Wenyuan (Roger) Hou

Wenyuan (Roger) Hou is a graduate student whose research is focused on thermal modeling techniques for laser powder bed fusion, a metal additive manufacturing process. Specifically, he is using MATLAB tools to perform numerical integration on analytical solutions for point-source heat conduction to account for the dispersed nature of laser heating and the effect of latent heat during melting. With the support of a MathWorks Fellowship, Roger will continue his work to implement a module for modeling the nucleation of oxides during metal additive manufacturing. Additionally, he is using MTEX, an open-source MATLAB toolbox, to analyze grain orientation data collected via electron microscopy and characterize the grain texture and phase distribution in a novel, additively manufactured superalloy. Roger’s work is helping to elucidate precipitate dispersion and slag formation in the printing process and identify the optimal set of printing parameters to produce the most suitable material for post-processing and eventual use in high-temperature aerospace applications.