An elastic-perfectly plastic model for simulating an aluminum particle behavior during plasma thermal spraying using the finite element method

It is a 2D numerical study which treats the splat and flattening of the droplet during a thermal spraying process. An aluminum particle at a high temperature is impacted on steel substrate. A perfectly elastic-plastic model is used instead of the VOF method which is exclusively used in the literature. For this purpose, the finite element method with Ansys mechanical APDL program is used to solve the governing equations. Displacement, elastic and plastic strains, Von-Mises stress, energy densities, and contact pressure are evaluated during the impact of the particle. Additionally, it is found that the initial impact velocity has a significant effect on splat behavior. This mechanical model gives a promise results that can be improved to help understand the impact and flattening phenomenon. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.