Thermal energy storage units conventionally have the drawback of slow charging response. Thus, heat transfer enhancement techniques are required to reduce charging time. Using nanoadditives is a promising approach to enhance the heat transfer and energy storage response time of materials that store heat by undergoing a reversible phase change, so-called phase change materials. In the present study, a combination of such materials enhanced with the addition of nanometer-scale graphene oxide particles (called nano-enhanced phase change materials) and a layer of a copper foam is proposed to improve the thermal performance of a shell-and-tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) unit filled with capric acid. Both graphene oxide and copper nanoparticles were tested as the nanometer-scale additives. A geometrically nonuniform layer of copper foam was placed over the hot tube inside the unit. The metal foam layer can improve heat transfer with an increase of the composite thermal conductivity. However, it suppressed the natural convection flows and could reduce heat transfer in the molten regions. Thus, a metal foam layer with a nonuniform shape can maximize thermal conductivity in conduction-dominant regions and minimize its adverse impacts on natural convection flows. The heat transfer was modeled using partial differential equations for conservations of momentum and heat. The finite element method was used to solve the partial differential equations. A backward differential formula was used to control the accuracy and convergence of the solution automatically. Mesh adaptation was applied to increase the mesh resolution at the interface between phases and improve the quality and stability of the solution. The impact of the eccentricity and porosity of the metal foam layer and the volume fraction of nanoparticles on the energy storage and the thermal performance of the LHTES unit was addressed. The layer of the metal foam notably improves the response time of the LHTES unit, and a 10% eccentricity of the porous layer toward the bottom improved the response time of the LHTES unit by 50%. The presence of nanoadditives could reduce the response time (melting time) of the LHTES unit by 12%, and copper nanoparticles were slightly better than graphene oxide particles in terms of heat transfer enhancement. The design parameters of the eccentricity, porosity, and volume fraction of nanoparticles had minimal impact on the thermal energy storage capacity of the LHTES unit, while their impact on the melting time (response time) was significant. Thus, a combination of the enhancement method could practically reduce the thermal charging time of an LHTES unit without a significant increase in its size.

Atmospheric humidity is introduced into powders during handling, transportation, and storage. High moisture content can increase cohesive forces between particles and make it difficult to spread a powder into thin layers in powder bed processes or to fill a mold in processes such as press-and-sinter. Furthermore, water can cause porosity and uptake of oxygen in the final component, damaging its mechanical properties. In this study, a Freeman FT4 powder rheometer was placed inside a climate chamber. Both flowability and shear tests were performed on four steel powders under a range of humidity and temperatures. Basic flowability energy and specific energy were both found to increase significantly with humidity (typically increase by 50% for 80% of relative humidity compared to dry conditions) and were insensitive to temperature change (10–30 °C). Conversely, the behavior of the powders under shear was neither sensitive to relative humidity nor temperature. Measurements of moisture content revealed that finer powders contained more moisture than coarser ones, but the moisture content was not correlated with humidity, probably due to shortcomings with the measurement method. This knowledge can be used to optimize powder processing conditions.

The spreading of powders into thin layers is a critical step in powder bed additive manufacturing, but there is no accepted technique to test it. There is not even a metric that can be used to describe spreading behaviour. A robust, image-based measurement procedure has been developed and can be implemented at modest cost and with minimal training. The analysis is automated to derive quantitative information about the characteristics of the spread layer. The technique has been demonstrated for three powders to quantify their spreading behaviour as a function of layer thickness and spreading speed.

Since there is no report on the influence of machining depth on electron beam melting (EBM) parts, this paper investigated the role of superficial defects and machining depth in the performance of EBM made Inconel 718 (IN718) samples. Therefore, as-built EBM samples were analyzed against the shallow-machined (i.e., only removal of outer surfaces) and deep-machined (i.e., deep surface removal into the material) parts. It was shown that both as-built and shallow-machined samples had a drastically lower yield strength (970 ± 50 MPa), ultimate tensile stress (1200 ± 40 MPa), and ductility (28 ± 2%) compared to the deep-machined samples. This was since premature failure occurred due to various superficial defects. The superficial defects appeared in two levels, as (1) notches and pores on the surface and (2) irregular pores and cracks within the subsurface. Since the latter occurred down to 2 mm underneath the surface, shallow machining only exposed the subsurface defects to outer surfaces. Thus, the shallow-machined parts achieved only 68% and 8% of UTS and elongation of the deep-machined parts, respectively. This low performance occurred to be comparable to the as-built parts, which failed prematurely due to the high fraction surface voids and notches as well as the subsurface defects.

Alloy 825 is a nickel-based alloy that is commonly used in applications where both high strength and corrosion resistance are required, such as tanks in the chemical, food and petrochemical industries and oil and gas pipelines. Components made from Alloy 825 are often manufactured using hot deformation. However, there is no systematic study to optimise the processing conditions reported in literature. In this study, a processing map for as-cast Alloy 825 is established to maximise the power dissipation efficiency of hot deformation in the temperature range of 950 to 1250 °C at an interval of 50 °C and strain rate range of $$0.01\, {\text{s}}^{ - 1}$$0.01s-1 to $$10.0\, {\text{s}}^{ - 1}$$10.0s-1 to a true strain of $$0.7$$0.7 using a Gleeble-3500 thermomechanical simulator. The processing conditions are also correlated to the Vickers hardness of the final material, which is also characterised using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, including electron backscattered diffraction. The true stress-true strain curves exhibit peak stresses followed by softening due to occurrence of dynamic recrystallization. The activation energy for plastic flow in the temperature range tested is approximately $$450\,{\text{ kJ mol}}^{ - 1}$$450kJ mol-1 , and the value of the stress exponent in the (hyperbolic sine-based) constitutive equation, $$n = 5.0$$n=5.0 , suggests that the rate-limiting mechanism of deformation is dislocation climb. Increasing deformation temperature led to a lower Vickers hardness in the deformed material, due to increased dynamic recrystallization. Raising the strain rate led to an increase in Vickers hardness in the deformed material due to increased work hardening. The maximum power dissipation efficiency is over $$35\%$$35% , obtained for deformation in the temperature range 1100-1250 °C and a strain rate of $$0.01\, {\text{s}}^{ - 1}$$0.01s-1 - $$0.1\, {\text{s}}^{ - 1}$$0.1s-1 . These are the optimum conditions for hot working.