Processing and thermal diffusivity measurements of compositionally graded Al-12Si to Al2O3 structures

The directed energy deposition (DED)-based additive manufacturing (AM) was used to create compositionally graded pure Al-12Si to pure Al2O3 structures varying the powder feed rates during deposition. Thermal diffusivity of Al-12Si + Al2O3 structures was reduced by >60% compared to pure Al-12Si. With a pure Al2O3 ceramic layer on Al-12Si + Al2O3, our results confirm the feasibility of designing and manufacturing metal-ceramic composites via AM with tailored thermal properties.