Process Development and Characterization of Smart Parts Fabricated Using Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing Technologies

The fields of modern energy conversion are in increased need of health monitoring and data collection to improve process efficiency and satisfy the demand for clean energy. In situ process monitoring can lead to a robust automated system to achieve the goal. The monitoring equipment or sensors in energy systems components undergo high temperature, high pressure, and corrosive environments; for example, combustion inlet conditions can reach up to 810 K and 2760 kPa. Therefore, a reliable, accurate, and durable monitoring system is necessary that can withstand the requirements for operating in harsh environments. Wired or wireless sensors used in energy systems are typically bonded to the components or placed inside the cavities at targeted areas. Placement of the sensor using these methods may require alterations to the design of the component that can affect the sensor\u27s efficiency and increase its design complexity. In some cases, it could be difficult to access the inward areas of the component at which process monitoring is required. Moreover, a sensor\u27s life can be reduced through its exposure to corrosive environments of high temperature and high pressure for a prolonged time. This research primarily focused on the design and fabrication of smart parts with embedded piezoceramic material using powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) technology, and on the characterization of the sensor functionality and the performance of the smart parts. The process development and part design focused on the non-intrusive placement of a sensor within the additively manufactured structure, which can increase the sensor\u27s life by limiting the contact of the sensor to corrosive combustor environments. Additive manufacturing is well known for fabricating complex shaped part based on computer aided design (CAD) data. The layer-by-layer fabrication process provides the prospect of obtaining access to a predesigned sensor cavity at any desired height for the embedding process to take place. Previously, the \u27stop and go\u27 process required the use of a masking plate, to work as a planar surface to continue fabrication of the smart part after embedding the sensor material within the cavity. The start plate in regular EBM fabrication process or masking plate in \u27stop and go\u27 fabrication process is necessary to avoid interaction of electron beam with the metal powder that can create powder smoking within the powder bed and result in failure of fabrication process. Machining of the appropriate masking plate to fit a component can become cumbersome when fabricating a complex shaped geometry. As a means of discarding the use of the masking plate, a build scan pattern was developed, that allowed to restart the fabrication process after a pause, therefore allowing increased flexibility for the geometry of the part to be fabricated. While the EBM \u27stop and go\u27 process is performed, there is a need for accurate part registration. In the first part of this work, an IR camera-based image analysis process was explored for part positioning. Typically, the embedding process requires the removal of the base part from the powder bed, which creates part alignment issues when restarting the fabrication process. A beam positioning method was developed that allowed centering of the electron beam corresponding to the part within the powder bed after a fabrication pause was performed. This method was based on the calculation of the centroid position of the area of the paused surface layer. To evaluate the efficacy of procedures for part alignment mentioned above, a part registration study was performed which consisted of cylindrical part and rectangular prism to demonstrate accurate positioning of the part after pausing the system. A maximum misalignment of 0.17 mm and 0.87 mm was obtained for cylindrical part and rectangular prism, respectively that underwent \u27stop and go\u27 fabrication process. Finally, a smart injector was fabricated using a laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology employing the \u27stop and go\u27 fabrication process. The main reason for employing LPBF for fabrication of the smart injector was the easy removal of metal powder from the internal channels and cavities in compare to the EBM fabricated parts. The LPBF technology does not require powder preheating steps that can partially sinter the metal powder in the powder bed unlike EBM fabrication process. The smart injector was tested in a combustion chamber that reached up to ~120° C to show the operative capability of a prototype smart part in harsh environments traditionally experienced by energy systems. In conclusion, this work resulted in the development of the \u27stop and go\u27 fabrication process using PBF AM technologies, demonstrating the viability of this technique for producing multi-functional metallic components with applications in the manufacturing, aerospace, energy, automotive, and biomedical industries. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.