Transient thermal modeling of laser-based additive manufacturing for 3D freeform structures

Additive layer manufacturing is growing very fast in various industries such as biomedical, aircraft, and aerospace industries. There is a need for developing simulation tools for predicting transient temperature fields in additive layer manufacturing of three-dimensional (3D) complex parts in these industries. Transient temperature fields in additive manufacturing are critical due to the fact that transient temperatures directly affect residual stresses, microstructure, fatigue life, 3D distortions, and deformations of produced parts. Considering this industrial need, this article introduces a new approach to 3D transient thermal analysis for additive manufacturing for 3D complex industrial structures with freeform features in powder bed systems using laser heat source. Incorporating the features of phase changes, porous media, and temperature-dependent thermal material properties in COMSOL Multiphysics, the developed technique is able to simulate instantaneous transient temperature fields in additive layer manufacturing of 3D complex and freeform structures. Temperature model validations are performed on titanium alloy with the experimental temperature measurements available in the literature. It is observed that the predicted model simulation results agree well with the experimental measurements.