Numerical investigation on heat transfer of multi-laser processing during selective laser melting of AlSi10Mg

Abstract

Multi-laser selective laser melting (SLM) technology has attracted extensive attention for greatly improving forming efficiency. In this study, a 3D finite element (FE) model is established to obtain the temperature field of AlSi10Mg powder in different number of scans. The number of scans are equal to 1, 2, and 4. The FE analysis is conducted with the heat flux, convective and conductive heat-transfer taken into account. It showed that the maximum temperature, the width, and the depth of the melt pool increased by 0.61%, 10.29%, and 8.92% when the number of scans N used is equal to 2. They increased by 6.4%, 43.21%, and 43.73% when N is 4, respectively. The proper molten pool width (112.5 μm) and depth (36.76 μm) were obtained for a high dense product. SLM of AlSi10Mg powder was also experimentally performed using uniform processing conditions, and the microstructures of the SLM-fabricated samples were investigated to verify the reliability of the physical model. Good agreement is obtained. Keywords: Multi-laser, Selective laser melting, Numerical investigation, Heat transfer, Aluminium