Effect of powder properties on mesoscale thermal FEM simulations of powder bed additive manufacturing

[摘要] Numerous studies have used FEM simulations to assess the effects of the heat source parameters on the melt pool volume during metal powder bed additive manufacturing. However, considerable debate still exists on how to incorporate the evolution of the thermophysical properties used to describe the powder as it undergoes heating, melting, consolidation and finally solidification. For single layer studies, since powder volume is much smaller compared to the substrate volume, highly detailed, computationally expensive powder property descriptions may not provide a commensurate increase in accuracy of simulation results. This study aims to quantify the effect of powder properties on the melt pool volume created during electron beam melting of Ti6Al4V powder using predictions from a FEM-based heat conduction model. The dependence of thermal conductivity, specific heat, and density of the powder on temperature and beam power density will be studied. Additionally, the relevance of the powder properties with changing layer height and beam power and speed will also be quantified.

[学科分类] 材料科学（综合）