Date of Award

Fall 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Wout De Backer

Abstract

Cold Spray technology was first developed in the 1980’s and is an additive manufacturing and repair technique. It works by heating a pressurized carrier gas upwards of 600 °C and inserting metal particles downstream such that when they impact a substrate, the energy transformation causes plastic deformation of the particles. This thesis presents a use case for metal and polymer CS powder on fiber reinforced and fused filament fabrication polymer substrates. The state of the art for CS discusses the most up-to-date research within the field, and where new investigations are required. This research investigates the required process parameters to bond metal and polymer powder to fiber reinforced polymer substrates, and how CS can be leveraged for composite repair. The Straight-Line, Powder Stack, and Bond Tests were performed on fiber reinforced polymers to characterize deposition of eight selected metal powders. These tests were performed inside a sandblasting cabinet with aluminum framing for sample support. Microscopy and conductivity analysis parameterization are conducted. The Straight-Line test was used to parameterize PEEK and PEI powders. Composite substrates were milled using a custom-designed 6-axis robotic manipulator to demonstrate a potential new in-the-field repair technique for damaged composites using parameterization results. The composite repairs compressive strength is analyzed and compared to undamaged and scarf-repaired samples. Results show that CS can enable the Advanced Air Mobility market through its success in lightning strike protection applications, and rapid substrate cosmetic repair, with potential improvements for structural repair.

Rights

©2025, Patrick Allen Bailey

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