Numerical and Experimental Study of Thermal Processes during the Growth of Thin-Walled Parts by Coaxial Laser Melting from Stainless Steel 316L

Abstract

Coaxial laser melting (CLM) is a method of additive manufacturing. In CLM, parts are produced by melting powder particles that reach the application area, layer by layer, using a laser beam. When growing thin-walled structures, it becomes necessary to control the parameters of coaxial laser melting to maintain the thermal environment in the surfacing zone. Experimental studies of the relationship between the thermal distribution and the output structure are time-consuming and have low reliability of the result due to the complexity of registering temperature fields under conditions of changes in the growing process. For this reason, modeling processes of additive technology has been actively developing recently. A model for calculating the heat cycle, maximum temperature, and volume of the molten pool during coaxial laser melting of a thin wall made of 316L stainless steel powder is proposed. Based on the calculation, the relationship between the dimensions of the molten pool and heat distribution with the number of deposited metal layers was established.