Development of 3D Multicomponent Model for Cold Spray Process Using Nitrogen and Air

Cold spray is a unique coating technology that allows for solid state deposition of particles under atmospheric pressure. In this paper, a three dimensional, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) multicomponent model is developed to estimate cold spray gas conditions involving both nitrogen and air. Calibration of the model followed by validation is accomplished by considering the thermal history of substrate exposed to cold spray supersonic jet. The developed holistic multicomponent model is effective in determining the state of gas and particles from injection point to the substrate surface with the advantage of optimizing very rapid cold spray deposition in nanoseconds. The validation of k-ε type CFD multicomponent model is done by using the temperature measured for a titanium substrate exposed to cold spray nitrogen at 800 °C and 3 MPa. Heat transfer and radiation are considered for the de Laval nozzle used in cold spray experiments. The calibrated multicomponent model has successfully estimated the state of propellant gas for the chosen high pressure and high temperature cold spray conditions. Moreover, the multicomponent model predictions are in good agreement with a previous holistic three dimensional cold spray model in which only nitrogen was used as the surrounding as well as the propellant gas.