Observation of a reduced-turbulence regime with boron powder injection in a stellarator

In state-of-the-art stellarators, turbulence is a major cause of the degradation of plasma confinement. To maximize confinement, which eventually determines the amount of nuclear fusion reactions, turbulent transport needs to be reduced. Here we report the observation of a confinement regime in a stellarator plasma that is characterized by increased confinement and reduced turbulent fluctuations. The transition to this regime is driven by the injection of submillimetric boron powder grains into the plasma. With the line-averaged electron density being kept constant, we observe a substantial increase of stored energy and electron and ion temperatures. At the same time, the amplitude of the plasma turbulent fluctuations is halved. While lower frequency fluctuations are damped, higher frequency modes in the range between 100 and 200 kHz are excited. We have observed this regime for different heating schemes, namely with both electron and ion cyclotron resonant radio frequencies and neutral beams, for both directions of the magnetic field and both hydrogen and deuterium plasmas.

Analysing Powder Injection Moulding of a Helix Geometry Using Soft Tooling

Freeform injection moulding is a novel technology for powder injection moulding where a sacrificial 3D printed mould (i.e., a soft tooling) is used as an insert in the injection process. The use of 3D printed moulds enable a higher geometrical design flexibility as compared to the conventional injection moulding process. However, there is still very limited knowledge on how the sacrificial soft tooling material and powder suspension handles the increased geometrical complexity during the process. In this study, a stainless steel powder suspension is injected into a geometrically challenging sacrificial mould (viz. a helix structure) that is produced by vat photopolymerization additive manufacturing. Computed tomography is used to quantify the geometrical precision of the mould both before and after injection. In addition, a new numerical model that considers the suspension feedstock is developed to investigate the powder injection moulding process. The numerical results are found to be in qualitative good agreement with the experimental findings in terms of pinpointing critical areas of the structure, thereby highlighting a new pathway for evaluating sacrificial inserts for powder injection moulding with a high geometrical complexity.

Powder Injection Moulding and Liquid Phase Sintering of Aluminium - SiC Particulate Composite

Metal matrix composite has been increasingly appreciated by many engineering applications due it its tailored properties for specific uses. Powder injection moulding is one of the most effective composite processing essentially for small and complex parts. Moulding of feedstock is the key step determining green and sintered properties. This research investigated effects of moulding parameters which are % solid loading and moulding speed on microstructure and properties of aluminium composite. Commercial aluminium alloy powder and SiC particulate at 15 vol.% addition were formulated at 55 % and 60 % solid loading. Injection moulding were operated using a horizontal screw driven typed machine at 1600-1800 rpm speed and 280 - 300 °C moulding temperature. After sintering at 655 °C, property assessment via microstructure, density, % shrinkage, distortion and hardness were carried out. It was found that feedstock of 55 % solid loading occasionally led to flash problem while that of higher solid loading experienced higher viscosity to fulfill four-cavity mould. Moulding speed investigated did not significantly affect mould filling and overall properties. Sintered microstructures generally showed well-distributed SiC particulate in the aluminium matrix. The optimum injection moulding condition was the feedstock prepared at 60% solid loading, moulding at 1800 rpm speed, which offered theoretical density of greater than 98.5 % and micro Vickers hardness of 125.2 Hv.

Research on structure and technological parameters of multi-channel cold spraying nozzle

Cold spraying technology is a method to obtain coating by the high-speed collision of particles with the substrate through supersonic (300–1200 m/s) propulsion gas. The deposition process is mainly mechanical bonding, which has attracted more and more attention in engineering applications. The critical component of a cold spraying system is the nozzle. The performance of the nozzle directly affects the quality of the material surface coating. Therefore, the discussion of the nozzle is of great significance. At present, there are many examples of cold spraying single-channel nozzles in engineering, but there are few reports about multi-channel cold spraying nozzles. This paper explores and studies the multi-channel cold spraying nozzle, designs a special three internal channel nozzle, and adopts a 90° angle in the divergent section of the nozzle. When spraying in a small area, the nozzle with angle has apparent advantages for spraying more areas. The powder injection pressure, particle size, recovery coefficient, and internal channel position are analyzed, which affect the particle trajectory. Combined with these factors, the multi-channel nozzle is optimized and improved to solve the problem of particle collision with the inner wall of the nozzle. Finally, the technological parameters of aluminum, titanium, copper, nickel, magnesium, and zinc powders are preliminarily studied using the multi-channel nozzle. The results show that the multi-channel nozzle meets the critical velocity requirements of copper, magnesium, and zinc powder spraying in the homogeneous (powder and matrix are the same material) and aluminum powder spraying in the case of heterogeneous (powder and matrix are different materials), the multi-channel nozzle has a sound engineering application prospect and provides a specific reference for relevant technicians.

Improvement of Mixing Efficiency in the Combustion Chamber of a Powder-Fuel Ramjet Engine

The challenge of the powder-fuel ramjet is to improve the mixing effect of powder-fuel with oxidizing agents and combustion efficiency. To improve the mixing and combustion efficiency of the powder-fuel ramjet engine, three configurations in head shapes and three exhaust gas inlet patterns of the engine are designed based on a typical powder-fuel ramjet engine combustion chamber. The effect of the head shapes and exhaust gas inlet patterns is analyzed and compared by the three-dimensional numerical simulation method. A comprehensive model validation is built, and the calculation results of the k-ε standard model are compared with the experimental data. The results show that the cylindrical head forms a recirculation zone at the head of the combustion chamber, which leads to powder deposition in the head region of the chamber. The design with the round head and the coned head reduces the recirculation inside the head region, and the exhaust gas from the fuel gas generator has benefits in powder injection and mixing inside the combustion chamber. The exhaust gas inlet of the inclined six hole type has benefits in the mixing of powder and high temperature exhaust gas because it generates strong flow impingement in the core part of the chamber.