Additive Manufacturing for High-Density Materials

The Texas Research Institute Austin (TRI Austin) team proposes to develop a tungsten alloy to replace depleted uranium (DU) penetrators in kinetic energy (KE) projectiles. Two approaches to developing a tungsten alloy that has the shear behavior and properties of DU, will be investigated. The first approach will involve using integrated computational material evaluation (ICME) tools to develop a combination of metal alloys that will match the density and mechanical properties of DU. The second approach will involve manufacturing internal structures inside the penetrator during the additive manufacturing (AM) process. This internal structure will be formed during the powder consolidation process by 1) changing the process parameters for specific locations on the build plane creating different densities and properties, and/or 2) introduction of different metal alloys as specific locations of the build using a binning process for powder distributions. The changes in process parameters will result in different material properties for the alloy at specific locations; these properties will be tailored to create a behavior in the tungsten similar to the shear properties of DU. Candidate alloys will be evaluated for processibility including the alloying process and the conversion of the consolidated alloy into an AM ready nanoparticle powder.