Danielle Cote
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NASA missions on Mars and the Moon require materials that can perform in extreme environments. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) meet this need in solid-state actuators and advanced structural pseudoelastic applications. To fully exploit these technologies, however, SMAs need to be joined to other SMAs and conventional materials without sacrificing the high-performance nature of the material. This research features a novel approach of joining these SMAs without altering the properties of the joined materials by using gas dynamic cold spray deposition, which is a solid-state additive manufacturing (3D printing) process. Cold spray joining of SMAs will provide lighter-weight joints while maintaining robust joint integrity; thus, providing cost savings by reducing payloads.