Faculty Member: Mike Hurley
Metallic structural components made by additive techniques have the promise to revolutionize manufacturing and yield sustainable reductions in energy use across industry sectors. The most common structural metals for harsh environments (stainless steel and nickel based alloys) are alloyed with other metals to improve mechanical properties, processability, and corrosion resistance. However, the microstructure and properties of printed metals differ from those made by conventional processing despite having identical composition. Thus, for this project, we will evaluate the influence of 3D metal printing processes on microstructure evolution and corrosion initiation.
Student Research Experience: Students will study corrosion initiation on structural alloys produced by 3D printing. They will learn the principles and gain hands-on experience with different techniques for metal additive processing at CAES and INL, including powder bed, directed energy deposition, and extrusion. The structure and interface properties of the printed materials will be characterized using electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction and correlated to print parameters. The corrosion performance of printed metals with optimized printing recipes will be characterized for corrosion resistance using electrochemical techniques and related to specific microstructure produced during printing processes.