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A modeling and simulation approach for problems with solid-liquid-solid phase transitions and a free surface, feasible for material accumulation processes based on laser-based free form heading and welding processes for joining different metallic materials is presented. Both named processes are modeled within the framework of continuum mechanics by coupling the Stefan problem with the Navier-Stokes equations including a free capillary surface.

Modeling and computation of a process with solid‐liquid‐solid phase transitions and a free capillary surface is discussed. The main components of the model are heat conduction, a free melt surface, a moving phase boundary, and its coupling with the Navier‐Stokes equations. We present two different approaches for handling the phase transitions by applying in a FE method, namely an energy conservation based approach, and a sharp interface approach with moving mesh. By combining both methods, we benefit from the advantages of the respective approach. The methods are applied to a problem where material is accumulated by melting the tip of thin steel wires using laser heating. (© 2012 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Common goals of modern production processes are precision and efficiency. Typically, they are conflicting and cannot be optimized at the same time. Multi-objective optimization methods are able to compute a set of good parameters, from which a decision maker can make a choice for practical situations. For complex processes, the use of physical experiments and/or extensive process simulations can be too costly or even unfeasible, so the use of surrogate models based on few simulations is a good alternative. In this work, we present an integrated framework to find optimal process parameters for a laser-based material accumulation process (thermal upsetting) using a combination of meta-heuristic optimization models and finite element simulations. In order to effectively simulate the coupled system of heat equation with solid-liquid phase transitions and melt flow with capillary free surface in three space dimensions for a wide range of process parameters, we introduce a new coupled numerical 3d finite element method. We use a multi-objective optimization method based on surrogate models. Thus, with only few direct simulations necessary, we are able to select Pareto sets of process parameters which can be used to optimize three or six different performance measures.

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