A paper written by researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory was selected as the top paper of 2023 by Welding Journal.
The team behind the paper — former ORNL material scientist Niyanth Sridharan (now at Lincoln Electric India), current ORNL computational material scientist Yousub Lee and technical fellow Brian Jordan — received the Warren F. Savage Memorial award from the American Welding Society at the 2024 FABTECH show on October 15 in Orlando, Florida.
“I was so happy we were selected as paper of the year,” said Lee. “American Welding Society is one of the best societies with more than 70,000 members worldwide and their journal is over 100 years old with many subscribers in the community and a lot of exposure.”
The award-winning paper explored the feasibility of using laser-blown powder direct energy deposition, or Laser-powder DED, a type of additive manufacturing, to repair high g’ IN-100 superalloy, a type of metal used in gas turbine components in high temperature applications such as jet engines.
The research proposed an approach to effectively prevent issues with cracking commonly associated with the repair of hot section parts. In aviation, the hot section is the area of an engine where combustion temperatures and pressures are highest. To improve the reliability and lifespan of parts made from IN-100, ORNL researchers are using a variety of techniques, including computer simulations and detailed analysis of the metal’s structure, with the goal of better repairing and preventing cracks.
Working in collaboration with Delta Airlines, the team found that by controlling thermally induced residual stresses and determining the preheat temperature of the area receiving the repair, the susceptibility of cracking reduced dramatically.
“It was a huge issue to control simultaneously pre-heat temperature, manufacturing conditions and thermally induced residual stresses to prevent the susceptibility of cracking in high g’ IN-100 superalloy,” Lee said
Lee hopes the recognition for this work will lead to more opportunities to continue developing this application.
“We want to extend this to more complex geometries and actual application to help aerospace industries or aerospace builds,” Lee added. “We can continue to work with gas turbines as well as other areas.”
This research stems from a collaboration between ORNL and Delta Tech Ops and was conducted in the ORNL Manufacturing Demonstration Facility sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. – Mark Alewine
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