Additive manufacturing: DED process parameters optimisation via simulation (A)

Abstract

Ever since the emergence of "Industry 4.0", a significant amount of emphasis has since been placed on smart manufacturing techniques. This has kickstarted the dominance of 3D printing and Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques in the manufacturing field. Directed Energy Deposition (DED) has since been an integral component under the umbrella of many AM techniques. Ongoing extensive research is still being carried out to further understand DED technique and its process parameters, in a bid to optimize such processes. In this study, the objective is to understand and investigate the optimum input parameters for nozzle flow convergence in a typical DED process. Investigations on the distance of Powder-Laser interaction were done via testing out different meshing techniques on ANSYS Fluent software, with a Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) test geometry, adopting the shape of a typical nozzle, created using Solidworks software. A good mesh with fine elements will be able to accurately capture the behavior of powder flow in a DED process. The results gathered from both simulation and experimental procedures indicate a similar general trend in focal point height length obtained for 9 different sets of input parameters.