Product Overview:

In this tutorial, we explore the simulation of the cold spray process in Abaqus using the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. Cold spray technology involves the acceleration of powder particles—typically ranging from 10 to 40 micrometers—in size—to very high velocities (200 to 1200 m/s) through a supersonic compressed gas jet, all while maintaining temperatures below their melting point. Upon impacting the substrate, these particles undergo extreme and rapid plastic deformation, which disrupts the thin surface oxide films commonly found on metals and alloys. This disruption enables intimate and conformal contact between the exposed metal surfaces under high local pressure, facilitating bonding and allowing for rapid deposition of thick material layers, with deposition efficiency exceeding 90% in many cases.

While thermal spray processes are widely used, they rely on thermal energy to melt or soften the feedstock, which can lead to thermal degradation and partial oxidation of the coating material—outcomes that may be undesirable. For metallic materials sensitive to oxidation, thermal spraying often necessitates operation in a protected atmosphere or vacuum, leading to increased costs. The heat input associated with thermal spray processes can introduce residual stress into coatings, limiting achievable thicknesses and necessitating careful thermal management through part cooling and gun manipulation to avoid excessive internal stresses and degradation of thermally sensitive substrates. In contrast, cold spray allows for material deposition without introducing high thermal loads, resulting in coatings with low porosity and reduced oxygen content.

In this study, the particles are modeled as three-dimensional micrometer-sized aluminum (Al) materials for both the particles and the target. The dynamic temperature explicit approach is deemed appropriate for this analysis. During the simulation, both the particles and the target experience significant plastic deformation, with temperature results aligning well with experimental data.