Additive manufacturing could soon build a single metal part with different compositions in different locations—like a turbine blade that is tough at the root but heat-resistant at the tip—without welding separate pieces together. The problem is that no one knows which combinations of metals can be safely fused during laser-based 3D printing without creating cracks or voids at the interfaces where dissimilar materials meet. This PhD project will systematically test how printing parameters affect the structural and thermal behaviour of those interface regions, then establish guidelines for selecting compatible material pairs. If successful, the work would let engineers design components with properties—density, strength, thermal expansion, magnetism—that vary precisely where needed. That matters for energy, automotive, and aerospace industries, where parts must survive extreme heat and mechanical stress. A single graded component could replace an assembly of several different alloys, reducing weight, eliminating weak joints, and simplifying supply chains. The student will combine computational materials science, advanced microscopy, and mechanical testing at the Centre for Additive Manufacturing, one of the world’s largest 3D-printing research centres.
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Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers a new fabrication paradigm that allows almost total control over how materials are processed and connected. This versatility has led to the development of promising metal structures of customisable (graded) chemical composition which, if correctly designed, could be used to replace components now formed by joining modular elements made of different alloys. Structures of customised composition could find applications in a variety of industries especially energy, automotive and aerospace where it is often required management of extreme thermal and mechanical conditions. Using AM to control the composition within a structure would allow designers to tune mechanical and physical properties in specific locations (e.g. density, coefficients of thermal expansion, ferromagnetism, strength, etc.) and therefore enhance part performance. Although grading chemical composition offers unique opportunities to create new outstanding materials, there is a requirement to understand how different metals can be intimately combined during AM to systematically achieve desired properties. This PhD aims to fill this knowledge gap by establishing guidelines for the identification of suitable material combinations for use in laser-based AM whilst fabricating reliable parts with no structural defects (e.g. cracks and voids). This will be accomplished by determining the structural and thermal behaviour of the interface regions of the printed component (locations where dissimilar materials are in contact) as a function of the printing laser parameters. The project builds on the expertise developed at the Centre for Additive Manufacturing (CfAM) on the application of computational materials science techniques to laser AM to identify and select suitable material combinations. State-of-the-art AM software will be used to design parts with the identified materials in such a way as to satisfy the desired properties of the final part. Instrumental to the correct design of these complex parts will be the characterisation and testing of the interfaces formed in the printed structures. The PhD student will develop these structures with a combination of AM and metrology techniques, advanced materials testing, microscopy and numerical modelling, thereby gaining a broad set of skills and knowledge relevant to advanced manufacturing and materials research. The student appointed will work as part of a dynamic interdisciplinary team at CfAM, one of the largest research centres for additive manufacturing and 3D printing worldwide.
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