Track cross-sectional profile model for time-invariant deposition processes — Applied to cold spray and aerosol jet printing

Modeling the track cross-sectional profile (CSP) in deposition processes is critical for assessing and controlling deposition quality. This article focuses on modeling time-invariant deposition (TID) processes, where deposited material does not move after impact with the evolving surface, and deposition efficiency remains constant. For a TID process, the CSP can be computed from the mass flux distribution using the Abel integral transform. The model is validated for cold spray (CS) and aerosol jet printing. Using the TID assumption enables the modeling of CS and AJP tracks from dot deposition data with height and width errors down to 11 and 22% for CS, and 7 and 21% for AJP. The error of this model when considering short and curved tracks is discussed, as well as the effects of nozzle standoff distance and tilt. Fast methods for arbitrary CSP computations and a fast CS method considering varying deposition efficiency are also discussed.