Numerical and experimental study of micro-convex dimple developed by laser additive manufacturing for surface applications

Abstract

Surface texturing using laser is one such technique exhaustively used for enhancing the surface properties of the components. In this work, a 2D FEM is built to simulate the thermo-fluidic phenomena of surface texturing in the preplaced IN718 powder. Transient heat transfer and fluid flow were used to predict the temperature and velocity fields. Experiments are conducted to develop micro-convex dimple texture on the surface, which usually enhances the surface hydrophobicity and tribological properties. The experimental and numerical results are in good agreement and reveal that with increase in the number of pulses, the height of the micro-convex dimples decreases.