Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

2026

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Jeffrey Doom

Abstract

Cold spray is a solid-state form of additive manufacturing with high versatility and widespread applicability, especially in relation to metal coatings. Many applications exist within the fields of aerospace, defense and energy systems to obtain sustainable, temperature and corrosion resistant, robust coatings. High-strength alloys and refractory metals generally encounter challenges with regards to cold spray coating adhesion and overall deposition efficiency. Heat induced methods of post-processing or in-situ treatment have been explored to encourage particle softening in the cold spray plume, as well as coating recrystallization to enhance material properties. These approaches have primarily been limited to an experimental approach, emphasizing post-spray heat treatment, with a significant lack of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models existing for in-situ processing. This work aims to produce foundational CFD models of flow behaviors involving two-phase cold spray and in-situ non-transferred arc plasma. Initial metrics of investigation include plasma and cold spray plume disruptions and deflections between normal and angled plasma orientations. Each model will solve the Navier-Stokes and Maxwell equations paired with discrete particle modeling for accurate particle tracking. Simulations indicate that a normal plasma orientation with 35 mm substrate standoff and 50 mm offset from the cold spray plume yields significant plasma jet deflection with no disturbance to the cold spray plume. For a 45° plasma orientation directed toward the cold spray plume, strong entrainment between the plasma and cold spray jets is observed, again with no measurable disturbance to the cold spray particle plume. In both configurations, no measurable in-flight particle heating is observed, though meaningful substrate heating is achieved with differing thermal distributions. These findings highlight two differing baseline plasma orientations and provide foundational insight into PACS plume interaction and substrate thermal assistance behavior, serving as a basis for future optimization of a robust and efficient co-process for cold spray deposition of challenging alloys.

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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Rights Statement

In Copyright