Center for Computational Research and Advanced Manufacturing

Current Projects

Coupling Thermomechanical and Thermo-fluid Physics-Based Models for Metal Additive Manufacturing (LPBF & DED)

  • Development of a numerical coupling code to connect the thermomechanical and thermo-fluid physics for metal AM.
  • Simulate the stress-strain evolution, along with accurate geometric and thermal reconstruction.
  • Neutron diffraction for validation of residual stress in the DED specimens.
  • X-Ray micro computed tomography to validate internal voids/porosity.
  • 3D surface scanning to validate topographical accuracy of the thermofluidic model.

Coupled Thermo-fluid and Thermomechanical models.

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Improved Tool-Path Design to Reduce Assembly Costs of High-Speed-Machined Wrought and Additively Manufactured Metal Parts

Thin Wall Selective Laser Melting video, links to YouTube

Powder Bed Fusion of an In 625 thin-walled structure

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  • Crack compliance measurements and neutron diffraction to characterize residual stress random fields in wrought aluminum blocks prior to high-speed machining.
  • Integration of 3D mapped residual stress field into finite element machining model.
  • Hypothesis testing of whether initial residual stresses in wrought aluminum blocks cause dimensional distortions in the monolithic machined parts to a greater extent than the combined effects due to material removal, tool wear, thermal & dynamic influences.
  • Probabilistic algorithms to generate corrected machine tool-paths based on initial residual stress random fields.
  • Application to finish-machining of additively manufactured metals.

Computational and Experimental Studies into Laser Shock Peening (LSP) for Enhanced Fatigue Performance of Metallic Components

  • Rapid new finite element techniques to simulate residual stress random fields when laser shock peening metallic specimens.
  • Simulation of combined additive manufacturing and laser shock peening processes using multi-scale methods.
  • Experimental investigations using 1064 nm, 3J nanosecond pulsed Nd-YAG laser (Spectra Physics Quanta Ray PRO-350).
  • X-Ray diffraction (XRD) to characterize residual stresses induced by laser shock peening.

LSP surface treatment of aluminum alloy specimen

Highly-Efficient Dynamic Prediction Models for Quality Improvement in Cold Rolling

  • Creation of new, rapid finite element computational methods to model roll-stack deformations during the cold rolling of ferrous and non-ferrous metal strip and sheet.
  • Prediction of rolled strip thickness and flatness profiles for multiple control devices, including roll bending, roll crowning, and CVC shifting mechanisms, including random field analysis.
  • Analysis and identification of new “corrective” roll grinding strategies for ultra-high quality strip flatness.
  • Efficient three-dimensional roll chatter vibration modeling in multi-stand cold rolling mills.
  • Application to 2-high, 4-high, 6-high, and 20-high mill configurations.
  • Structural Dynamics Rolling Mill code from NSF project (contact Dr. Arif Malik at arif.malik@utdallas.edu for code requests).

Cluster Mill

Computational and Experimental Studies into Laser Impact Welding (LIW) of Dissimilar Metallic Materials

  • Lagrangian, ALE, and mesh-free computational modeling of various stages of the laser-induced material acceleration and collision phenomena.
  • Modeling of laser pulse geometry and energy intensity influences on flyer plate accelerations and deformation dynamics.
  • Application and analysis of laser impact welding on bulk metallic glasses (BMG).
  • Experimental investigations using 1064 nm, 3J nanosecond pulsed Nd-YAG laser (Spectra Physics Quanta Ray PRO-350).
  • Investigations on effects of collision surface topography and metal foil microstructure on transient (sub-microsecond) phenomena along the collision interface.
Laser Impact welding Simulation video, links to YouTube

Laser impact welding transient thermal simulation

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Bio-inspired fluid structure interaction (FSI) and drag reduction research

Decoupled effects of localized camber and spanwise bending for flexible thin wing video, links to YouTube

Vortices visualization at 10 degrees AoA using vortex λ2 criterion for an UAV wing (Re 80,000)

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  • Efficient FSI modeling (coupled FE structure model and potential flow approach)
  • High-fidelity aerodynamic models (DNS/LES) based FSI modeling
  • Exploration of superhydrophobic drag reduction on curved surface
  • Optimization/morphing of flexible structures
  • Experimental studies of actively controlled dielectric elastomer membrane wing
  • FSI modeling of dynamic flapping wings
  • Potential energy harvest related application