ENGS 88 Honors Thesis (AB Students)

Degree Program

A.B.

Year of Graduation

2020

Faculty Advisor

Horst J. Richter

Document Type

Thesis (Senior Honors)

Publication Date

Spring 6-9-2020

Abstract

The relatively novel cold spraying process expands its range of applications constantly. In order to continue this trend, this process still has various hurdles that need to be overcome such as clogging. Clogging within the cold gas spraying process causes porous coatings with less material properties and lower durability; a solution is needed in order to reduce the clogging and so expand the cold gas spraying applications. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using an electric field to reduce clogging. To do so a simplified channel was used to simulate charged particle trajectory shifts under the influence of an electric field. The study took into consideration the limits of the charge of particles, the breakdown field within the channel, and the created inception voltage due to the interaction between the charged particles and the surrounding electric field. Particle trajectories were analyzed based on the particle size, velocity, material, electric field strength, and the path length. It was concluded that an electric field has adequate effects on the particle trajectories to potentially reduce clogging and possible even focus the particle stream in the cold spraying process. Preliminary design ideas for a focusing system were briefly discussed, paving the way for future research on this topic.

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