Direct metal laser sintering of alsi10mg alloy powders modeling and optimization of process parameters

Abstract

In the present era, the laser additive manufacturing process is widely adopted in newlinethe manufacturing sector to produce near net shape components with minimum wastage newlineof raw materials. Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is one of the laser additive newlinemanufacturing technique received the most attention as it builds the parts directly from newlinemetal or alloy powders. The quality of the components produced by DMLS has hindered newlineits use on a larger scale. The process parameters in the DMLS process directly influences newlinethe quality of the building part. So better understanding of the influence of process newlineparameters on build parts can provide insight to get high-quality products. newlineA comprehensive three-dimensional numerical model for direct metal laser newlinesintering of AlSi10Mg powder is developed using ANSYS 17.0 platform. The developed newlinemodel is utilized to analyze the effect of process parameters such as scan speed, laser newlinepower, laser spot size, powder bed height, and percentage of porosity present in the newlinepowder bed on thermal behavior, molten pool profile, and sintering depth in the direct newlinemetal laser sintering process. From the simulation results, it was found that, when the newlinelaser power increased from 70 W to 190 W, the maximum temperature of the molten newlinepool increased from 731 °C to 2672 °C and molten pool length changed from 0.286 mm newlineto 2.167 mm. A reverse phenomenon was observed with increase in scan speed. Also, it newlineis found that the temperature of the powder bed and melt pool dimensions such as length, newlinewidth, and depth increases with increase in input laser energy. The cooling rate also newlineincreases with a decrease in laser energy input. Further, the developed model is validated newlineto verify the accuracy and the simulated results are quite agreed with the analytical as newlinewell as experimental results. newlineFinally the process parameters are optimized using surface response method. newlineFrom the optimization model, it is found that maximum sintering depth of 3mm achieved newlinewith a laser power of 162 W, a scan speed of 156 mm/s, the percentage of por