A practical simulation approach for the support of wire arc DED additive manufacturing systems design

Abstract

Wire Arc Directed Energy Deposition (DED) is a subcategory of the DED Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology that is rapidly gaining popularity due to its potential to produce large-scale, complex metal parts while maintaining a lower cost and higher productivity and sustainability when compared with other AM technologies. Additionally, Wire Arc DED permits a high level of customization in terms of designing and implementing manufacturing systems. However, there are still important quality issues hindering wire Arc DED, along with limited simulation approaches that offer the necessary practicality, from an industrial perspective, to support the design of wire Arc DED manufacturing systems. Towards this goal, aiming to the minimization of the experimental cost and time, a simulation approach of wire arc DED is presented in this study. The model has been developed in COMSOL Multiphysics, allowing for a high level of customization, while maintaining practicality and ease of use, both in terms of implementation as well as computational cost. The modeling approach is analyzed, followed by the implementation of the methodology in a case study. Preliminary results are presented, discussed, and accompanied by suggestions for future research.