Loughborough University
Browse
ADDMA67.pdf (759.38 kB)

Additive manufacturing of physical assets by using ceramic multicomponent extra-terrestrial materials

Download (759.38 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2016-03-09, 14:54 authored by Athanasios Goulas, Russell Harris, Ross J. Friel
Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is a range of advanced manufacturing technologies that can fabricate three-dimensional assets directly from CAD data, on a successive layer-by-layer strategy by using thermal energy, typically from a laser source, to irradiate and fuse particles within a powder bed.The aim of this paper was to investigate the application of this advanced manufacturing technique to process ceramic multicomponent materials into 3D layered structures. The materials used matched those found on the Lunar and Martian surfaces. The indigenous extra-terrestrial Lunar and Martian materials could potentially be used for manufacturing physical assets onsite (i.e., off-world) on future planetary exploration missions and could cover a range of potential applications including: infrastructure, radiation shielding, thermal storage, etc.Two different simulants of the mineralogical and basic properties of Lunar and Martian indigenous materials were used for the purpose of this study and processed with commercially available laser additive manufacturing equipment. The results of the laser processing were investigated and quantified through mechanical hardness testing, optical and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis, spectrometry, and finally X-ray diffraction.The research resulted in the identification of a range of process parameters that resulted in the successful manufacture of three-dimensional components from Lunar and Martian ceramic multicomponent simulant materials. The feasibility of using thermal based additive manufacturing with multi-component ceramic materials has therefore been established, which represents a potential solution to off-world bulk structure manufacture for future human space exploration.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

Additive Manufacturing

Volume

10

Pages

36 - 42

Citation

GOULAS, A., HARRIS, R.A. and FRIEL, R.J., 2016. Additive manufacturing of physical assets by using ceramic multicomponent extra-terrestrial materials. Additive Manufacturing, 10, pp. 36 - 42.

Publisher

© Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2016-02-08

Publication date

2016

Notes

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Additive Manufacturing and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2016.02.002

eISSN

2214-8604

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC