A SIMULATION STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION ON THE PRINTED GEOMETRY IN SELECTIVE LASER MELTING
Journal article, 2022

Selective laser melting (SLM) process is a powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process that finds applications in aerospace and medical industries for its ability to produce complex geometry parts. As the raw material used is in powder form, particle size distribution (PSD) is a significant characteristic that influences the build quality in turn affecting the functionality and aesthetics aspects of the product. This paper investigates the effect of PSD on the printed geometry for 316L stainless steel powder, where three coupled in-house simulation tools based on Discrete Element Method (DEM), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and Structural Mechanics are employed. DEM is used for simulating the powder bed distribution based on the different powder PSD. The CFD is used as a virtual testbed to determine thermal parameters such as heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the powder bed viewed as a continuum. The values found as a stochastic function of the powder distribution is used to analyse the effect on the melted zone and deformation using Structural Mechanics. Results showed that mean particle size and PSD had a significant effect on the packing density, melt pool layer thickness, and the final layer thickness after deformation. Specifically, a narrow particle size distribution with smaller mean particle size and standard deviation produced solidified final layer thickness closest to nominal layer thickness. The proposed simulation approach and the results will catalyze in development of geometry assurance strategies to minimize the effect of particle size distribution on the geometric quality of the printed part.

particle size distribution

selective laser melting,

316L stainless steel

geometric variation

multiphysics modeling

Author

Vaishak Ramesh Sagar

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Samuel Lorin

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Johan Göhl

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Johannes Quist

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Klas Jareteg

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Christoffer Cromvik

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Andreas Mark

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Fredrik Edelvik

Fraunhofer-Chalmers Centre

Kristina Wärmefjord

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Rikard Söderberg

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science

Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Transactions of the ASME

1087-1357 (ISSN) 15288935 (eISSN)

Vol. 144 5

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Applied Mechanics

Manufacturing, Surface and Joining Technology

Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics

Areas of Advance

Production

Materials Science

DOI

10.1115/1.4052705

More information

Latest update

9/20/2023