Mechanical Engineering
Area of Doctoral Study: Mechanical Engineering
Undergraduate Institute: Johns Hopkins University
Research Advisor: Ronghui Ma, Ph.D.
Description of Research
Powder bed wetting by liquid droplets is an important process in a number of applications, including pharmaceutical production, pollutant transport, and 3D powder bed printing. 3D powder bed printing specifically has been researched as a method to produce bone tissue scaffolds. Process parameter selection is a particular issue as it is not clear what combination of powder and binder, for example, will produce a part with the desired feature resolution, surface finish, and mechanical strength. The goal of the proposed research is to elucidate the roles that certain process parameter play in the eventual sorption profile of a droplet in an initially unsaturated powder bed. This will be achieved by combining numerical modeling of liquid droplets adsorbing into porous media with the visualization of real binder droplets adsorbed into real powder beds using micro-CT technology. The effects of certain process parameters on the final sorption profile will be elucidated and the resulting numerical model will allow better selection of certain process parameters.