Numerical Studies of the Application of Shock Tube Technology for Cold Gas Dynamic Spray Process

A new method for a combustion-free spraying is studied fundamentally by modeling and simulation in comparison with first experiments. The article focuses on the numerical simulation of the gas-particle nozzle flow, which is generated by the shock reflection at the end wall section of a shock tube. To study the physical fundamentals of this process, at present only a single shot operation is considered. The particles are injected downstream of the nozzle throat into a supersonic nozzle flow. The measurements of the particle velocity made by a laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) set up show that the maximum velocity amounts to 1220 m/s for stainless steel particles of 15 μm diameter. The CFD-Code (Fluent) is first verified by a comparison with available numerical and experimental data for gas and gas-particle flow fields in a long Laval-nozzle. The good agreement implied the great potential of the new dynamic process concept for cold-gas coating applications. Then the flow fields in the short Laval nozzle designed and realized by the Shock Wave Laboratory (SWL) are investigated. The gas flow for experimentally obtained stagnation conditions is simulated. The gas-particle flow without and with the influence of the particles on the gas flow is calculated by the Surface Engineering Institute (IOT) and compared with experiments. The influence of the injection parameters on the particle velocities is investigated, as well.