Macroscopic simulation and experimental measurement of melt pool characteristics in selective electron beam melting of Ti-6Al-4V

Selective electron beam melting of Ti-6Al-4V is a promising additive manufacturing process to produce complex parts layer-by-layer additively. The quality and dimensional accuracy of the produced parts depend on various process parameters and their interactions. In the present contribution, the lifetime, width and depth of the pools of molten powder material are analyzed for different beam powers, scan speeds and line energies in experiments and simulations. In the experiments, thin-walled structures are built with an ARCAM AB A2 selective electron beam melting machine and for the simulations a thermal finite element simulation tool is used, which is developed by the authors to simulate the temperature distribution in the selective electron beam melting process. The experimental and numerical results are compared and a good agreement is observed. The lifetime of the melt pool increases linearly with the line energy, whereby the melt pool dimensions show a nonlinear relation with the line energy

Understanding the effect of laser scan strategy on residual stress in selective laser melting through thermo-mechanical simulation

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an attractive technology, enabling the manufacture of customised, complex metallic designs, with minimal wastage. However, uptake by industry is currently impeded by several technical barriers, such as the control of residual stress, which have a detrimental effect on the manufacturability and integrity of a component. Indirectly, these impose severe design restrictions and reduce the reliability of components, driving up costs. This paper uses a thermo-mechanical model to better understand the effect of laser scan strategy on the generation of residual stress in SLM. A complex interaction between transient thermal history and the build-up of residual stress has been observed in the two laser scan strategies investigated. The temperature gradient mechanism was discovered for the creation of residual stress. The greatest stress component was found to develop parallel to the scan vectors, creating an anisotropic stress distribution in the part. The stress distribution varied between laser scan strategies and the cause has been determined by observing the thermal history during scanning. Using this, proposals are suggested for designing laser scan strategies used in SLM

Slide, Untitled

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kunkel_images/1002/thumbnail.jp

Simulation of the Temperature Distribution in the Selective Beam Melting Process for Polymer Material

In the present contribution the temperature distribution in the selective beam melting process for polymer materials is simulated to better understand the influence of process parameters on the properties of the produced part. The basis for the developed simulation tool is the nonlinear heat equation including temperature dependent functions for the heat capacity and the heat conduction which were obtained by experimental measurements. The effect of latent heat occurring in the process is also taken into account. The heat equation is discretized in time and space where a Runge-Kutta method of Radau IIA type is used for time integration. An adaptive finite element method is applied for the discretization in space and the model is implemented into the finite element library deal.II. The heat and cooling rate as important process parameters are simulated for different beam velocities. The ability for computing these process parameters makes the simulation tool suited for optimizing the process management of selective beam melting plants

Thermomechanical finite element simulations of selective electron beam melting processes: Performance considerations

The present contribution is concerned with the macroscopic modelling of the selective electron beam melting process by using the finite element method. The modelling and simulation of the selective electron beam melting process involves various challenges: complex material behaviour, phase changes, thermomechanical coupling, high temperature gradients, different time and length scales etc. The present contribution focuses on performance considerations of solution approaches for thermomechanically coupled problems, i.e. the monolithic and the adiabatic split approach. The material model is restricted to nonlinear thermoelasticity with temperature-dependent material parameters. As a numerical example a straight scanning path is simulated, the predicted temperatures and stresses are analysed and the performance of the two algorithms is compared. The adiabatic split approach turned out to be much more efficient for linear thermomechanical problems, i.e. the solution time is three times less than with the monolithic approach. For nonlinear problems, stability issues necessitated the use of the Euler backward integration scheme, and therefore, the adiabatic split approach required small time steps for reasonable accuracy. Thus, for nonlinear problems and in combination with the Euler backward integration scheme, the monolithic solver turned out to be more efficient

Simulation of the temperature distribution in the selective beam melting process for polymer material

In the present contribution the temperature distribution in the selective beam melting process for polymer materials is simulated to better understand the influence of process parameters on the properties of the produced part. The basis for the developed simulation tool is the nonlinear heat equation including temperature dependent functions for the heat capacity and the heat conduction which were obtained by experimental measurements. The effect of latent heat occurring in the process is also taken into account. The heat equation is discretized in time and space where a Runge-Kutta method of Radau IIA type is used for time integration. An adaptive finite element method is applied for the discretization in space and the model is implemented into the finite element library deal.II. The heat and cooling rate as important process parameters are simulated for different beam velocities. The ability for computing these process parameters makes the simulation tool suited for optimizing the process management of selective beam melting plants

Thermomechanical Simulation of the Selective Laser Melting Process for PA12 including Volumetric Shrinkage

The present contribution is concerned with the finite element simulation of the thermomechanical material behavior in the selective laser melting process for PA12. In the process shrinkage of the powder material is observed when becoming melt, as the porous character of the powder vanishes due to the phase transition. A nonlinear thermomechanical finite element model is developed, which captures the shrinkage of the material and includes temperature dependent material parameters. The model is used to simulate the shrinkage of the material in the process, where an adaptive mesh refinement is applied for increasing the accuracy of the simulation. The results are qualitatively compared with experimental data and show a good agreement

Macroscopic Modelling of the Selective Beam Melting Process

The present contribution is concerned with the macroscopic modelling of the selective beam melting process by using finite elements. In this context the objective is to detail a continuum model to describe the process. Furthermore two different solution approaches are applied to the model and compared in terms of performance. An adaptive mesh refinement strategy is also demonstrated to increase the quality of the solution in the vicinity of the beam