Soumya Nag
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Presenting in Track 3: Advanced Manufacturing
Presentation Title: Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing Strategies for Alloy Development and Convergent Manufacturing
Abstract: Metal additive manufacturing technologies such as Directed Energy Deposition (DED) provide a transformative opportunity to synergistically couple materials, design, and manufacturing strategies for next-generation structural components. This presentation focuses on convergent manufacturing approaches enabled through wire- and blown-powder DED processes for the fabrication of large-scale, high-performance components for energy, aerospace, marine, and defense applications. Particular emphasis will be placed on leveraging DED not only as a manufacturing pathway, but also as a rapid alloy development platform capable of integrating compositional control, multifunctional architectures, and process-informed microstructural engineering within a single workflow.
The talk will provide a scientific deep dive into several alloy development strategies uniquely enabled by DED processing. Case studies include process–structure–property investigations in Ti-6Al-4V using build parameter design-of-experiments (DOE) approaches to correlate defect populations, microstructural descriptors, and mechanical performance through physics-based predictive modeling and response surface development. Additional examples will highlight multimaterial and compositionally graded systems involving Ni-base superalloys (IN718/IN625) transitioning into Nb-based refractory alloys (C103), with emphasis on phase transformations, residual stress evolution, and deformation mechanisms across dissimilar alloy interfaces.
The presentation will further discuss the integration of in situ sensing, thermal monitoring and advanced characterization techniques to establish spatio-temporal understanding of additive builds and accelerate qualification pathways for large components. Coupling DED with powder metallurgy and hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP) strategies for large-scale components such as valves, pumps, and impellers will be discussed, highlighting opportunities for reduced lead times, near-net-shape manufacturing, repair, and low-volume/high-value component production. Collectively, these efforts demonstrate how DED-enabled convergent manufacturing can accelerate alloy innovation and support the deployment of advanced manufactured systems for extreme service environments.
Biography: Soumya Nag is in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His research interest is understanding processing (additive and conventional) - structure (phase transformation across different length and time scales) - property (mechanical and environmental property) relationships in light weight and high temperature structural alloys.