Computational Analysis of Cold Spraying Polymer-Coated Metallic Particles on Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Substrates

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites are prominent structural components in various industries such as aerospace, automotive, and wind energy. These materials are considered due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and relative ease of fabrication. However, fiber composites possess low electrical and thermal conductivities and are prone to impact-induced damage. Metallization of fiber-reinforced polymer composites has become an area of interest as a means to prevent abrasive and corrosive damage while also improving other physical properties including thermal and electrical conductivity. The possibility of using cold spray as a novel composite metallization approach has been investigated in this work. The significance of cold spray for metallization is due to relatively low process temperatures which effectively protect the underlaid substrate from potential temperature degradation. As a practical approach to further reduce the possibility of cold spray-induced damage, the present study explores the impact and failure mechanics of metal particles coated with a thin polymeric shell, hence the term polymer-coated metal particle. The thorough model-based analyses presented herein indicate that the so-called polymer-coated metal particles can be cold spray deposited without imposing significant damage to the composite substrate mainly due to the ‘cushioning’ effect of the thin polymer shell. The results discussed here also provide guidelines for the surface metallization of high-performance fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in practice.