Effect of path planning on the laser powder deposition process: thermal and structural evaluation

In this study, ANSYS finite element software is used to simulate the temperature and stress field in the laser powder deposition process. The model is used to determine the effect of the deposition pattern on the final stress distribution. Four deposition patterns are defined to cover the same area: long bead, short bead, spiral in, and spiral out. The results show that the deposition pattern significantly affects the temperature history of the process, and consequently, the stress distribution. Among the four deposition patterns, the spiral-in pattern shows the highest and the short-bead pattern shows the lowest maximum residual stress. The modeling results are verified with experiments.