Development and Hot-fire Testing of Additively Manufactured Copper Combustion Chambers for Liquid Rocket Engine Applications

Gradl, Paul R.; Greene, Sandy E.; Protz, Christopher S.; Ellis, David L.; Lerch, Bradley A.; Locci, Ivan E.

doi:10.2514/6.2017-4670

Cited by 42 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…3D printing of highly pure copper with superior electrical and thermal properties has been studied extensively due to its broad potential in many applications including electronic devices [1,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], thermal management systems [4,12], and the aerospace industry [4,12,[21][22][23][24][25]. Compared to conventional 3D printing of highly pure copper with superior electrical and thermal properties has been studied extensively due to its broad potential in many applications including electronic devices [1,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], thermal management systems [4,12], and the aerospace industry [4,12,[21][22][23][24][25]. Compared to conventional fabrication methods such as metal casting, welding, and machining, 3D printing can fabricate more optimized and complex 3D copper parts without using additional tools [26][27][28][29][30][31]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper

Tran

Chinnappan

Lee

et al. 2019

Metals

146

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Copper has been widely used in many applications due to its outstanding properties such as malleability, high corrosion resistance, and excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. While 3D printing can offer many advantages from layer-by-layer fabrication, the 3D printing of highly pure copper is still challenging due to the thermal issues caused by copper’s high conductivity. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent work on 3D printing technology of highly pure copper over the past few years. The advantages and current issues of 3D printing methods are compared while different properties of copper parts printed by these methods are summarized. Finally, we provide several potential applications of the 3D printed copper parts and an overview of current developments that could lead to new improvements in this advanced manufacturing field.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper

Tran

Chinnappan

Lee

et al. 2019

Metals

146

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“…Copper alloys such as CuCr1Zr are used for the inner lining of rocket engine combustion chambers due to their high thermal conductivity and strength. The conventional manufacturing of these chambers consists of several time-consuming and costly steps [ 1 , 2 ]. Additive manufacturing (AM) shows good prospects for reducing lead time and costs while enabling new regenerative cooling concepts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pyrometric-Based Melt Pool Monitoring Study of CuCr1Zr Processed Using L-PBF

et al. 2020

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The potential of in situ melt pool monitoring (MPM) for parameter development and furthering the process understanding in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) of CuCr1Zr was investigated. Commercial MPM systems are currently being developed as a quality monitoring tool with the aim of detecting faulty parts already in the build process and, thus, reducing costs in LPBF. A detailed analysis of coupon specimens allowed two processing windows to be established for a suitably dense material at layer thicknesses of 30 µm and 50 µm, which were subsequently evaluated with two complex thermomechanical-fatigue (TMF) panels. Variations due to the location on the build platform were taken into account for the parameter development. Importantly, integrally averaged MPM intensities showed no direct correlation with total porosities, while the robustness of the melting process, impacted strongly by balling, affected the scattering of the MPM response and can thus be assessed. However, the MPM results, similar to material properties such as porosity, cannot be directly transferred from coupon specimens to components due to the influence of the local part geometry and heat transport on the build platform. Different MPM intensity ranges are obtained on cuboids and TMF panels despite similar LPBF parameters. Nonetheless, besides identifying LPBF parameter windows with a stable process, MPM allowed the successful detection of individual defects on the surface and in the bulk of the large demonstrators and appears to be a suitable tool for quality monitoring during fabrication and non-destructive evaluation of the LPBF process.

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“…= √ ℎ (16) This differs from prior experimental studies that assume threesided conduction for cases where the top lid is a different, insulative material through which no heat is assumed to be transferred to the fluid. An iterative process is used to calculate the average fin wall temperature.…”

Section: Data Reductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Many companies, such as GE Aviation and Airbus, have leveraged additive manufacturing systems to produce parts such as fuel nozzles, brackets, hinges, and tooling [15]. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invested heavily in additive technologies and has produced different engine components including combustion chambers, turbines, pump housings, and injectors [16], [17]. While these efforts illustrate the value of AM to industry, they also highlight challenges facing widespread commercial usage, including accurate prediction of material properties, part repeatability, process standardization, and effective quality control [18].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Microchannel Heat Sinks

Collins

Weibel

Pan

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Compon., Packag. Manufact. Technol.

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Microchannel heat sinks allow removal of dense heat loads from high-power electronic devices at modest chip temperature rises. Such heat sinks are produced primarily using conventional subtractive machining techniques or anisotropic chemical etching, which restricts the geometric features that can be produced. Owing to their layer-by-layer and direct-write approaches, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies enable more design-driven construction flexibility and offer improved geometric freedom. Various AM processes and materials are available, but their capability to produce features desirable for microchannel heat sinks has received limited assessment. Following a survey of commercially mature AM techniques, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) was used in this work to produce both straight and manifold microchannel designs with hydraulic diameters of 500 µm in an aluminum alloy (AlSi10Mg). Thermal and hydraulic performance were characterized over a range of mass fluxes from 500 kg/m 2 s to 2000 kg/m 2 s using water as the working fluid. The straight microchannel design allows these experimental results to be directly compared against widely accepted correlations from the literature. The manifold design demonstrates a more complex geometry that offers a reduced pressure drop. A comparison of the measured and predicted performance confirms that the nominal geometry is reproduced accurately enough to predict pressure drop based on conventional hydrodynamic theory, albeit with roughness-induced early transition to turbulence; however, the material properties are not known with sufficient accuracy to allow for a priori thermal design. New design guidelines are needed to exploit the benefits of additive manufacturing while avoiding undesired or unanticipated performance impacts.

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Development and Hot-fire Testing of Additively Manufactured Copper Combustion Chambers for Liquid Rocket Engine Applications

Cited by 42 publications

References 6 publications

3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper

3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper

Pyrometric-Based Melt Pool Monitoring Study of CuCr1Zr Processed Using L-PBF

Evaluation of Additively Manufactured Microchannel Heat Sinks

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