Simulation of Spatters Sticking Phenomenon in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process Using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method

Abstract

In this work, a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is developed to simulate the spattering phenomenon in the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. First, an experiment using the high-speed synchrotron X-ray full-field imaging is conducted to acquire in-situ images during the L-PBF process. Then, a scenario is selected from the X-ray image as a case study of the SPH model. In the case study, a particle is ejected and melted by the metal vapor, impacts with another particle, solidifies, and sticks to the other particle to form a rigid body. As a result, the trajectories of the two particles match well with the experimental observation. The evolution of velocity and temperature of the particle is extracted from the simulation for analysis. The SPH model can be a useful alternative to computational models of simulating the spattering phenomenon of L-PBF.