Chris HulmeKTH Royal Institute of Technology | KTH · Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Chris Hulme
MA MSci PhD (Cantab)
Performing research into the production and characterisation of metal powders and metal recycling; happy to collaborate.
About
36
Publications
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Introduction
I currently work on the modelling and improving the production of metal powders, mainly by gas atomisation (but other techniques, too!). I use CFD, numerical modelling and experiments to do this. I also work on understanding powder behaviour and how powder behaviour should be measured. This also includes discrete element modelling and the development of a new spreadability test technique. Finally, I am exploring the recycling of critical metals (e.g. for electrification) using powder routes.
Additional affiliations
June 2015 - September 2017
October 2011 - June 2015
Education
September 2007 - June 2016
Publications
Publications (36)
Non-equilibrium phenomena and related damages have always been one of the great concerns among researchers, designers, and industry managers. In power plants, the overhaul of turbines during a pre-planned schedule includes checking, repairing, and replacing damaged parts, which always challenge industry investors with variable costs. In this study,...
A crucial step in the powder bed metal additive manufacturing process is the formation of a thin layer of powder on top of the existing material. The propensity of the powder to form thin layers under the conditions used in additive manufacturing is critically important, but no test method has yet been established to measure this characteristic, wh...
Energy management is an essential part of the integration of renewable energy in energy systems, electric vehicles, energy-saving strategies, waste-heat recovery, and building energy. Although many publications considered energy management, no study addressed the connection between scientists, organizations, and countries. The present study provide...
The aim of this study is to analyze the thermo-magnetic-gravitational convection of a non-Newtonian power law ferrofluid within a circular cavity. The ferrofluid is exposed to the magnetic field of a permanent magnet. The finite element method is employed to solve the non-dimensional controlling equations. A grid sensitivity analysis and the valida...
Atmospheric humidity is introduced into powders during handling, transportation, and storage. High moisture content can increase cohesive forces between particles and make it difficult to spread a powder into thin layers in powder bed processes or to fill a mold in processes such as press-and-sinter. Furthermore, water can cause porosity and uptake...
Water atomisation can produce metal powders faster and at lower cost than gas atomisation, but it is well known that the powder particles are irregular and may contain a large number of pores. The current study analyses three iron‑carbon alloys with different superheats, produced as powder by water atomisation and compares the particle shapes and p...
When materials are processed in the form of sheets that are stretched, cooling is often required. Coolants have been developed to maximize the rate of heat transfer away from the sheet, including by adding nanoparticles and microorganisms to control the physical properties of the fluid. Such coolants perform well, but the interaction between them a...
Flow occurs in most powder-based processes, opposed by various cohesive forces. Magnetism is often overlooked for metal powders. Here, flowability and magnetization were measured for a dual-phase steel powder in size fractions from 20 ⩽ D/μm ⩽ 40 to > 200 µm. The finest fraction did not flow through a Hall flowmeter, then flow time increased contin...
Alloy 825 is a nickel-based alloy that is commonly used in applications where both high strength and corrosion resistance are required, such as tanks in the chemical, food and petrochemical industries and oil and gas pipelines. Components made from Alloy 825 are often manufactured using hot deformation. However, there is no systematic study to opti...
Wrought nickel-based Alloy 825 is widely used in the oil and gas industries, attributed to its high strength at temperatures up to 540 °C. However, differences in mechanical properties arise in finished components due to variations in both grain size and dislocation density. Numerous experimental studies of the strengthening mechanisms have been re...
Thermal energy storage units conventionally have the drawback of slow charging response. Thus, heat transfer enhancement techniques are required to reduce charging time. Using nanoadditives is a promising approach to enhance the heat transfer and energy storage response time of materials that store heat by undergoing a reversible phase change, so-c...
Thermal energy storage is a technique that has the potential to contribute to future energy grids to reduce fluctuations in supply from renewable energy sources. The principle of energy storage is to drive an endothermic phase change when excess energy is available and to allow the phase change to reverse and release heat when energy demand exceeds...
It is well documented that chemical additives (grinding aid “GA”) during grinding can increase mill throughput, reduce water and energy consumption, narrow the particle size distribution of products, and improve material flowability. These advantages have been linked to their effects on the rheology, although there is a gap in understanding GA effe...
The flow behaviour of a powder is critical to its performance in many industrial applications and manufacturing processes. Operations such as powder transfer, die filling and powder spreading all rely on powder flowability. Multiple testing methods can help in assessing flowability, but it is not always clear which may better represent specific flo...
Since there is no report on the influence of machining depth on electron beam melting (EBM) parts, this paper investigated the role of superficial defects and machining depth in the performance of EBM made Inconel 718 (IN718) samples. Therefore, as-built EBM samples were analyzed against the shallow-machined (i.e., only removal of outer surfaces) a...
The spreading of powders into thin layers is a critical step in powder bed additive manufacturing, but there is no accepted technique to test it. There is not even a metric that can be used to describe spreading behaviour. A robust, image-based measurement procedure has been developed and can be implemented at modest cost and with minimal training....
The impact of moisture on flowability and spreadability is discussed. More notably we also present research on the impact of moisture on built nickel-base material. One lot of a newly opened Hastelloy X (HX) L‑PBF powder was split into two equal batches. One batch was moisturized using a programmable climate chamber, the other was untreated. We bui...
Alloy 825 is widely used in several industries, but its useful service life is limited by both mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. The current work explores the effect of the addition of magnesium on the recrystallization and mechanical behavior of alloy 825 under hot compression. Compression tests were performed under conditions repres...
In semi-solid metal high pressure die casting and in conventional high pressure die casting, it is common to find a defect band just below the surface of the component. The formation of these bands is not fully understood. However, there are several theories as how they occur, and it has been suggested that segregation is caused by the migration of...
The static recrystallization behaviour of a columnar and equiaxed Alloy 825 material was studied on a Gleeble-3800 thermo-simulator by single-hit compression experiments.
Deformation temperatures of 1000-1200 °C, a strain of up to 0.8, a strain rate of 1s-1, and relaxation times of 30, 180, and 300 s were selected as the deformation conditions to i...
A new thermally stable, nanocrystalline bainitic steel has been developed, rich in nickel and aluminium. During tempering, it is expected that a significant quantity of intermetallic precipitates will form. This was confirmed by X-ray diffractometry, scanning transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform analysis of atomic column images, ener...
A novel, low-alloy steel has been designed for use in the oil and gas industry. Its high strength and hydrogen trapping potential are derived from a martensitic microstructure containing a dispersion of fine vanadium–molybdenum alloy carbides that evolve during tempering. In this second paper, the effect of quench rate from austenitisation and temp...
A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.
Understanding the nature of the magnetic-field-induced precipitation behaviors represents a major step forward towards unravelling the real nature of interesting phenomena in Fe-based alloys and especially towards solving the key materials problem for the development of fusion energy. Experimental results indicate that the applied high magnetic fie...
Two novel nanocrystalline steels were designed to withstand elevated temperatures without catastrophic microstructural changes. In the most successful alloy, a large quantity of nickel was added to stabilize austenite and allow a reduction in the carbon content. A 50 kg cast of the novel alloy was produced and used to verify the formation of nanocr...
Two novel nanocrystalline steels were designed to withstand ele- vated temperatures without catastrophic microstructural changes. In the most successful alloy, a large quantity of nickel was added to sta- bilize austenite and allow a reduction in the carbon content. A 50 kg cast of the novel alloy was produced and used to verify the formation of na...
Two novel, thermally stable bulk nanocrystalline bainitic steels were subjected to a range of mechanical tests. One alloy, containing 0.72 wt% carbon exhibited an ambient-temperature 0.2% proof strength of 1500 MPa and a fracture toughness of 64.6 MPa m$^{1}_{2}$ after the bainite transformation. The other, containing 0.45 wt% carbon and 13.2 wt% n...
Two novel, thermally stable bulk nanocrystalline bainitic steels were subjected to a range of mechanical tests. One alloy, containing 0.72 wt% carbon exhibited an ambient-temperature 0.2% proof strength of 1500 MPa and a fracture toughness of after the bainite transformation. The other, containing 0.45 wt% carbon and 13.2 wt% nickel, had a 0.2% pro...
Nanocrystalline bainite, commonly known as “superbainite”, is a novel class of steel that utilises careful alloy design to reduce the bainite transformation temperature to below 300℃. This results in grains that are tens of nanometres in width, which make steel strong and tough. The structure can be produced in large volumes without the need for ra...
A combined approach to calculate the thermodynamic properties of iron and alloy carbides including the thermal and magnetic contribution is derived. Special emphasis is placed on the role of Fe and Mo to the Gibbs free energy. Lower Mo concentration in the carbides corresponds to a higher thermal Gibbs free energy change. The higher Fe content and...
A hybrid method combining first-principles calculations and Weiss molecular field theory with thermodynamic data has been implemented to explore the origin of magnetic-field-induced precipitation behaviors for alloy carbides. The paramagnetic Mo atom disturbed the order of magnetic moment and resulted in a decrease in the Curie temperature for allo...
There is growing evidence that bainitic ferrite which retains a substantial amount of carbon in solid solution does not have cubic symmetry. We provide additional data on a different nanostructured bainitic steel to support this evidence, based on synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments. The data are consistent only with a displacive transformati...
The first evidence is provided for the existence of a tetragonal or slightly orthorhombic unit cell of bainitic ferrite. It supports the hypothesis that the excess carbon that persists in the ferrite, which is in contact with austenite, is a consequence of an increased solubility due to the change in symmetry from the conventional cubic unit cell....
We report an attempt at increasing the thermal stability of nanocrystalline bainite to tempering heat treatments by enhancing the silicon concentration of the alloy. Validation experiments have been conducted using synchrotron X-irradiation during tempering heat treatment. It is found that the change in alloying successfully stabilizes the austenit...