In-Situ Full-Field Mapping of Melt Flow Dynamics in Laser Metal Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Melt flow plays a critical role in laser metal additive manufacturing, yet the melt flow behavior within the melt pool has never been explicitly presented. Here, we report in-situ characterization of melt-flow dynamics in every location of the entire melt pool in laser metal additive manufacturing by populous and uniformly dispersed micro-tracers through in-situ high-resolution synchrotron x-ray imaging. The location-specific flow patterns in different regions of the melt pool are revealed and quantified under both conduction-mode and depression-mode melting. The physical processes at different locations in the melt pool are identified. The full-field melt-flow mapping approach reported here opens the way to study the detailed melt-flow dynamics under real additive manufacturing conditions. The results obtained provide crucial insights into laser additive manufacturing processes and are critical for developing reliable high-fidelity computational models.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Laser processing; Melt flow; Metal additive manufacturing; Powder bed fusion; X-ray imaging

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2214-7810; 2214-8604

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2020 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2020

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