explored in our laboratory to explore whether this can help overcome these issues. To this end, walls of Al-Cu alloys were manufactured by DLMD with and without the application of a magnetic field. Their microstructure was then characterised by X-ray nano-holotomography at ESRF synchrotron facility in Grenoble.
The goal of this semester project is to work with the research team in carrying out the next step in data analysis, namely first to process and analyse the tomography data, including pre-processing, 3D volume reconstruction, segmentation, visualisation and quantitative microstructural analysis steps. Then, the student will compare the resulting microstructures obtained with and without the application of a 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 Dr Julie Gheysen
Contact: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] in a single email.