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Results for “multi-scale computed tomography”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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Development of Computational Materials Workflows for Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials to Enable Accelerated Prediction of Fatigue Performance

The maturation of computational materials approaches for fatigue performance prediction in a qualification and certification process is stifled by the ability to validate complex, microstructure-based simulations. Such a validation strategy bears immediate challenges including generating accurate virtual microstructures, efficiently solving physics-based mechanical simulations over relevant spatial and temporal scales, and acquiring high-fidelity calibration and validation data at the appropriate length scale. This presentation will overview these common challenges and present a case study to demonstrate a computational materials workflow for additively manufactured metallic materials. In this study, process-specific defects are characterized using segmented X-Ray micro-computed tomography measurements and overlaid on virtual microstructures. Accelerated crystal plasticity-based fatigue simulations are performed to demonstrate cyclic evolution and localization of mechanical fields in the vicinity of defects in response to their precise spatial configuration. An example of how this computational materials workflow may support next-generation qualification is discussed.

computational materials↗

Powder Bed Fusion Laser Beam Metals Additive Manufacturing: Process Monitoring Approaches for Qualification and Certification

The use of in-situ process monitoring is of interest to lower the cost of inspection for the qualification of powder bed fusion laser beam metal (PBF-LB/M) additively manufactured (AM) parts. Precise monitoring of the PBF-LB/M AM build process constitutes a multi-scale and multi-discipline task. There are several significant challenges to the in-situ approach: the synchronization of sensor signals to process steps; the physical interpretation and classification of sensor signals; managing very large datasets; and comparing the inputs with the observed monitoring signals. At NASA Langley Research Center, a configurable architecture additive testbed has been developed to monitor the build process with synchronized sensors. The philosophy and method adopted for the synchronization of the cameras with laser power and position throughout a complex PBF-LB/M AM build will be described. The synchronized in-situ monitoring signals are compared with ex-situ nondestructive inspection, x-ray computed tomography (XCT). Such comparisons permit a better understanding of how the sequential process actions of LPBF-AM can affect build quality. The multi-scale and complex process of printing additively manufactured (AM) parts can have unexpected, but predictable, build conditions that result in material microstructure variability. This presentation will describe an additive manufacturing model-based process metric (AM-PM) computational method that is a fully parallel reduced order modeling approach developed to evaluate the evolution of AM processes. This method couples the known sequence of the AM process with a physically informed nearest neighbors’ calculation to map the conditions of a part-scale build. The result is a map of the build that is derived directly from build files or in-situ process monitoring sensors. The methodology of the approach will be described and mapped to the porosity observed from XCT for a complex PBF-LB/M build. Such comparative results develop understanding of how the sequential process actions can affect the PBF-LB/M AM build quality and microstructure variability.

Laser Powder Bed Fusion↗

Multi-Scale Thermo-Mechanical Modeling of Porous 3D Woven TPS Materials

This work summarizes the process to compute and analyze the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of 3D woven TPS materials such as 3MDCP (3D Mid-Density Carbon-Phenolic). The PuMA software, developed at NASA Ames, was used to characterize different 3MDCP samples from their constituents' data, averaging their thermal conductivity and elastic properties in the three main directions to obtain their effective orthotropic thermo-mechanical properties. This was performed in multiple steps: firstly, TPS samples were digitally reconstructed using micro computed tomography (µCT) and their constituents were segmented; then, the porous matrix phase was analyzed at the micro-scale and these results were used, along with the fibers’ constituents information, to model the tows at the meso-scale; finally, results from the constituents were homogenized and used to model the thermo-mechanical behavior of the unit cell at the macro-scale. Additionally, to gain a better understanding of the tows’ morphology and distribution of the carbon-phenolic blended fibers, microscopy images of the tows’ cross-section were segmented using deep learning techniques and analyzed with PuMA. This workflow can be applied to any TPS material to computationally obtain its thermo-mechanical properties, enabling more informed TPS design and manufacturing choices.

Multi-Scale↗

Multi-Scale Thermo-Mechanical Modeling of Porous 3D Woven TPS Materials

This work summarizes the process to compute and analyze the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of 3D woven TPS materials such as 3MDCP (3D Mid-Density Carbon-Phenolic). The PuMA [1,2] software, developed at NASA Ames, was used to characterize different 3MDCP samples from their constituents' data, averaging their thermal conductivity and elastic properties in the three main directions to obtain their effective orthotropic thermo-mechanical properties. This was performed in multiple steps: firstly, TPS samples were digitally reconstructed using micro computed tomography (µCT) and their constituents were segmented; then, the porous matrix phase was analyzed at the micro-scale and these results were used, along with the fibers’ constituents information, to model the tows at the meso-scale; finally, results from the constituents were homogenized and used to model the thermo-mechanical behavior of the unit cell at the macro-scale. Additionally, to gain a better understanding of the tows’ morphology and distribution of the carbon-phenolic blended fibers, microscopy images of the tows’ cross-section were segmented using deep learning techniques and analyzed with PuMA. This workflow can be applied to any TPS material to computationally obtain its thermo-mechanical properties, enabling more informed TPS design and manufacturing choices.

Multi-Scale↗