SIMULATION OF METALLIC WIRE-ARC ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (WAAM) PROCESS USING SIMUFACT WELDING SOFTWARE

Abstract

Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is one of the emerging low-cost metal additive manufacturing techniques used to fabricate medium-large complex structures. The process provides design flexibility, supports green manufacturing, power efficiency, good structural integrity, high performance, and cost benefits, particularly for large-scale components. However, the heating and cooling cycle prevails during the deposition of material layer upon layer resulting in heat accumulation within the deposited layers. It causes geometric inaccuracy, surface roughness, high residual stresses, and mechanical anisotropy in the built structures. Therefore, SIMUFACT-Welding software has been used to model and simulate the WAAM process to fabricate a straight steel wall structure. The simulated results were able to visualize the existing thermal cycle during layer deposition and the effect of heat input on the fabricated wall structure and the substrate.