Fundamental consolidation mechanisms during selective beam melting of powders

During powder based additive manufacturing processes, a component is realized layer upon layer by the selective melting of powder layers with a laser or an electron beam. The density of the consolidated material, the minimal spatial resolution as well as the surface roughness of the resulting components are complex functions of the material and process parameters. So far, the interplay between these parameters is only partially understood. In this paper, the successive assembling in layers is investigated with a recently described 2D-lattice Boltzmann model, which considers individual powder particles. This numerical approach makes several physical phenomena accessible, which cannot be described in a standard continuum picture, e. g. the interplay between capillary effects, wetting conditions and the local stochastic powder configuration. In addition, the model takes into account the influence of the surface topology of the previous consolidated layer on the subsequent powder layer. The influence of the beam power, beam velocity and layer thickness on the formation and quality of simple walls is investigated. The simulation results are compared with experimental findings during selective electron beam melting. The comparison shows that our model, although 2D, is able to predict the main characteristics of the experimental observations. In addition, the numerical simulation elucidates the fundamental mechanisms responsible for the phenomena that are observed during selective beam melting.