Chapter 15 - Validation of the American Makes Builds

Abstract

The thermo-mechanical modeling of laser powder bed fusion processes using traditional moving source methods is impractical due to the requirements for both spatial and temporal discretization of the problem according to good finite element practice. To circumvent these limitations, multi-scale methods have been attempted. This work utilizes a multi-scale predictive model to simulate the distortion of an Inconel 625 component built as part of the America Makes project, “Development of Distortion Prediction and Compensation Methods for Metal Powder-Bed AM.” The multi-scale model is briefly explained, which consists of a small scale weakly coupled thermo-mechanical model whose results are mapped onto a large scale weakly coupled thermo-mechanical model. Meshing criteria at both the small and large scale are discussed and explored. Model-experiment comparisons show that the multi-scale model is generally within 30% of the measured peak distortion.