Modelling aspects of laser cladding of bioactive glass coatings on ultrafine-grained titanium substrates

Titanium alloys, due to their exceptional mechanical properties and biocompatibility, are commonly used to produce medical implants nowadays. However, the presence of such elements as aluminium and vanadium can be harmful to human health. One of the possible solutions could be replacing the titanium alloys with ultrafine-grained commercially pure titanium (cpTi). The yield and also the ultimate strength of cpTi can exceed 1000 MPa. One of the most promising methods in manufacturing medical implants with improved biological fixation is laser cladding in which bioactive glass coatings are imposed on metallic substrates. The aim of this work is development of a 3D numerical model of the above mentioned additive manufacturing process. The obtained model is able to predict the stress-strain and temperature distributions during the processing. A sequentially coupled finite element (FE) model of laser cladding has been developed by applying element birth and death technique to calculate the transient temperature fields used in the stress analysis. The concentrated volumetric heat source from the laser beam moving along the metal surface has been represented by the Gaussian distribution in the radial and exponential decay in the depth direction. The developed FE based numerical model is capable to support the optimal design of such advanced multi-layered structural materials using the laser cladding technique.