Numerical simulation of multiphase transient field during plasma deposition manufacturing

A transient solid/liquid/vapor unified mathematical model for plasma deposition manufacturing was developed to investigate the fluid flow and heat transfer of the molten pool and deposition layer. The level-set approach was adopted to deal with the liquid/vapor interface boundary conditions, which considered surface tension gradient (the major driving forces for the melt flow), interface curvatures, buoyancy, and convection heat loss. The mixture continuum model was applied to describe melting and solidification processes at the solid/liquid interface. Moreover, the effects of main processing parameters on the thickness of the deposition layer, full depth of the molten pool and penetration depth of the substrate have been studied further. The experiments agree well with the simulation results. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.