Thermal Modeling of Lens System
Thermal Modeling of Lens System
Thermal Modeling of Lens System
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, United States
b Sandia National Laboratories, Laser Engineered Net-Shaping, Livermore, CA 94551-0969, United States
Received 23 October 2005; accepted 14 April 2006
Abstract
Laser Engineered Net-Shaping (LENS ) is an emerging manufacturing technique that ensures significant reduction of process time between
initial design and final components. The fabrication of fully dense parts with appropriate properties using the LENS process requires an in-depth
understanding of the entire thermal behavior of the process. In this paper, the thermal behavior during LENS was studied, both numerically
and experimentally. Temperature distribution and gradient in the fabricated part were obtained by finite element method (FEM) simulation. The
numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental observations. The numerical method may be used to optimize process parameters
and predict the thermal response of LENS fabricated components.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Laser Engineered Net-Shaping; Thermal behavior; Finite element analysis
1. Introduction
Recent advances in software and hardware have prompted the
development of manufacturing methods for fabricating component parts directly from a computer aided design (CAD) model.
Among available manufacturing methods, Laser Engineered
Net-Shaping (LENS ), an additive manufacturing process, has
engendered increasing interest as both complete part fabrication as well as a cost saving repairing technology. The LENS
process can be effectively used to fabricate complex threedimensional solid metallic parts directly from a CAD model.
Moreover, high strength and ductility can be achieved through
LENS processing [13].
The first practical LENS facility, which incorporates the
features from stereo-lithography and laser welding, emerged at
Sandia National Laboratories. The concept of LENS can be
traced back to the 1980s [4,5]. It was not until mid 1990s, after
significant advances in graphic software (CAD) and completely
controlled translation stages were released, that the current technology allowed. LENS is a process which builds solid metallic
parts by injecting powder into a laser-generated molten zone.
The fabrication process has several steps: First, a solid model is
sliced electronically into a sequence of layers of a given thick-
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 530 752 0554; fax: +1 530 752 8058.
E-mail address: [email protected] (E.J. Lavernia).
0921-5093/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.04.079
48
ous calculation step are set as the initial conditions for the next
calculation step. The new cycle starts after the updated temperature field is determined.
2. Fundamental equations and boundary conditions
2.1. Fundamental governing equations
For an arbitrary system, the heat equilibrium equation in the
body is given as [12]:
U =
q + r
x
(1)
U T dV =
T
q dV +
T r dV
(2)
x
V
V
V
where the middle term can be rewritten as:
T
T
q dV =
q T q
dV
x
x
x
V
V
(3)
Using the divergence theorem, the volume integral is converted to surface integral:
(4)
q T dV = q T dS
x
V
S
As a result, the thermal energy balance equation yields the
form:
T
TU dV
T r dV (5)
q dV = T q dS +
x
V
V
S
V
in which, q = q n , where n is the unit outward normal to the
surface.
It is observed in experiments that the heat flux is proportional
to the temperature gradient. Fouriers law of heat conduction has
the form:
q = k
T
x
(6)
49
(8)
(9)
(11)
V
cN n N m dV
(12)
(13)
N n
N m
k
dV
x
x
V
{Q} = N n q dS +
N n r dV
[K] =
(14)
(15)
the deposition region. For the low laser power conditions considered (laser power was 240 W), the morphology and size of
molten pool are stable. It is reasonable to assume a stationary
state of heat dissipation [14]. So, the geometric model used in
the simulation has the same outline as the finished part. The part
is discretized into equal size elements. The size of element is set
via the size of molten pool [15].
In the LENS process, the thin wall sample is deposited on
a substrate. In general, the material of the substrate is the same
as that of the part to be formed. The transfer of heat by conduction from molten zone to fabricated wall and substrate governs
the fabrication process [10,1517]. Ignoring the convective heat
transfer in the molten zone, it is justified that the temperatures
of the nodes where the laser beam is focused can be set as the
melting point temperatures during the simulation. The part to be
formed can be set as adiabatic [15]. The heat transfer is assumed
to occur only by conduction through the formed sample and into
the substrate.
During the fabrication process, the temperature in the substrate should vary with time. It is found that the substrate reaches
steady state when the build part is several millimeters tall [6].
In the calculation, the thickness of the substrate is 10 mm.
Therefore, in the present work, the temperature on the bottom
of substrate was set as a constant (323 K).
When the first molten pool is placed on the substrate with an
initial temperature at all the nodes, the element is held on the set
temperature in the incremental time step. We assume the initial
temperature in the part to be formed is zero. The temperature
field in formed wall and substrate is calculated via fundamental
governing equations. The molten pool moves to the next element
in the x-direction. The results of the previous calculation step
are set as the boundary conditions for the current calculation
step. This process was repeated until the molten pool moves
to another end of the line. Then molten pool is returned to the
beginning location, but on the next upper layer. The new cycle
starts until the wall is complete. The preceding assumptions are
summarized as:
(1) the thermal conductivity, specific heat and other materials
parameters are temperature-independent;
(2) only heat conduction in wall and substrate is considered;
(3) the quasi-steady state is established, i.e. the molten pool
does not change size with time;
50
Table 1
Processing parameters and physical properties of AISI 316 stainless steel
Sample/substrate traveling velocity (mm/s)
Fabricated wall length (mm)
Fabricated wall width (mm)
Fabricated wall height (mm)
Substrate length/width (mm)
Substrate height (mm)
Specific heat (J/(kg K))
Thermal conductivity (W/(m K))
Density (kg/m3 )
5
11
0.25
6.5
100
10
500
16.3
8000
(4) the temperatures of the element nodes where the laser beam
is focused are set as the melting point temperatures;
(5) the part to be formed is adiabatic.
3. Results and discussions
In the presented study, AISI 316 stainless steel powder is
used to form the thin-walled sample. The substrate is the same
material as the wall sample. The thermo-mechanical property
data used in the finite element analysis were obtained by experimental observations and reference book [18,19], which is shown
in Table 1. It should be noted that thermo-physical parameters
vary with ambient temperatures. In this fabrication process, the
heat transfer properties vary briefly in the area surrounding the
molten zone, and attain a steady value far from molten pool.
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume the thermo-physical properties are constant in numerical modeling, this assumption was
justified in refs. [11,15].
The completed fabricated thin wall part has the geometrical size of 0.25 mm thick 11 mm long 6.5 mm high, which
is shown in Fig. 1. An eight-node solid cubic element is
chosen to discretize the geometric model. The thin wall is
Fig. 3. Image of temperature distribution near to the molten pool (when the wall is formed to 11 mm long (x-direction) and 1.3 mm tall (z-direction)).
Fig. 5. Temperature distributions around the molten zone indicate that the
molten pool size is around 0.5 mm (0.25 mm 2).
51
Fig. 6. Temperature distributions of the layer beneath the molten zone (where
the wall is formed to 11 mm long (x-direction) and 1.3 mm tall (z-direction)).
Fig. 7. Temperature distributions of the layer left to the molten zone (molten
zone is in the center of wall, x = 3 mm, z = 2.6 mm).
52
pool moves farther away from the heat sink of the substrate, the
temperature drops gently. The temperature is now at a nominal
value of about 900 K, as appeared to 529 K in Fig. 4, at a height
of 1.3 mm.
The temperature distribution in the z-direction was found to
depend on location relative to the edge in the thin wall. Fig. 8
shows the temperature distribution in z-direction for molten pool
at different places. The temperature at the edge of the wall (the
start of a deposit layer) is slightly higher than the temperature
at the center of wall (one-half way across the deposit layer) in
z-direction. The heat transfer is a time- and distance-dependent
process controlled by conduction. For this case, the heat around
the molten pool in the center of the wall is transferred to the surrounding regions in all directions, so the temperatures decrease
very quickly. As to the heat transfer of molten pool at the left
side of wall, the heat flux only occurs in z-direction and increasing x-direction. As expected, the temperature at the edge of the
thin wall is slightly higher than that at the center of wall in zdirection. Moreover, the temperature in z-direction is lower than
that in x-direction at the same distance, as seen from Figs. 68.
The reason is the substrate beneath the wall is the sink of heat
flux. The temperature in z-direction drops faster.
In this study, a two color high-speed thermal imaging technique has been used to examine LENS processing. However,
the temperature gradient is underestimated when the digital camera does not have enough pixels. Hofmeister et al. was first to
use high-speed thermal imaging for AISI 316 stainless steel.
Their gradients in the previous layer beneath the laser are about
400 K/mm [6]. As mentioned above, this value underestimates
the temperature gradients ahead of molten pool. Wei et al.
obtained the temperature field of the molten pool and its surrounding area for the case of AISI 316 stainless steel in the
LENS process by using the ThermavizTM system. It is found
that the gradients in the front of molten pool are about 750 K/mm
[9].
The numerically calculated temperature gradient in the xdirection in the area below the laser focal zone is shown in
Fig. 9 indicating that the highest temperature gradient around
Fig. 9. Numerically calculated temperature gradient for the layer beneath the
molten zone (where the wall is formed to 11 mm long (x-direction) and 1.3 mm
tall (z-direction)).
the molten pool is 588 K/mm. The numerical results are in the
middle of experimental measurements of 400 and 750 K/mm
[6,9]. It shows that the gradient values from numerical study
coincide with the experimental results very well. It is also seen
from Fig. 9 that the temperature gradient in the vicinity of the
molten pool is substantially higher than that far from molten
pool where the gradient values decrease with increasing the distance from molten pool, which indicates that the heat-affected
region only exists in the vicinity of the local laser focal zone.
4. Conclusions
For AISI 316 stainless steel thin wall fabricated in the LENS
process, numerical simulation was performed to study the entire
thermal behavior in process. Temperature distribution and gradient in the fabricated part were obtained from the results of
finite element method simulation. The conclusions are summarized as: (1) the temperature gradient near the molten pool is of
the order of 5 102 K/mm; (2) it is found that the temperatures
change sharply around the area of the molten pool and decrease
gradually when distance from molten pool increases. The numerical results coincide with the experimental data; (3) numerical
simulations have the potential to give the information of entire
thermal behavior, especially to give the temperature information
of the area out of the field of viewing for a pyrometer.
Acknowledgements
The work is supported by the National Science Foundation
(NSF DMR00-76498 and NSF DMI-0423695) and in part by
the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-AC04-94AL85000).
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