Investigation of laser-powder interaction in laser powder bed fusion process in additive manufacturing

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is one of the most promising additive manufacturing (AM) technologies to fabricate metal components using laser beams. To understand the underlying thermal and physical phenomena in LPBF process, discrete element method (DEM) is applied to generate the randomly packed powder, then computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with volume of fluid (VOF) is adopted to simulate the laser-powder interaction. The penetration and multiple reflection of laser rays is traced. The physics of melting and solidification is captured. The temperature profile indicates the laser travel path and the adsorption and transmission of laser rays with the powder. The wetting behaviour of the melt pool driven by the capillary forces leads to the formation of pores at the connection zone. It has been demonstrated that the developed model can capture the laser-powder interaction for further understanding of LPBF process.