Numerical Modeling of Residual Stress and Deformation during Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Processes
Conference
Soleimanikutanaei, S, Cao, Y, Tansel, I. (2024). Numerical Modeling of Residual Stress and Deformation during Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Processes
. 1339-1346. 10.1615/TFEC2024.sim.050424
Soleimanikutanaei, S, Cao, Y, Tansel, I. (2024). Numerical Modeling of Residual Stress and Deformation during Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Processes
. 1339-1346. 10.1615/TFEC2024.sim.050424
Coupled thermal-structural simulation of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) plays an important role in the optimization of Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes in today’s industry. In terms of mechanical design and prediction of failure, part deformation and residual stress during the LPBF process could provide valuable feedback on the potential failure and quality of the manufactured part. In this study, Ansys Mechanical and its AM process feature are used to analyze the effect of manufacturing parameters on the residual stress and deformation of a 90-degree bend manifold. A layered tetrahedral mesh with layer height and element size of 2 mm was used for the numerical simulations. Each mesh layer corresponds to several deposition layers and has the bulk physical and thermal properties of those layers. The Thermal Strain Scaling Factor (SSF) was obtained using the calibration process. The Finite Element Solver (FES) in Ansys AM LPBF Thermal-Structural workflow uses a transient-conduction-based thermal model with correction coefficients for radiation and convection heat transfer to predict the temperature field during the 3D printing process. The static structural model is then used to obtain the stress and stress fields based on the temperature distribution in the part. The study indicated that the proposed FES method can simulate the temperature and stress fields successfully even with complex parts within reasonable computation times on desktop computers.
