A Damage Based Finite Element Simulation of Cold Spray Coating Under Indentation Loading

Cold spray is an emerging technique that produces high-density coatings. Particles (1 to 50 μm in diameter) are carried by a supersonic gas stream through a de Laval nozzle and impact on a substrate with high kinetic energy. If particles exceed the so-called critical velocity, they are able to adhere to the substrate and form the coating. There have been quite a number of efforts to estimate the critical velocity of particles in cold spraying.  The degree of bonding between coating and substrate is also a crucial parameter and play an important role on the applicability of resulted coatings. The nature of bonding in cold spray is rather complicated and has not been studied systematically. In the present investigation, the role of different parameters on bond strength is numerically studied. A critical discussion on manipulating these parameters to obtain optimum bond strength is given.