Structural design of a novel fume hood for vapor and spatter removal in direct energy deposition via numerical investigation

Abstract

Abstract This study demonstrates a novel design of a three-dimensional structural hood to remove the vapor and spatter generated during the Direct energy deposition (DED) process. The hood is composed of three planes, including an inlet block, an outlet block and a shell, with three splitter structures in each block. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was implemented to match the inlet block with the outlet block, installing a horizontal splitter and a vertical splitter, respectively. With the proposed new designs, the gas flow state of vapor and spatter removal hood structures of different splitters is distinct. Through numerical simulation, one of the structures beneficial to vapor and spatter removal during DED process is proposed. The objects of different structural hoods were built by selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing and the reliability of the simulation results is verified through experiments.