Validation of Additive Manufacturing Process Trough Build Simulation

• Autor(a) principal: Beaumont, Herberto Gastão de Martins e
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/64469
• topic: Additive Manufacturing; Selective Laser Melting; Thermal Stresses Simulation; Voxel Finite Elements; Inconel 625; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Mecânica

Producing parts trough Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes enables tremendous freedom in creating components with free-form and intricate features that would be impossible to manufacture through conventional methods. This freedom however does not come without its limits. Thus, when designing for AM (DfAM) one should consider, amongst which but not exclusively, variable wall thickness, deep channels, overhanging features, supports (position and support removal), lattices, as well as avoiding component distortion. Meanwhile the physics commanding these changes are hard to predict particularly in the micro-scale. To eliminate or minimize such problems solutions like build simulation have started to be looked at as a replacement for unwanted destructive tests. Finally, the materials used play a big role linking design and thermal stresses to feature behaviour. In this work a set of features was chosen to validate and conduct a sensitivity test on MS Simufact simulation software, so that future work in this area can be continued. The set of features chosen, were the diameters and roundness of three concentric rings. All the various inputs were analysed throughout this work and explained. Two materials were considered in the experiment, alloy Inconel 625 for the build powder with a stainless-steel build plate base. From the assumptions taken and software functions the first and main input to be studied was the voxel size. A relation between the simulated feature and the optimal voxel size is what is intended to be achieved. Simultaneously via Design of Experiments (DOE), other parameters were studied to assess their overall effect on result. The Simulation run results were compared with actual measured parts via a 3D optical measuring system.