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Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing

Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing is among the most used industrial processes, allowing for the production of customizable and geometrically complex parts at relatively low cost. Although different aspects of the powder spreading process have been investigated, questions remain on the p...

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Autores principales: Lampitella, Valerio, Trofa, Marco, Astarita, Antonello, D’Avino, Gaetano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8065442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33918200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi12040392
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author Lampitella, Valerio
Trofa, Marco
Astarita, Antonello
D’Avino, Gaetano
author_facet Lampitella, Valerio
Trofa, Marco
Astarita, Antonello
D’Avino, Gaetano
author_sort Lampitella, Valerio
collection PubMed
description Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing is among the most used industrial processes, allowing for the production of customizable and geometrically complex parts at relatively low cost. Although different aspects of the powder spreading process have been investigated, questions remain on the process repeatability on the actual beam–powder bed interaction. Given the influence of the formed bed on the quality of the final part, understanding the spreading mechanism is crucial for process optimization. In this work, a Discrete Element Method (DEM) model of the spreading process is adopted to investigate the spreading process and underline the physical phenomena occurring. With parameters validated through ad hoc experiments, two spreading velocities, accounting for two different flow regimes, are simulated. The powder distribution in both the accumulation and deposition zone is investigated. Attention is placed on how density, effective layer thickness, and particle size distribution vary throughout the powder bed. The physical mechanism leading to the observed characteristics is discussed, effectively defining the window for the process parameters.
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spelling pubmed-80654422021-04-25 Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing Lampitella, Valerio Trofa, Marco Astarita, Antonello D’Avino, Gaetano Micromachines (Basel) Article Laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing is among the most used industrial processes, allowing for the production of customizable and geometrically complex parts at relatively low cost. Although different aspects of the powder spreading process have been investigated, questions remain on the process repeatability on the actual beam–powder bed interaction. Given the influence of the formed bed on the quality of the final part, understanding the spreading mechanism is crucial for process optimization. In this work, a Discrete Element Method (DEM) model of the spreading process is adopted to investigate the spreading process and underline the physical phenomena occurring. With parameters validated through ad hoc experiments, two spreading velocities, accounting for two different flow regimes, are simulated. The powder distribution in both the accumulation and deposition zone is investigated. Attention is placed on how density, effective layer thickness, and particle size distribution vary throughout the powder bed. The physical mechanism leading to the observed characteristics is discussed, effectively defining the window for the process parameters. MDPI 2021-04-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8065442/ /pubmed/33918200 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi12040392 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lampitella, Valerio
Trofa, Marco
Astarita, Antonello
D’Avino, Gaetano
Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title_full Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title_fullStr Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title_full_unstemmed Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title_short Discrete Element Method Analysis of the Spreading Mechanism and Its Influence on Powder Bed Characteristics in Additive Manufacturing
title_sort discrete element method analysis of the spreading mechanism and its influence on powder bed characteristics in additive manufacturing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8065442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33918200
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi12040392
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