Unravel defect and microstructure evolution during advanced manufacturing with in situ and ex situ characterization

Guest Speaker：Assistant Professor Kai Zhang，Swansea University , UK

Inviter: Assoc. Prof. Lianghua Xiong

Date&Time: Thursday, 12.Dec., 10:00-11:00

Venue: Meeting Room 308, Xu Zuyao Building

Biography:

Dr Kai Zhang is a Lecturer (Equivalent to Assistant Professor) in Mechanical Engineering at Swansea University. Kai’s research interest includes additive manufacturing, digital manufacturing, in situ characterisation (imaging and diffraction), correlative imaging and machine learning. He has rich experience in developing novel manufacturing technology, investigating micromechanics, microstructures and advanced manufacturing in various alloys and materials with modelling and advanced techniques.

Prior to his current role, Kai was a Research Fellow leading an additive manufacturing team and Visiting Scientist at University College London and the University of Manchester, and obtained his PhD at Imperial College London as a President's PhD Scholar. He works closely with leading academics and industrialists (including aerospace, nuclear, automotive, biomedical) to conduct research using major facilities like Diamond Light Source, European Synchrotron Radiation Facilities and ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.

Kai have published >22 papers, including 15 as first-author and corresponding-author in Nature Communications and Acta Materialia, 3 international patents (as leading inventor). Kai has given >20 oral-presentations at international conferences (TMS, EUROMAT, LightMAT), and > 8 EPSRC/EU projects about alloys/manufacturing projects.

His research area and interests include Additive Manufacturing, Advanced and Digital Manufacturing, Micromechanics, In situ and Ex situ Characterisation, Synchrotron X-rays and Neutron, Metallurgy, Modelling and Machine learning.

Abstract:

Defects and microstructures play a critical role in the development of advanced manufacturing processes including additive manufacturing. It is critical to reveal the defects and microstructures evolution during the manufacturing processes. This presentation will be mainly about unraveling defect and microstructure evolution during advanced manufacturing processes with in situ and ex situ characterization. The key points are as follows.

·       Unravelling defect evolution during the additive manufacturing using in situ Synchrotron X-rays and multi-physics modeling.

·       Investigating microstructure evolution during the high-temperature manufacturing process with in situ Synchrotron X-ray diffraction.

·       Revealing corresponding micromechanics and microstructures with advanced ex situ high-resolution characterization techniques.