Professor Suresh Babu
University of Tennessee
Presenting in Track 4: Advanced Materials: Design, Processing, Characterization & Applications
Sponsor: Materials Division/IMECE
Presentation Title: Towards Part Specific Qualification of Additively Manufactured Metallic Components
Abstract: In the last decade, additive manufacturing (AM) has become a viable pathway for making metallic components for aerospace and energy applications. Although the feasibility of AM to make complex geometric components has been demonstrated, the ability to qualify these components for critical applications remains elusive. This challenge is related to spatial and temporal variations of thermal, mechanical, and chemical signatures within a single component that are quite different from traditional manufacturing. As a result, coupon-based qualification of AM parts may not be applicable in all cases. In this talk, an overview of the existing qualification methods that are based on extensive testing, as well as emerging techniques that are based on in-situ monitoring, computational modeling, machine learning and artificial intelligence will be presented. The application of these tools will be demonstrated with case studies of qualifying metallic components produced by AM for energy and aerospace applications. The case studies will span various powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition processes for titanium, nickel, and stainless steels. In addition, efforts to transfer these hardware and software technologies to industries will also be discussed. Finally, the future directions of AM to arrive at site-specific properties and incorporation of sensors through solid-state additive manufacturing will be highlighted.
Biography: Dr. Babu obtained his bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India, and his master's degree in industrial welding metallurgy-materials joining from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He obtained his PhD in materials science and metallurgy from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1992. He also worked as a research associate in the prestigious Institute for Materials Research, Sendai, Japan before joining ORNL in 1993. From 1993 to 1997, he held joint researcher position with ORNL, University of Tennessee and The Penn State University. From 1997 to 2005, he worked as an R&D staff at ORNL. From 2005 to 2007, Suresh held a senior level technology leader position in the area of engineering and materials at Edison Welding Institute, Columbus, Ohio. From 2007 to 2013, Suresh served as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Director of NSF I/UCRC Center for Materials Joining Science for Energy Applications, at The Ohio State University. In 2013, Suresh was appointed as UT/ORNL Governor's chair of advanced manufacturing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. In this role he acts as a bridge to the ORNL's expertise and infrastructure including manufacturing demonstration facility to develop a collaborative research and education ecosystem locally and deploy engineering solutions to manufacturing industries. In 2019, Suresh was also appointed as Director of Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Education for Energy- and Data- Science and Engineering. In 2020, Suresh was selected to be the founding educational director of the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute. In 2020, Suresh was appointed to the National Science Board by the President of the United States of America for a six-year term. In 2022, Suresh was appointed as inaugural position of senior advisor for research and STEM to the Provost and Vice Chancellor of Research.