Additive Manufacturing of

Propellants using Vibration

Assisted Direct-Write Printing
I. Emre Gunduz,
Associate Professor, Naval Postgraduate School

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 Clean Agile Manufacturing

Clean
• Minimize environmental impact of manufacturing
• Use less resources; materials, solvents, electrical power,
• Create less waste; efficient processes, net-shape fabrication,
Agile
• Rapid and flexible fabrication paradigms
• Fabricate parts quickly and on demand
• Ease of fabrication pipeline, automated design tools
More?
• Increased performance
• Enabling unique structures
• Composition
• Geometry Additive
Manufacturing
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 Additive Manufacturing (AM) of Propellants

Unique Structures Inaccessible to Traditional Fabrication

Methods on Demand
Solid Rockets Gun Propellant

3D Variable Port Geometry

for Thrust Control
Store only raw materials,
Graded microstructure, print depending on the
composition, or novel requirements, minimum
geometry to modify waste
Energetic Core to
Increase Range properties

• S. Isert, C. D. Lane, I. E. Gunduz, S. F. Son, “Tailoring Burning Rates Using Reactive Wires in Composite Solid Rocket Propellants”, Proc.
Combust. Inst., 36(2), 2283-2290 (2017).
• US Patent Pending.

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 Existing AM Technologies
Thermoplastic Extrusion
o Material is heated, softened and
extruded through a nozzle and
deposited layer by layer
o Limited materials, high
temperature.
Direct Write
o Material flows through a nozzle under relatively high air
pressure, ram, or feed screw and deposited layer by layer
o Used with UV curable polymers, shear thinning pastes and
higher viscosity materials like clay, use plasticizers
o Most versatile in terms of geometry and composition
o Low viscosity, resolution
Local Heating
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 Existing AM Technologies
Vat Photopolymerization
o Composites with UV-curable polymers are
preferentially cured layer by layer using UV backlit LCD
screen or laser
o High mass print rates, resolution
o Limited to low viscosity/solids, no internal cavities
Binder jetting
o Polymer/glue/solvent is sprayed on powder material layer
by layer and cured/dried
o High mass print rates, scalable, high resolution
o Porosity can be an issue, hard to achieve high solids
loadings, powder dispersion, no disconnected internal
cavities can be printed due to trapped powders.
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 Technology Gap on Direct-Write 3D Printing

• Limited to low viscosity (< 1 kPa·s), low solids loading (<80 wt.%) materials
• Solids loading limit is problematic
• Energetic performance
• Tolerances and dimensional variations on post processing
• Print performance, sagging and other issues related to low viscosity/yield strength systems
• Porosity issues can pose challenges for gas generators
• Preferential flame propagation through channels and gaps, unsteady burn rates
• Ignition inconsistencies
• Reduced energy density Vibration Assisted Printing
• Relatively low mass flow rates technology can overcome
these issues

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

• Direct-write approach
Flow Control
• The print nozzle is resonated to increase vibration amplitudes
• Vibrations assist flow by reducing effective friction at the exit,
enables dynamic on/off flow control
• Can print at high (80 wt.%) solids loading, minimal supports,
• Viscosity > 10 kPa·s (at a shear rate of 1 s-1)
• Reduced nozzle size (< 0.6 mm) for features with high
resolution (demonstrated down to 0.2 mm) 1 mm

• High flow/print speed, enhanced up to 3 orders of magnitude

• Low porosity in final parts
I. E. Gunduz, M. McClain, P. Cattani, G. T.-C. Chiu, J. F. Rhoads, S. F. Son, “3D Printing of Extremely
Viscous Materials Using Ultrasonic Vibrations”, Additive Manufacturing, 22, 98-103 (2018).

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Nozzle Vibration Mode Nozzle Vibration Mode

(before video enhancement) (after video enhancement)

Nozzle Tip Vibration Amplitude:

Nozzle
16 µm, Scale Bar: 1 mm

Vibration Frequency: 30.3 kHz

Frame Rate: 120 kHz
Clay Extrudate Pixel Size: 45 µm
• I. E. Gunduz, M. McClain, P. Cattani, G. T.-C. Chiu, J. F. Rhoads, S. F. Son, “3D Printing of
Extremely Viscous Materials Using Ultrasonic Vibrations”, Additive Manufacturing, 22, 98-
103 (2018).
• N. Wadhwa, M. Rubinstein, F. Durand, W. T. Freeman, ACM Transactions on Graphics (Proc.
SIGGRAPH), 32(4) (2013) Article 80.

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

High-speed Microscopic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging

• Relies on coherent high-brilliance x-ray source, Advanced Photon Source
• Provides enhanced contrast at locations where absorption changes

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

High-speed Microscopic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging

Particle Tracking Flow Field Characterization

Nozzle
Wall

200 µm
Clay
1 mm

Frame rate: 15 kHz, Pixel Size: 2 µm

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

High-speed Microscopic X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging

Tip Displacement
• The vibration frequency is 30.3 kHz with
#$%$
displacements on the order of 10-20 µm, != ' sin 2+,-
wall velocities up to 3 m/s, accelerations 2
are close to 60000 g’s Inertial Pressure

+0 1 ' ℎ
• As the inner nozzle wall pushes on the .=/ '3
material, the inertia of the small mass of +0 ' ℎ
material becomes significant
• Leads to cycling wall pressure, dynamically
changes the effective frictional resistance

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Viscosity and Flow Rate Enhancement

Capillary Rheometer
a b c 1000

N. Clay-No HAUV
N. Clay-With HAUV
100

Flow Velocity (mm/s)

Fondant-No HAUV
Fondant-With HAUV

10

0.1

0.01
0.05 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Pressure (MPa)

• Capillary rheometer suitable for high viscosity materials compared to viscometers

• Flow rates are much faster under same conditions with no vibrations

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant

IR Image

2 mm 5 mm 10 mm

AP (85 wt.%, 76 vol.%) - UV curable polyurethane binder, 0.6 mm nozzle size

M. S. McClain, I. E. Gunduz, S. F. Son, ”Additive Manufacturing of Ammonium Perchlorate Composite

Propellant with High Solids Loadings”, Proc. Combust. Inst., In press (2018).

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Micro X-ray Computed Tomography

Printed Cast

• Uniform microstructure with no

signs of layering (good layer to
layer adhesion)
• Lower porosity (~1 %) compared to
cast samples (~5%)

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

High Pressure Strand Burner

Propellant Combustion
• The propellant burning rates can be
tailored based on printing geometry
• Porous structures have much faster burn
rates due to convective burning through
channels
• Pore forming materials co-printed inside
can also enable active burn rate control
• Pore and composition gradients can be
used to modify ignition characteristics
Fully Dense Porous
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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Other Extremely Viscous Systems

Stiffened Fondant
Polymer Clay

10 mm 10 mm

Metal-Composite

I. E. Gunduz, M. McClain, P. Cattani, G. T.-C. Chiu, J. F. Rhoads, S. F. Son, “3D Printing of Extremely
Viscous Materials Using Ultrasonic Vibrations”, Additive Manufacturing, 22, 98-103 (2018).
10 mm

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Potential Gains

• The ability to process high viscosity materials can reduce the need for solvent use
• New types of systems with very high solids loading can be printed for unique properties
(high electrical-thermal conductivity, less shrinkage in ceramics)
• Enhanced print rates for high throughput fabrication
• Same system can be applied to thermoplastic materials to improve flow characteristics
and reduce process temperatures, enable new systems
• Scaled up systems can be coupled to mass production extruder systems to improve
process conditions

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 Vibration Assisted 3D Printing

Research Questions

• Vibrational modes with better performance and lower heat generation

• Bottleneck moved from flow rates to print rates, system vibration, layer adhesion for
highly viscous solids
• Mechanical properties of printed parts
• Part repeatability/variation
• Synergistic work with different material systems
• New applications

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 Acknowledgments

• Collaborators: (Purdue) Steven F. Son, Jeffrey Rhoads, George Chiu, (ANL) Kamel Fezzaa,
Tao Sun, Alex Deriy
• Students: Monique McClain, Peter Cattani
• NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF 2017) Grant 80NSSC17K0176, Purdue
SURF Program,
• Purdue ME department for research support funds
• DOE Office of Science, ANL, Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357

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