Impacts of Laser Power and Scan Speed on Temperature Field and Molten Pool of ZL104 Aluminum Alloy Selective Laser Melting

Abstract

Selective laser melting (SLM), a significant branch of laser additive manufacturing (LAM) technology, has become a popular topic of research in engineering, materials and many other disciplines. SLM can transform metallic powders directly into 3D components, which allows SLM to offer the unique flexibility of manufacturing parts with complex structures. The quality of the product is closely related to the characteristics of the temperature field, as well as that of the molten pool. Because of the high localized temperatures and the rapid cycles of melting and solidification during SLM, it’s difficult to monitor the temperature field in real time. Hence, numerical simulation is often used to study the SLM process. In this work, the SLM process of ZL104 aluminum alloy was simulated using the CFD method, and the influences of processing parameters, including laser power and scan speed, on the temperature field and the characteristics of the molten pool have been investigated. Results showed that when the laser power increased, the peak temperature of the molten pool also mounted, however, the maximum temperature of the molten pool fell as the scan speed rose. The dimensions of heat affected zone (HAZ), including the width and depth, increased with growing laser power, but decreased with the increase of scan speed.