Smart Manufacturing Modeling: Thermal and Residual Stress in Metal Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Selective laser melting is widely used in building layer-by-layer three-dimensional functional parts for automotive, aerospace and medical application; it has demonstrated significant potential in cost reduction of performance critical components. Modeling the additive manufacturing (AM) processes gives insight into physical phenomena that lead to evaluate the final properties of material and product quality. The transient nature and small size of molten pool makes the temperature distribution during the SLM very challenging to measure and control. On the other hand, distortion and residual stresses are created as a result of thermo-mechanical nature of the process, due to the thermal gradient, these residual stresses and distortion affect dramatically the mechanical properties and lead to geometrical defects in the final part. In this paper, a numerical model using the Finite Element Method (FEM) of SLM is investigated to predict temperature distribution and residual stresses taking into account powder arrangement during multilayer deposition of stainless steel.