Gas dynamic cold spray was first discovered in the 1980s and has since been used as a surface coating process for depositing metals, metal-ceramic composites, metal-carbon nanotube composites and other composite materials onto both flexible and rigid substrates. We recently developed a focused cold spray material deposition tool termed Micro Cold Spray (MCS). MCS is a direct-write tool applicable for printed electronics and has been used to print conductive trace patterns as thin as 50 μm wide using copper, aluminum and tin micro powders. Unlike conventional aerosol processing at 10–100 m/s, aerosol particles in the MCS process are accelerated to speeds greater than 500 m/s. In this paper the possibility to accelerate, focus, collimate, and deposit aerosol particles is theoretically explored using a finite difference approximation method to simulate the flow of Helium through a symmetric converging-diverging nozzle of throat diameter 200 μm. A Lagrangian particle tracking algorithm is used to calculate the particle trajectories and corresponding velocities. This paper presents a comparison of the effect of Stoke’s drag force and Saffman’s lift force on the trajectory and velocity of copper particles 3 μm in diameter.

Cold spray is a material deposition process used to deposit metallic features for use in applications such as corrosion prevention, dimensional correction and repair, and wear resistant coatings. Micro Cold Spray Direct Write (MCS-DW) is a variant of the cold spray process in which metal particles are accelerated and focused to print fine features on flexible and rigid substrates with no postprocessing required. This paper presents results of numerical studies on the flow of 2 µm and 6 µm diameter silver particles through a converging-diverging micro nozzle with helium gas. The flow of helium was simulated by solving Navier Stokes equation using commercial software. The trajectory and velocity of the aerosol particles were determined using a Lagrangian particle tracking algorithm with a combination of Stokes drag force and Saffman lift force acting on the particles. A comparison of the effect of different corrections applied to Stokes and Saffman forces as well as the effect of Magnus force on the trajectory and velocity of aerosol particles is studied. The effect of particle rotation creating Magnus force is found negligibly small compared to Saffman force for particles of 2 µm diameter, however, the effect is found to be significant for particles of 6 µm diameter. A proposed converging-diverging nozzle is shown capable of accelerating silver particles to velocities as high as 600 m/s and enables aerosol beam widths as thin as 50 µm.

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Aerosol direct-write printing for mesoscale features has been commercially available since around 2002 from Optomec®. We have developed variances to this process first in Collimated Aerosol Beam-Direct Write (CAB-DW) for printing sub-10 μm features and in Micro Cold Spray for printing with solid metallic aerosols. These deposition tools offer extensive uses, but are still limited in certain applications by either line widths or the amount of overspray. Modeling of aerosol flow through micro-nozzles used in these applications yields a greater understanding of the focusing of these aerosol particles, and may provide a vehicle for new nozzle designs which will further enhance these tools. Recent modeling applied both Stokes and Saffman force to the aerosol particles. Under certain conditions particle rotation and Magnus force may also be necessary to accurately predict the aerosol particles. In this paper we will present our recent results of high-speed flow of 1–10 μm diameter aerosol particles through micro-nozzles in which the model includes all three forces (Stokes, Saffman, Magnus) of fluid-particle interaction, and a comparison of these results to experiments.