Solid-state deposition, viewed at particle scale
Cold spray builds a coating or deposit by accelerating powder particles toward a substrate. The central event is a rapid mechanical impact: particles deform, interact with the surface, and may contribute to a solid-state bond.
My research archive contains numerical simulations of particle impact from work associated with McGill’s Shock Wave Physics Group. The laboratory’s alumni record identifies my research-associate period as 2015–2018.
Modelling makes otherwise difficult-to-observe quantities—such as stress evolution and deformation—available for analysis. Those predictions still depend on the constitutive model, contact assumptions, and comparison with experiments.
Original particle-impact simulations
Both simulations from the original Cold Spray page are retained here. Their archive titles are shown without inferring impact velocities or other physical parameters from the filenames.
What controls an impact?
Particle properties
Size, shape, and material response influence acceleration, contact geometry, and deformation. A particle population therefore cannot always be represented adequately by a single ideal sphere.
Impact conditions
Velocity, orientation, and substrate response affect the mechanics of contact. Numerical studies can help isolate these influences, provided their assumptions and limits remain explicit.
Connecting impact to a deposit
Understanding one impact is a step toward understanding a coating—not a complete prediction of a many-particle deposit. Repeated impacts and interactions between deposited material and incoming particles introduce further questions.
Relative kinetic energy: 1×
Teaching illustration only: E = ½mv², at fixed mass, relative to 500 m/s. This is not experimental data, a bonding threshold, or a prediction of deposition efficiency.
A wider view of powder-to-impact behaviour
The broader research opportunity is to link feedstock characterisation, particle flight, impact mechanics, and validation. On this page, those are explanatory directions for the field; they are not presented as new completed results from my archive.
Figures and research media from the original research archive (opens in a new tab). Research affiliations and project descriptions refer to the periods in which the work was undertaken.