Numerical Study of Temperature Field and Melt Pool Properties during Electron Beam Selective Melting Process with Single Line and Multiple Line Scanning

Abstract

Electron beam selective melting is a metal powder bed fusion additive manufacturing technology. In order to study the temperature field and melt pool changes of high Nb-TiAl electron beam selective melting on a single scan line and multi-scan lines. In this paper, two three-dimensional thermal-fluid models are established to simulate the evolution of the melt pool and temperature field at different electron beam scanning speeds under a single scan line and the evolution of the temperature field under multi-scan lines. The simulation results of a single scan line show that the length of the bath increases with the increase in the electron beam scanning speed, while the width and depth of the bath decrease with the increase in the speed. The scanning speed has a significant impact on the length and depth of the micro-bath, but the impact on the width is relatively small. The simulation results of multi-scan lines show that the preheating temperature has a greater influence on the melting temperature field, while the size of the scanning current has a smaller influence on the temperature field. The conclusion drawn from the results obtained through simulation is that the temperature during the preheating process must be strictly controlled, and the melting process speed must be appropriately set in order to obtain high-quality samples.