Abstract
Laser micro sintering (LMS) is a promising technique for micro-additive manufacturing. During LMS of metallic powder, the material property variation and the heat input energy profile are important to understand physical phenomena involved. This paper presents a finite element temperature distribution profile in LMS of nickel powder on 304 stainless steel substrate. The simulation considered the transition of powder-to-dense sub-model which involves effective thermal conductivity, volumetric enthalpy, and absorptance change; and a moving volumetric Gaussian distribution heat source sub-model. It is found that, for a specified cross section, the mechanism of preheating the nickel powder changes for the heat source from previous laser-irradiated substrate region to molten nickel as the laser beam approaches, while the center of molten pool slice is slightly shifted toward the reverse direction of laser scanning when the laser moves away due to the thermal accumulation effect. Simulated sintered widths showed very good agreement with experimental measurement, and relative prediction errors are below 16 % within the process window.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Regenfuss P, Hartwig L, Klotzer S, Ebert R, Brabant T, Petsch T, Exner H (2005) Industrial freeform generation of microtools by laser micro sintering. Rapid Prototyping J 11(1):18–25. doi:10.1108/13552540510573356
Regenfuss P, Streek A, Hartwig L, Klotzer S, Brabant T, Horn M, Ebert R, Exner H (2007) Principles of laser micro sintering. Rapid Prototyping J 13(4):204–212. doi:10.1108/13552540710776151
Zhu H, Ke L, Lei W, Dai C, Chen B (2013) Effect of the Q-switch parameters on the sintering behavior of laser micro sintering Cu-based metal powder using Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. Rapid Prototyping J 19(1):44–50. doi:10.1108/13552541311292727
Ke L, Zhu H, Yin J, Wang X (2014) Effect of peak laser power on laser micro sintering of nickel powder by pulsed Nd:YAG laser. Rapid Prototyping J 20(4):328–335. doi:10.1108/RPJ-09-2012-0084
Dai K, Shaw L (2004) Thermal and mechanical finite element modeling of laser forming from metal and ceramic powders. Acta Mater 52(1):69–80. doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2003.08.028
Kolossov S, Boillat E, Glardon R, Fischer P, Locher M, 2004 3D FE simulation for temperature evolution in the selective laser sintering process. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 44(2–3):117–123. doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2003.10.019
Roberts IA, Wang CJ, Esterlein R, Stanford M, Mynors DJ (2009) A three-dimensional finite element analysis of the temperature field during laser melting of metal powders in additive layer manufacturing. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 49(12–13):916–923. doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2009.07.004
Dong L, Makradi A, Ahzi S, Remond Y (2009) Three-dimensional transient finite element analysis of the selective laser sintering process. J Mater Process Technol 209(2):700–706. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2008.02.040
Hussein A, Hao L, Yan C, Everson R (2013) Finite element simulation of the temperature and stress fields in single layers built without-support in selective laser melting. Mater Des 52:638–647. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2013.05.070
Sun S B, Zheng L J, Liu Y Y, Liu J H, Zhang H (2015) Selective laser melting of Al-Fe-V-Si heat-resistant aluminum alloy powder: modeling and experiments. Int J Adv Manuf Technol:1–11. doi:10.1007/s00170-015-7137-8
Kizaki Y, Azuma H, Yamazaki S, Sugimoto H, Takagi S (1993) Phenomenological studies in laser cladding. Part I. Time-resolved measurements of the absorptivity of metal powder. Jpn J Appl Phys 32(part 1):205–212
Tolochko NK, Laoui T, Khlopkov YV, Mozzharov SE, Titov VI, Ignatiev MB (2000) Absorptance of powder materials suitable for laser sintering. Rapid Prototyping J 6(3):155–160. doi:10.1108/13552540010337029
Taylor CM (2004) Direct laser sintering of stainless steel: thermal experiments and numerical modelling, Ph.D. The University of Leeds Leeds
Wang XC, Laoui T, Bonse J, Kruth JP, Lauwers B, Froyen L (2002) Direct selective laser sintering of hard metal powders: experimental study and simulation. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 19(5):351–357. doi:10.1007/s001700200024
Fischer P, Romano V, Weber HP, Karapatis NP, Boillat E, Glardon R (2003) Sintering of commercially pure titanium powder with a Nd:YAG laser source. Acta Mater 51(6):1651–1662. doi:10.1016/s1359-6454(02)00567-0
Sih SS, Barlow JW (1995) Emissivity of powder beds. In: Marcus H, Beaman J, Barlow J, Bourell D, Crawford R (eds) Proceedings of the 6th Annual SFF Symposium, Austin. The University of Texas, pp 402–408
Patil RB, Yadava V (2007) Finite element analysis of temperature distribution in single metallic powder layer during metal laser sintering. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 47(7–8):1069–1080. doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2006.09.025
Zhou W, Wang X, Hu J, Zhu X (2013) Melting process and mechanics on laser sintering of single layer polyamide 6 powder. Int J Adv Manuf Technol:1–8. doi:10.1007/s00170-013-5113-8
Yagi S, Kunii D (1957) Studies on effective thermal conductivities in packed beds. AIChE Journal 3(3):373–381. doi:10.1002/aic.690030317
Xue S, Barlow J (1991) Models for the prediction of the thermal conductivities of powders. In: Marcus H, Beaman J, Barlow J, Bourell D, Crawford R (eds) Proceedings of the 2nd Annual SFF Symposium, Austin, The University of Texas , pp 62–69
Sih SS, Barlow JW (1994) Measurement and prediction of the thermal conductivity of powders at high temperatures. In: Marcus H, Beaman J, Barlow J, Bourell D, Crawford R (eds) Proceedings of the 5th Annual SFF Symposium, Austin, The University of Texas, pp 321–329
Mills KC (2002) Recommended values of thermophysical properties for selected commercial alloys. Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge
Tolochko NK, Arshinov MK, Gusarov AV, Titov VI, Laoui T, Froyen L (2003) Mechanisms of selective laser sintering and heat transfer in Ti powder. Rapid Prototyping J 9(5):314–326. doi:10.1108/13552540310502211
Kamara AM, Marimuthu S, Li L (2014) Finite element modeling of microstructure in laser-deposited multiple layer Inconel 718 parts. Mater Manuf Process 29(10):1245–1252. doi:10.1080/10426914.2014.930963
Steen WM, Mazumder J (2010) Laser material processing. Springer, New York
Yin J, Zhu H, Ke L, Lei W, Dai C, Zuo D (2012) Simulation of temperature distribution in single metallic powder layer for laser micro-sintering. Comput Mater Sci 53(1):333–339. doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2011.09.012
ANSYS (2005) APDL Programmer’s Guide. SAS IP Inc, Canonsburg PA 15317
Acherjee B, Kuar AS, Mitra S, Misra D (2012) Effect of carbon black on temperature field and weld profile during laser transmission welding of polymers: a FEM study. Opt Laser Technol 44(3):514–521. doi:10.1016/j.optlastec.2011.08.008
Acherjee B, Kuar AS, Mitra S, Misra D (2010) Finite element simulation of laser transmission welding of dissimilar materials between polyvinylidene fluoride and titanium. Int J Eng Sci Technol 2(4):176–186
Fan K, Cheung W, Gibson I (2001) Material movement and fusion behavior of TrueForm and TrueForm/SiO2 during selective laser sintering. In: Bourell D (ed) Proceedings of the 12th Annual SFF Symposium, Austin. The University of Texas, pp 146–154
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yin, J., Zhu, H., Ke, L. et al. A finite element model of thermal evolution in laser micro sintering. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 83, 1847–1859 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7609-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7609-x