Research Progress on Numerical Simulation of the Deposition and Deformation Behavior of Cold Spray Particles

It is of significant theoretical and practical value to study the deposition process and deformation behavior of cold-sprayed particles to find the deposition mechanism of cold-sprayed coatings, further improve the coating performance, and expand its application scope. However, observing the deposition process and particle behavior through experiments is difficult due to the brief deposition duration of cold spray particles. Numerical simulation offers a means to slow the deposition process and predict the critical velocity, deformation behavior, bonding mechanism, and residual stress of cold-sprayed particles. This paper uses finite element analysis software, including ANSYS LS Dynamic-2022 R1 and ABAQUS-6.14, alongside various prevalent finite element methods for numerically simulating cold spray particle deposition. These methods involve the Lagrange, Euler, arbitrary Lagrange-Euler (ALE), and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to investigate the cold spray particle deposition process. The recent literature primarily summarizes the simulation outcomes achieved by applying these methodologies for simulating the deposition process and deformation characteristics of different particles under varying cold spraying conditions. In addition, the reliability of these simulation results is analyzed by comparing the consistency between the simulation results of single-particle and multi-particle and the actual experimental results. On this basis, these methods’ advantages, disadvantages, and applicability are comprehensively analyzed, and the future simulation research work of particle deposition process and deformation behavior of cold spraying prospects is discussed. Future research is expected to provide a more in-depth study of the micro-mechanisms, such as the evolution of the inter-particle and internal organization of the particles, near the actual situation.