SMART Manufacturing Seminar Series: Dr. Alex Plotowski
February 21 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Integrated Smart Manufacturing Tools for Additive Manufacturing
Abstract
Metal additive manufacturing (AM) provides exciting opportunities to process materials with complex geometries and novel microstructures. However, this complexity also creates challenges in understanding the behavior of AM materials and limits the applicability of existing certification and qualification practices. To address these challenges, the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) at ORNL developed the Digital Factory, a cyber-physical infrastructure that collects, stores, and analyzes process and sensor data. This presentation will focus on connecting manufacturing data with physics-based models to create a smart manufacturing framework for analysis of AM processes. We have developed computational tools for process and microstructure simulations, with a focus on portability across computing architectures, including distributed CPU/GPU supercomputers. These models are coupled directly to process data to provide simulation predictions that correlate directly to experiments and provide insight into process dynamics and microstructure evolution that are challenging to observe in situ. Several case studies will be presented covering both powder bed and directed energy deposition processes. Finally, a direction forward for smart manufacturing will be discussed.
Bio
Alex Plotkowski is group leader for Computational Coupled Physics in the Computational Sciences & Engineering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since joining ORNL in 2017, he has led large and diverse research teams to investigate advanced manufacturing processes, including development of modeling and simulation tools, design of new alloys for additive manufacturing, and operando neutron diffraction studies. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University following a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S.E. in Product Design and Manufacturing from Grand Valley State University.
