Numerical prediction of hatch spacing effect on porosity appearance in parts manufactured by laser powder bed fusion

Abstract

Laser powder bed fusion, as a brand-new technology, has significant advantages over the traditional manufacturing process, including design flexibility and short production times. The resulting workpiece characteristics are dramatically impacted by the process parameters variation. In the current study, a 3D thermal model was developed by means of the Ansys Additive software to predict the relationship between the hatch spacing, the porosity occurrence, and the thermal history of the Ti-6Al-4V powder layers using a series of numerical simulations. The numerical results reveal that the hatch distance has a significant impact both on porosity appearance and on thermal history. When the hatch spacing increases, the porosity will also increase which negatively affects the part’s properties. The predicted findings are compared with experimental investigations from literature. Reasonable accordance of the suggested finite element model with the experimental investigations was obtained.