Yue Zhou
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, FL·Engineering
Metal matrix composites (MMCs) combine a tough, bendable metal with hard ceramic particles that add stiffness and heat resistance. That makes them attractive for aerospace, energy and defense parts.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
metal matrix composites
directed energy deposition
additive manufacturing
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2028
What they work on
- Measure how directed energy deposition settings affect both short-range clustering and overall 3D uniformity of micro-scale ceramic particles in printed metal matrix composites, using controlled experiments and advanced characterization.
- Identify which forces dominate how ceramic particles move within the molten metal pool, using a validated multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, a simulation of how liquid metal and particles flow together.
- Link how evenly the ceramic particles are dispersed to the mechanical performance of DED-built composites, to produce predictive guidelines for achieving uniform reinforcement.
More about the research
Directed energy deposition (DED) is a 3D-printing method that melts metal powder with a focused energy beam and builds a part layer by layer. Because the powder feed can be controlled, DED can produce these composites as coatings or as complex parts. A persistent problem is that the ceramic particles do not stay evenly spread. Their density differs from the metal's, and the swirling flow in the small pool of molten metal carries them around, so they cluster. The result is an uneven internal structure and less reliable strength.
Why it matters
Uneven reinforcement makes 3D-printed metal–ceramic composites unreliable. This limits their use in aerospace, energy and defense parts that need hardness, stiffness and heat resistance. Guidelines for keeping the ceramic particles evenly spread could help manufacturers print stronger, more dependable composite coatings and components.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sougata Roy
Iowa State University, IA·Materials Science·Early-career
Reveal how solidification cracks start and grow in aluminum printed by laser directed energy deposition (L-DED), and how large cracks relate to pores in deposited parts.
Yiliang Liao
Iowa State University, IA·Engineering
Determine how the evolving, uneven thermal environment of a hot liquid support bath controls polymer diffusion and interlayer fusion in embedded printing, using deep-neural-network molecular dynamics, phase-field modeling, and experiments.
Albert To
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Engineering
Build a framework that couples finite element heat simulation with data-driven surrogate models through a local thermal environment representation, allowing two-way information exchange to predict melt pool evolution quickly in laser powder bed fusion.
The school
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach: 5 labs on PI Pages, $35M a year on research, 27 research doctorates a year.
More about Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach
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