Size Effects on Laser Powder Bed Fusion and Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition GRCop-42 Alloy
Additive manufacturing (AM) plays a significant role in the fabrication of regeneratively cooled rocket engine combustion chambers, where internal channels are used to transport high pressure propellants to keep the engine from overheating. Cooling channels are designed with thin walls between the cooling and combustion sides, experiencing high thermal and mechanical stresses from large temperature gradients and internal pressures. Hence, selecting materials suited for this environment and maintaining a high-quality processing for this critical application is of utmost importance. GRCop-alloys (Cu-Cr-Nb) were developed as an ideal material for combustion chambers due to its high conductivity and high strength at temperature, being employed as a structural member for the hotwall with excellent heat transfer capabilities. GRCop-42 (Cu, 4 at% Cr, 2 at% Nb) has significantly matured using the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) process through microstructure, mechanical and thermophysical properties and evaluations using hot-fire testing. Additionally, Laser Powder Directed Energy Deposition (LP-DED) has demonstrated successful deposition and geometry samples using GRCop-42. While the maturation in properties has focused on bulk material properties from standard test specimens, these cannot be extrapolated to be used in thin walls, as different features (i.e., microstructure, porosity, and surface texture) have a greater effect on thin walls, especially on AM structures built using L-PBF and LP-DED. This presentation provides an overview of the effects introduced by reducing the thickness on the fabrication, microstructure, surface metrology and subsequent mechanical properties of GRCop-42 using L-PBF and LP-DED as well as future work planned for this research.