Active thermography techniques are of interest for quality assurance of additive manufacturing processes. However, accurate measurements of thermophysical properties of materials are required to successfully implement active thermography. In particular, the spectral absorption coefficient of materials commonly used in additive manufacturing must be known to accurately predict the spatial distribution of thermal energy generated from absorption of power emitted by a laser or pulsed flash lamp. Accurate measurements of these optical properties are also needed to develop greater understanding of additive manufacturing processes that rely on radiative heat transfer to fuse powders. This paper presents spectral absorption coefficient measurements and uncertainty estimates of fully and partially dense ABS, PLA, and Polyamide 12 samples.

Pulse thermography (PT) is a nondestructive testing method in which an energy pulse is applied to a surface while the surface temperature evolution is measured to detect sub surface defects and estimate their depth. This nondestructive test method was developed on the assumption of instantaneous surface heating, but recent work has shown that relatively long pulses can be used to accurately determine defect depth in polymers. This paper examines the impact of varying input pulse length on the accuracy of defect depth quantification as a function of the material properties. Simulations using both thermoplastics and metals show that measurement error is dependent on a nondimensionalized pulse length. The simulation results agree with experimental results for three-dimensional (3D) printed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA) components. Analysis and experiments show that defects can be accurately detected with minor modification to the standard methods as long as the pulse ends before the characteristic defect signal is detected.

Thermoelectric devices have many scaling benefits that motivate miniaturization, but assembly of small components is a significant challenge. Self-assembly provides a promising method for integrating very small elements. However, it introduces the possibility of stochastic errors with significant performance impacts. This work presents a method to estimate the impact of these errors on system performance. Equivalent thermoelectric properties are developed that adjust for the effect of missing elements in one-dimensional thermoelectric models. The models show that the thermoelectric devices can accommodate significant self-assembly errors by incorporation of redundant electrical paths. The model shows nearly linear decline in effective power factor with declining assembly accuracy, but the effective figure of merit (ZT) is relatively insensitive to assembly errors. Predictions from the modified one-dimensional model agree well with three-dimensional finite element simulations. This work identifies two basic strategies for how devices such as thermoelectric could be designed for self-assembly and demonstrates that it is possible to achieve high performance despite self-assembly process errors.

Pyrometers are commonly used for high temperature measurement, but their accuracy is often limited by uncertainty in the surface emissivity. Radiation heating introduces additional errors due to the extra light reflected off the measured surface. While many types of specialized equipment have been developed for these measurements, this work presents a method for measuring high temperatures using single color pyrometers when the surface emissivity is unknown. It is particularly useful for correcting errors due to reflected light in solar heating applications. The method requires two pyrometers and is most helpful for improving measurement accuracy of low cost commercial instruments. The temperature measurements of two pyrometers operating at different wavelengths are analyzed across a range of sample temperatures to find the surface emissivity values at each wavelength that minimize the difference in temperature measurements between pyrometers. These are taken as the surface emissivity values, and the initial temperature measurements are corrected using the calculated emissivity values to obtain improved estimates of the surface temperature. When applied to temperature data from a solar furnace, the method significantly decreased the difference in the temperature measurements of two single color pyrometers. Simulated temperature data with both random noise and systematic errors are used to demonstrate that the method successfully converges to surface emissivity values and reduces temperature measurement errors even when subjected to significant errors in the model inputs. This method provides a potential low cost solution for pyrometric temperature measurement of solar-heated objects. It is also useful for temperature measurement of objects with unknown emissivity.

This paper introduces the floating-opposing-arm (FOA) centrifugal clutch, presents a mathematical model for its analysis, and demonstrates the validity of a model to predict clutch performance with experimental data. The novelty of the clutch includes an arrangement of aggressive and non-aggressive contact surfaces in connected pairs to achieve a high torque carrying capability while maintaining starting smoothness and stability. As a compliant mechanism, it has fewer parts than traditional centrifugal clutches, and has the potential for significant cost reductions in manufacturing and assembly. Analysis of the FOA clutch is made difficult by the combination of dynamics and elastic deformation required for its operation. A model, based on the pseudo-rigid-body model, simplifies the engagement speed and torque capacity analyses. The model is validated by testing individual clutches and by demonstrating clutch designs in typical applications.