Investigation of the process parameters and restitution coefficient of ductile materials during cold gas dynamic spray (CGDS) using finite element analysis

Cold gas dynamic spray is a cold spray technique for obtaining solid-state surface coating. Several materials such as metal, metal alloys, composite materials, and polymer have been deposited successfully through cold spray onto a substrate material. A number of industrial applications for cold spray have been developed worldwide in the field of aerospace, energy, automobile, biotechnology, and military applications. In the current study, effects of various processing parameter such as impact velocity, substrate preheating temperature, a combination of different materials and coefficient of friction were used to describe the impact behaviour of ductile materials (copper, Cu, and aluminium, Al) after deposition to find a way of addressing high-strain-rate dynamic problems. The parameters were also used to verify the deposition process for the modelling of cold gas dynamic spray (CGDS) by the Lagrangian approach of finite element analysis. The results of the analysis (simulation) and that of the published experimental results in the literature correlated well. The understanding of the impact behaviour using different parameters was evident by the analysis of temperature and equivalent plastic strain (PEEQ). It was discovered that the deposition process and deformation are largely affected by particle material as compared to the substrate. A lower restitution coefficient was obtained when different materials of varying properties were combined compared to the combination of the same material. Also, the parameters under investigation do not affect the CGDS process individually, as their effects are interrelated.