Andreas Mortensen receives SNSF Advanced Grant
Andreas Mortensen © 2022 EPFL
The director of the Mechanical Metallurgy Laboratory at the School of Engineering is to receive CHF 1.7 million from the SNSF for his research into controlling the flow of liquid metals for 3D printing using magnetic fields.
Professor Andreas Mortensen will launch a new research project in the autumn of this year in collaboration with Professor Paolo Ricci of the Swiss Plasma Center, who will co-supervise one of the theses. For this study, he will receive a grant of more than 1.7 million francs from the SNSF, spread over five years.
Scientific Summary
This project is an exploration of the potential of magnetic fields for the 3D printing of metals and alloys. Its focus will be on the in-depth study of the flow and solidification of a metal or alloy through a small "pendulum" drop, i.e. a drop held between two surfaces and immersed in a magnetic field. The drop is fed with metal on one side and solidifies on the other in contact with a solid surface of the same material, which is then gradually built up to produce a three-dimensional object. The team will build an apparatus to produce walls of material deposited by a pendulum drop stabilised by a magnetic field. It will study in detail both the physical and thermochemical processes governing the behaviour of the drop and the structure of the materials thus produced. It will also study the mechanical behaviour, and seek to make the process sufficiently robust and the material it produces sufficiently strong and reliable for the approach to be of industrial interest.