Modelling Transient Liquid Phase Bonding

Process using COMSOL Multiphysics

Software

Summer Internship Report

BY
\
DEBOPRIYO ROY
( B.TECH, NIT SILCHAR )

Under the guidance of

Dr. Sukhomay Pal

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, GUWAHATI
16 MAY 2018 – 6 JULY 2018
 CONTENTS

SL.NO TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. Certificate 3

2. Acknowledgement 4

3. Abstract 5

4. Introduction 6

5. Modeling Details 10

6. Results and Discussion 11

7. References 19
 CERTIFICATE

The work contained in this report titled “Modelling Transient Liquid Phase Bonding
Process in Super alloys using COMSOL Multiphysics Software” by DEBOPRIYO ROY,
student of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY, SILCHAR has been carried out under my
supervision. This work has not been submitted elsewhere.

Dr. Sukhomay Pal

Assistant Professor
Room No. C-305, Academic Complex, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to my guide Dr. Sukhomay Pal his valuable guidance,
nice and patient teaching, motivation and encouragement throughout the period of my
summer stay here in IIT Guwahati.

I am grateful to Mr. Uttam Kumar Tarai for teaching me everything about Transient Liquid
Phase Bonding. He motivated me to work in this field and helped me to develop a TLP
Model. He also encouraged and helped me with the results and discussions.

Lastly I would like to thank my parents for their moral support and to my friends with whom
I shared my day to day experience and received lots of suggestions that improved the quality
of my work.

DEBOPRIYO ROY

Date: 6thJuly 2018

Place: IIT Guwahati

 ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this project was to investigate the transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding
process through modelling the transient liquid phase process on COMSOL Multiphysics
Software to develop a qualitative understanding of the process and a quantitative
characterization of the relationships that exist among process parameters such as
concentration distribution in the material system and time.

For the first model we built a nickel-boron binary system and for the second model a nickel
metal with boron as interlayer and tried to simulate the transient liquid phase process to
develop relations between certain process parameters such as concentration. time and
workpiece length. The outputs produced during analytical and numerical modelling are
discussed in detail and compared with actual experimental results produced when joining
simple binary alloy systems.
 1. INTRODUCTION

TLP bonding method is a joining process applied to metallic systems. The process heals and
repairs component imperfections through heat treatment. The most common repairing
material is superalloy, a set of high temperature capable alloys of Ni or Co. The repairing
technique produces a strong, interface-free joint with no residue of the repairing superalloy.
Major applications for TLP bonding is in aerospace, specifically aircraft engines and rockets.
Equipments such as jet engines components undergo extreme thermal and stress cycling, and
are subjected to significant deterioration. Examples of such deterioration are erosion,
cracking, corrosion, wearing and damage due to external factors. If the engine components
are inspected and declared to be damaged, they must either be repaired or replaced. Usually
these damages only manifest as small cracks in the component, but will prove to be a liability
if not repaired.

In order to create a COMSOL model, a characterization of the TLP bonding process was
obtained from modelling based on existing literatures. Therefore, the project explored
whether the COMSOL modelling was capable of simulating the TLP bonding process. The
overall COMSOL results for the project modelled the concentration behaviour of the boron
layer width at different durations of the TLP bonding process,.

Tuah-Poku et.al. [1] has categorized TLP Bonding process distinctively into 4 sub processes-
Dissolution, Widening, Isothermal Solidification and Homogenization. But Niemann et. al.
[2] introduced a fifth stage that is stage 0 which accounts for the effects of a less than
instantaneous heating. The detailed explanation of the process is illustrated by MacDonald
and Eager [3] where a binary system is considered. The illustration of the process is shown in
Fig 1:
Figure 1. Stages of TLP Bonding
1. Stage 0 (Inter diffusion during Bonding) - This stage was first coined by Niemann
[1] which has been included to account for inter diffusion which occurs during heat up
of the system.
2. Stage 1 (Dissolution) – During heating past the melting point, the liquid region melt
or dissolve the substrate material to conserve mass. There is significant diffusion of
the interlayer material into the substrate. This process continues until local
equilibrium between solid and liquid interface is achieved. The dissolution process
ceases once the local equilibrium is achieved. For most cases, the dissolution process
is in minutes.
3. Stage 2 (Widening) – Widening process works in conjunction to the dissolution
process. This indicates the completion of the dissolution process which leads to
melting of substrate and overall widening of the solid-liquid interface.
4. Stage 3 (Isothermal Solidification) – This step is by far the most important step of
all the steps of TLP and requires the greatest amount of time and is dependent of the
width of the interlayer and the rate of diffusion into the bulk. During this stage, the
diffusion of the Melting Point Depressant (MPD) occurs which is dependent on the
diffusion constant into the bulk (provided no kinetic restriction occurs at the
interface).
5. Stage 4 (Homogenization) – This is the fourth and the final stage of the TLP
Bonding process. This stage is controlled by a solid stage diffusion rate. During this
stage, the interlayer takes the properties of the base material because of diffusion.

Transient liquid phase bonding has been employed in a range of applications, since it
produces joints that have micro structural and hence mechanical properties similar to
those of the base material. Transient liquid phase bonding has the following
advantages:

1. Joint formation depends on an isothermal, relatively low temperature bonding

mechanism.

2. No interface remains after the TLP bonding operation.

3. Since the joining technique depends on capillary filling, the joint preparation before
TLP bonding is relatively simple. Also using the wide gap TLP bonding technique
permits repair of defects up to 100 urn wide.

4. In contrast to diffusion bonding the joining process is highly tolerant to the

presence of a faying surface oxide layer. For this reason and because of the absence of
thermal stresses, TLP bonding is ideal when joining intermetallic base materials
which have stable oxide surface films, are highly sensitive to micro structural
changes, and have poor low temperature ductility.

5. The bonding process is ideal when joining base materials which are inherently
susceptible to hot cracking or post-weld heat treatment cracking problems.

6. The bonding process is ideally suited for the fabrication of large and complex
shaped components. Transient liquid phase bonding has been used when joining
nickel base and iron base superalloy materials, when joining titanium alloys, when
joining stainless steel, when joining aluminium, when joining aluminium base and
titanium base metal matrix composites, during dissimilar joining of copper to
austenitic stainless steel and when joining microcircuitry components.
 2. MODELLING DETAILS

For our simulation procedure we have taken help of COMSOL Multiphysics Software
which is a cross-platform finite element analysis, solver and multiphysics simulation
software. It allows conventional physics-based user interfaces and coupled systems of partial
differential equations.

(A) For the first model we choose a nickel metal block of specific dimensions
(2m*1m*0.5m) and coated one face of the block with boron with initial concentration of 10
(mol/m^3). Then we tried to simulate the transient liquid phase diffusion process of boron in
nickel on COMSOL Multiphysics Software and established relationship between certain
process parameters namely concentration, time, work piece length.

(B) For the second model we choose nickel metal block with dimensions of
(4m*1m*0.5m) and boron as interlayer between the block with initial concentration of 10
(mol/m^3). Then we tried to simulate the transient liquid phase diffusion process of boron in
nickel on COMSOL Multiphysics Software and established relationship between certain
process parameters namely concentration, time, work piece length.
 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
(A) For our first model we first simulated the transient liquid phase diffusion process
on nickel metal block with boron layer on one of the faces of the block with initial
concentration of boron as10 (mol/m^3) for a time of 3600 seconds . Few of the results
are shown and discussed below:

1. Animated pictures of the process at time (t = 0, 900, 1800, 3600 ) seconds

2. Line graphs of concentration of boron v/s workpiece length at time(t = 0, 1800,
3600)secs

Time = 0 sec

Time = 1800 seconds

Time = 3600 seconds

3. Tabulated data of concentration of boron vs time for 3600 secs:
(B) For our second model we first simulated the transient liquid phase diffusion
process on nickel metal block of dimensions (4m*1m*0.5m) with boron layer as
interlayer at 2m from the edge with initial concentration of boron as 10 (mol/m^3) for
a time of 3600 seconds . Few of the results are shown and discussed below:

1. Animated pictures of the process at time (t = 0, 900, 1800, 3600 ) seconds

2. Line graphs of concentration of boron v/s workpiece length at time(t = 0, 1800, 3600)
seconds
3. Tabulated data of concentration of boron vs time for 3600 secs:
The process of diffusion of boron in nickel is guided basically by the Fick’s two laws as
described below:

The simplest description of diffusion is given by Fick's laws, which were developed by
Adolf Fick in the 19th century:

1. The molar flux due to diffusion is proportional to the concentration gradient.

2. The rate of change of concentration at a point in space is proportional to the second

derivative of concentration with space.

Fick's First Law of Diffusion

Writing the first law in a modern mathematical form:

Where for species i, Ni is the molar flux (mol m-2 s-1), Di is the diffusion coefficient (m2 s-
1
), and ci is the concentration (mol m -3).

From the continuity equation for mass:

we can derive Fick's second law directly:

This assumes that Di is a constant, which is only true for dilute solutions. This is usually a
good assumption for diffusion in solids; diffusion of chemicals in a dilute solution, water,
or other typical liquid solvents; and diffusion of dilute (trace) species in the gas phase, such
as carbon dioxide in air.
Fick's Second Law of Diffusion
Fick's second law of diffusion is a linear equation with the dependent variable being the
concentration of the chemical species under consideration. Diffusion of each chemical
species occurs independently. These properties make mass transport systems described by
Fick's second law easy to simulate numerically.

When modelling diffusion, it is often a good idea to begin with the assumption that all
diffusion coefficients are equal and independent of temperature, pressure, etc. This
simplification ensures the linearity of the mass transport equations in the modelled domain
and often allows simpler correlations to known analytical limits. This assumption can be
relaxed once the behaviour of a system with all equal diffusion coefficients is well
understood.
4. REFERENCES

1. Isaac Tuah-Poku, M. Dollar, and T. B. Massalski; “A Study of the Transient Liquid

Phase Bonding Process Applied to a Ag/Cu/Ag Sandwich Joint”; Metallurgical
Transactions A Volume 19A, March 1988.
2. J.T. Niemann and R.A. Garrett; “Eutectic Bonding of Boron – Aluminum Structural
Components, Part 1”, Welding Journal, 53 (4) (1974).
3. W. D. MacDonald and T. W. Eager; “The Metal Science of Joining”; The Minerals,
Metals and Material Society, 1992.