Non-invasive repair of piping systems
Research by: Zeyad Zakey The use of piping systems is ubiquitous in several engineering applications, including process plants, factories, and oil refineries. Concerning the latter, it is of priority to maintain structural integrity of all systems to ensure constant operation. However, due to natural wear and tear, corrosion, or other else, piping systems may become damaged during use. In order to repair the system, it must be isolated. This entails stoppage of operation, resulting in loss of operating time and profit. The aim of this project was to...
Multi-scale particle methods for improved heat transfer
Syd Hashemi email: sydhashemi@berkeley.edu Research description Overview Although computer simulation power has astronomically increased since the beginning of the simulation by computers, and still is increasing, machine performance is still a limiting factor. This primarily restricts the size of the system that can be simulated, for example in the case of molecular dynamics the number of particles that can be handled with the computer, and the number of timesteps that can be calculated during the simulation is part of this restriction. Besides, to capture an important phenomena in the...
Numerical Simulation of Laser Ablation of Diamond for Micro-machine Tooling
Research by: Marc Russell Micro-machining operations utilize micro-scale machine tools to carry out traditional manufacturing process (e.g. milling, drilling, etc. ) on microscale parts. They can be used for part creation as well as surfacing . Binder-less polycrystalline diamond (BPLCD) has been cited as an ideal machine tool material due to its superior mechanical properties (higher hardness, higher wear resistance, isotropic material properties, etc.) to that of the conventional diamond materials usually used for such tooling. However, because of these properties it is difficult to produce BPLCD tooling...
Numerical Simulation of Selective Laser Melting Process
Research by: Marc Russell Additive Manufacturing(AM), a.k.a. 3D printing, is a rapidly emerging technology that will revolutionize the manufacturing world by allowing for the production of net-shape, customizable, ready-to-use parts in a matter of hours. AM parts are built-up layer-by-layer from raw materials, under computer control in the image of a digital model. Selective Laser Melting of particle beds (SLM) is a particularly promising AM technique for producing complex 3D metallic structures through a repetitive process of deposition and guided laser melting of a bed of microscale, metallic...
Particle Based Simulation Framework for Sintered Mechanical Components
Research by: Chang Yoon Park A Discrete Element Approach was used to create a framework for mechanical simulations of sintered materials. Bond stiffness between the particles were determined by performing eigenvalue analysis. If the stored energy in the bonds exceeds the pre-determined fracture surface energy, the bonds were deactivated to simulate fracture. A 3 Point Bending test was performed as an...
Computational Multi-Phase Materials Design
Research by: Santiago Miret Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC) materials are becoming more and more important for high temperature and high stress environments, such as those found in aerospace and automotive applications. The aim of this project is to create a design tool for CMCs using numerical methods to compute the effective properties of the materials and to simulate their behavior in high stress...
Holographic Diffractive Optics for Stereolithography
Research by: Brett Kelly Existing additive manufacturing techniques tend to operate by printing of two-dimensional cross-sections layered on top of one another to form a three dimensional geometry. Optical printing techniques such as photopolymerization by stereolithography have the potential to move towards “true” 3D printing through the use of holographic light shaping. By controlling the phase of an incident coherent wave front there is potential to pattern light in 3 dimensions and cure non-planar geometries in a single exposure. This offers the advantages of increased print speed, the...
Modeling and simulation of the multi-jet printing process
Research by: Shanna Hays Additive Manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as 3D printing, is the process of building up material layers to produce a final product capable of having freeform geometries and internal structures. Most AM processes utilize polymer and plastic materials which have limited applications due to the anisotropic material response resulting from the layer-by-layer construction and generally poor fine feature resolution. One polymer based process, the material jetting process, or Multi-Jet Printing (MJP), has a potential for increased use as the technique is capable of producing...
Computational research on self-assembly in a micro/nano scale
Research by: Donghoon Kim Although the demand for miniaturized products is increasing these days, existing manufacturing robots in serial production systems seem to have difficulties in producing miniature products because they have had to become increasingly larger to properly complete precise machining. Therefore, small-scale self-assembly could provide economic and efficient solutions to overcome this limitation. Also, the self-assembly of 3D structures at the micro scale could make it possible to fabricate new materials. The characteristics of different materials could be combined to produce advanced engineering materials including smart...
Modeling and simulation of functionalized materials for 3-D printing
Research by: Erden Yildizdag 3-D printing also known as additive manufacturing has an increasing demand in the industry to manufacture different kinds of devices. Thus, materials used for 3-D printing need to have different properties (electrical, magnetic, thermal, mechanical, etc.) depending on what we are manufacturing. The aim of this project is modeling new functionalized materials and look for their performances with numerical and experimental studies. Firstly, overall response of the new functionalized material is investigated using multi-scale computational homogenization techniques as numerical tool. After that, different materials...