Examination on the calculation method for modeling the multi-particle impact process in cold spraying

In this study, a systematic examination on multi-particle impact process in cold spraying was conducted for copper material by using different methods including Lagrangian method, Eulerian method, and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. It is found that for the Lagrangian method, the meshing size and the element type significantly affect the resultant output. Moreover, the particle deformation behavior calculated by Eulerian method is more comparable to the experimental observation than that by Lagrangian method. Further study on the multi-particle impact process also demonstrates that Eulerian method is superior to Lagrangian method. In addition, the preliminary investigation on the mesh-free-based SPH method shows that this technique can provide a relatively reasonable result in the particle deformation behavior and the weight of the independent SPH particle exerts limited effects on the resultant output. Furthermore, owing to the meshfree feature and the appropriate solution to the contact interface, SPH method can also be employed to simulate the multi-particle impact process in cold spraying.