Additive Manufacturing of Ultrahigh Temperature Refractory ...

Additive Manufacturing ofUltrahigh TemperatureRefractory Metal AlloysULTIMATE Kickoff MeetingMarch 19, 2021

John H. Perepezko, University of Wisconsin-MadisonDan J. Thoma, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLaurence D. Marks, Northwestern UniversityFan Zhang, Computherm LLC

Co-PI names, Institutions

Technology Summary• Develop novel

manufacturing process for

ultrahigh temperature for

Mo-Si-B-Ti alloys.

• Demonstrate advanced

additive manufacturing

with functional grading for

gas turbine blades.

• Integrate thermodynamic,

kinetic and predictive

process models for hybrid

turbine fabrication.

Technology Impact• Raise turbine temperature by 200°C for

10% efficiency gain .

• Maintain US leadership in $150B market

• A demonstration of 3D hybrid multi-

materials with up to four different

alloys/elements. This has never been

done in selective laser melting.

Key illustrations, charts, and tables summarizing the

technology development, how the FOA technical

targets will be met, and feasibility.

Proposed Key TargetsMetric State of the Art Proposed

Operating temperature 1100°C 1300°C

0.2% tensile yield strength,

1300°C

450 MPa,

1050°C

800 MPa, 1300°C

Creep strength (2% 100hr) 160MPa,1050°C 200MPa,1300°C

Manufacturability $1000/blade 20% reduction

Raise operating temperature 200oC for 10% efficiency

gain with 20% reduction in processing cost

Motivation & Goals of the project

Technical Approach & Innovations of the project

2

X X

X

Team members and roles

3

Major milestones, tasks, goals & risksPotential Risks

Use of DED for alloy design and sample fabrication. Use of nitride powders

for reactive sintering, elemental powders, and impurities may offer low flow,

reduced in situ mixing, or porosity, thus affecting chemical and

microstructural homogeneity.

Use of SLM for final specimen manufacture. Pre-blends of powder may

reduce in situ mixing and complete reactions leading to porosity, even

though porosity is typically not a critical flaw in SLM.

Integrating alloy development with oxidation resistant coating

Limited Funding

4

WBS Milestone Milestone Description

M2 Thermodynamic

and kinetic

modeling

Thermodynamic design of solidification pathways, phase stability

and density

M3 HT DED

processing with

reactive synthesis

High throughput DED processing will be used for sample

characterization and to validate thermodynamic and process

models

M4 Scale-up of

materials using

SLM

The results from the DED effort will provide essential input to allow

process parameter prediction for SLM scale-up. A key effort will be

to investigate appropriate energy densities and reaction pathways

to effectively translate the processing conditions between the two

AM techniques.

M5 Optimized SLM

process

development

After high-throughput studies, low-throughput investigations will be

finalized to control microstructures, defects, and residual stress.

The information will be used to develop a report that contains

optimized SLM parameters (i.e. scan strategies, beam size, speed

etc.), heat-treatments (if any) or any other post-processing for the

production of Mo-alloy with acceptable microstructure and basic

properties

M6 Tensile bars of

SLM material

meet program

Phase 1 metric

Manufacturability will be demonstrated by manufacturing tensile

mechanical test bars as specified by appropriate ASTM E8 / E8M

method. The largest dimensional variations among the five samples

must be less than 0.1mm

M7 Finalized T2M

plan

A final T2M plan will be submitted that includes product

requirements, analysis of manufacturing risks, and potential

licensing plan

T2M and aspirational follow-on plans

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▸The development of manufacturing processes for ultrahigh temperature RMAs for use in gas turbine applications can

be transferred to industrial companies for the processing of RMAs to manufacture dimensionally controlled shapes such

as a turbine airfoil. The demonstrated use of reactive synthesis of readily available powder stock instead of alloy powders

results in a significant simplification of the supply chain and a reduction in feedstock material cost.

▸The primary market space is identified as AM-based refractory alloy production of ultra-high temperature, high

performance components for aerospace, power generation, and military power conversion. The path to these markets is

anticipated to be refractory and superalloy material suppliers, sub-system suppliers of gas turbine equipment, AM

specialty manufacturers, AM equipment manufacturers, materials process database providers, materials and power system

research institutes, all of which out team already has strong working relationships.

▸The first market application we are targeting is the production of gas turbine blades capable of operation in

temperature regimes up to 1300oC. It is anticipated that an initial entry strategy to first commercialization would be the

licensing of design software, databases, and optimized blade topologies to gas turbine OEMs and/or their supply chains.

▸ It will be necessary to develop a techno-economic analysis of the AM-based manufacturing process.