Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of sintering behavior of additively manufactured stainless steel powder particles using reconstructed microstructures from synchrotron X-ray microtomography

Yi Zhang,Jing Zhang,Xianghui Xiao

doi:10.1016/j.rinp.2019.102336

Abstract

Abstract In this study, the sintering behavior of additively manufactured stainless steel powder particles is simulated using a three-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) model. The initial microstructure of powder particles is reconstructed using micro-CT images from the Argonne National Laboratory’s synchrotron X-ray microtomography facility. Using the model, the sintering characteristics of the powder, including its relative density, neck growth, and grain coarsening, are quantitatively analyzed. Sintering temperature directly affects the rate of densification and grain growth and coarsening. Higher temperature results in faster densification and grain growth. Additionally, the relationship between grain coarsening and densification is analyzed. It is observed that when the relative density is below 0.70, the powder particles undergo densification; whereas when the relative density is higher than 0.70, grain coarsening is the main mechanism.

Highlights

Powder bed fusion (PBF) has been widely used to fabricate additive manufactured (AM) or 3D printed metallic components
The kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) model is applied to the 3D microstructure to simulate the sintering of 15-5 PH1 powder particles during the PBF process
The ratios between temperature parameters are defined to represent real sintering behavior of the powder particles, which are similar to other kMC metal powder sintering models [14,16]

Summary

Introduction

Powder bed fusion (PBF) has been widely used to fabricate additive manufactured (AM) or 3D printed metallic components. KMC models can provide critical information about sintering, including the evolution of grain shape, grain size, and overall relative density [13]. The initial microstructure of the powder particles for the kMC model was generated by reconstructing the 3D micro-CT tomography images from the synchrotron X-ray facility beamline 32-ID-C at Argonne National Laboratory.

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Results

Conclusion