Prahalada Rao
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Engineering
Large and tiny metal parts are both hard to make reliably. Defects created during manufacturing can cause a part to fail early in service.
- Fields
Engineering
Materials Science
Computer Science
- Topics
additive manufacturing
3D printing
laser wire directed energy deposition
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Develop physics-informed machine learning models that predict outcomes of laser wire directed energy deposition (laser-and-wire metal 3D printing) and optimize laser power, scan speed and tool paths before printing.
- Build digital twins, virtual copies of the part, that combine process simulations with thermal, optical and acoustic sensor data to predict microstructure and residual stress while large metal parts are printed.
- Create autonomous closed-loop controllers that adjust printing settings in real time, and remove and re-deposit uncorrectable regions using hybrid additive–subtractive manufacturing.
- Characterize material removal and defect formation in magnetically enhanced laser-induced plasma micromachining, in which a magnetic field shapes a laser-made plasma inside liquid, and build physics-based models of these mechanisms.
- Detect and correct micromachining defects during processing by combining in-situ acoustic sensing with electromagnetic finite element analysis.
More about the research
Research in this group uses physics-based models, in-machine sensors and machine learning to detect and correct defects while parts are being made. The two projects cover very different scales. One focuses on large metal parts built by 3D printing. The other focuses on micro-scale features cut by laser-generated plasma.
Why it matters
Defense, energy and aerospace manufacturers could produce large, safety-critical metal parts 'first-time-right' with fewer defects, strengthening domestic supply of critical components. The micromachining research could enable finer, faster production of micro-components used in semiconductors and optical electronics, biomedical implants, wearable devices and solar cells.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
CPS: Medium: Collaborative Research: AI-Enabled Modeling, Sensing, Digital Twins, and Autonomous Control for Smart, Sustainable, and Scalable Big Area Additive Manufacturing
NSF · Aug 2026 – Jul 2029
ECLIPSE: Collaborative Research: Understanding Material Removal in High-Resolution, High-throughput Magnetically Enhanced Laser Induced Plasma Micromachining
NSF · Sep 2024 – Aug 2027
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.
Yue Zhou
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, FL·Engineering
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.
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
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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