Metallography of Additively Manufactured (AM) Materials
In summer 2023, I interned at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the Materials and Processes Laboratory, where I worked on the metallography of additively manufactured (AM) metal parts. My work involved preparing alloy samples—sectioning, mounting in resin, polishing to a mirror finish, and chemically etching—to reveal their microstructures. I then analyzed them using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), along with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) for compositional analysis.
Additive manufacturing builds parts layer by layer by melting thin layers of metal powder with a laser, enabling designs impossible with traditional machining, such as internal cooling channels in rocket nozzles or potential on-demand part production in space.
​I studied multiple AM alloys, with a focus on GRX-810, a recently developed NASA superalloy that uses oxide dispersion strengthening to dramatically improve strength, creep resistance, and oxidation resistance at extreme temperatures. I helped develop new metallographic techniques for GRX-810, enabling more accurate microstructural analysis and advancing NASA’s understanding of its potential for high-performance aerospace applications.