Modeling of the Effect of the Building Strategy on the Thermomechanical Response of Ti-6Al-4V Rectangular Parts Manufactured by Laser Directed Energy Deposition

Abstract

Part warpage and residual stress are two of the main challenges for metal additive manufacturing (AM) as they result in lower geometric precision and poor mechanical properties of the products. This work investigates the effect of the building strategy on the heat transfer process and the evolution of the thermally induced mechanical variables in laser directed energy deposition (L-DED) in order to minimize residual stresses and deformations. A 3D finite element (FE) thermo-mechanical model is firstly calibrated through in-situ experiments of rectangular workpieces fabricated by L-DED technology, and, secondly, the coupled thermo-mechanical responses for different process parameters and scanning patterns are discussed in detail. On the calibration stage, the remarkable agreement is achieved between predicted results and experimental data. Regarding the modeling stage, the numerical results indicate that minimization of the part warpage is achieved by reducing the back speed and shortening the scanning lines during the building process. Both residual stress and deformation can be further reduced if preheating the baseplate is added before L-DED.