Abstract
Due to rapid cyclic heating and cooling in metal additive manufacturing processes, such as selective laser melting (SLM) and direct metal deposition (DMD), large thermal stresses will form and this may lead to the loss of dimensional accuracy or even cracks. The integration of numerical analysis and experimental validation provides a powerful tool that allows the prediction of defects, and optimization of the component design and the additive manufacturing process parameters. In this work, a numerical simulation on the thermal process of DMD of 0Cr18Ni9 stainless steel is conducted. The simulation is based on the finite volume method (FVM). An in-house code is developed, and it is able to calculate the temperature distribution dynamically. The model size is 30mm × 30mm × 10.5mm, containing 432,000 cells. A DMD experiment on the material with the same configuration and process parameters is also carried out, during which an infrared camera is adopted to obtain the surface temperature distribution continuously, and thermocouples are embedded in the baseplate to record the temperature histories. It is found that the numerical results agree with the experimental results well.
Optimization of process parameters for direct metal deposition of nickel.
