Atomization mechanism and powder morphology in laminar flow gas atomization

Abstract

Metal powders prepared by laminar flow gas atomization have the advantages of small particle size and narrow particle size distribution. At present, the research on laminar flow gas atomization mainly focuses on the influence of process parameters on atomization and powder characteristics, but the atomization mechanism of laminar flow gas atomization is still not clear. In this work, the atomization gas flow, primary and secondary breakup mechanism, and particle morphology of the laminar flow gas atomization process are systematically investigated through numerical simulation and experimental analysis. The characteristics of single-phase atomization gas flow through the De Laval nozzle are studied using the standard <i>k-ε</i> turbulence model. The flow field structure shows a “necklace”-like structure with an expansion wave cluster of oblique shock. The primary and secondary atomization mechanism are investigated using the coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid model, which is validated by solidified fragments and powders after the atomization experiment, and results of the numerical simulation also provide some important advices for the application and specific process of laminar gas atomization technology. The studies indicate that the melts at the periphery of the liquid column are mainly peeled off by filaments or ligaments, which exhibits the small dimension and pressurized melt atomization characteristics. The secondary atomization is mainly based on the disintegration of spherical droplets in the mode of Rayleigh-Taylor instability deformation and sheet-thinning breakup. The simulation results also show that increasing the gas pressure and melt superheat can effectively reduce the probability of irregular powders to occur. The AlSi10Mg powders are obtained under a pressure of 2.0 MPa in the experiment on gas atomization, and the properties of the powders are analyzed. The results show that the powders have good sphericity and flowability, and the proportion of hollow powders is very low. In addition, the mean particle size of the AlSi10Mg powders is 54.3 μm, and the yield of fine powders reaches 48.7%, which is greatly improved compared with the traditional gas atomization processes. Moreover, about 90% of the powders have particle sizes in a range of 30–100 μm, which indicates that a narrow particle size distribution can be obtained by the laminar gas atomization technology.