Hongze WANG

Laser additive manufacturing technology has a wide range of application requirements in the manufacture of high-quality components in aviation, aerospace, shipbuilding, nuclear power and other industries. However, common issues such as energy absorption and molten pool evolution mechanism under the interaction between laser and metal materials have a restrictive effect on the improvement of laser manufacturing quality.

Facing the urgent needs of the industry for mass-scale additive manufacturing, Hongze Wang adopted methods such as in-situ experiments, mathematical models, and numerical simulations, and achieved the following major innovations.

First of all, Wang built a model to estimate the absorption rate in laser additive manufacturing, promoting the development of blue laser. The fractal theory was used to describe the rough characteristics of the surface, and the algorithm to track the routes of the light during multiple reflections was developed. He also developed a 250 W high power blue laser system with the wavelength of 445 nm, which was validated to have a significant increase in absorption rate for copper and aluminum compared to conventional fiber laser systems.

Secondly, Wang developed an x-ray phase contrast imaging system to observe the dynamic process of keyhole and molten pool in laser manufacturing. The dynamic process of the keyhole was observed.

In addition, Wang put forwards with the method to significantly improve the printability of non-castable materials by adding nano particles. He developed a method to quantify the effects of nano-particles on printability in selective laser melting with multiple physics simulation models, with the consideration of surface tension, Marangoni effect, phase transition and recoil force via volume of fluid method.

In the future, he will try to reduce the cost of additive manufacturing technology, as well as to improve the quality of the large part (>1m) produced by additive manufacturing.