Computer aided optimisation of the thermal management during laser beam melting process

The quality of a part produced by laser beam melting strongly depends on the melting process in particular on the melt pool shape stability. The geometry of the generated part influences the ability of the local heat dissipation and therefore affects the constancy of the melt pool shape. The presented study is focused on the numerical analysis of the temperature distribution in the vicinity of the melt pool during laser beam melting process depending on the local geometry of the part. After the discussion of the numerical and experimental setups a prediction of the improved process parameters towards stable melting process are introduced. The developed numerical analysis shows a great efficiency for the optimisation of the thermal management during laser beam melting. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.